Mumbai, Nov 28 (IANS) Filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, the man who gave Bollywood the iconic ‘Sholay’, shared the secret behind the iconic characters Jay and Veeru, their friendship and also why the movie went on to attain the title of being a cult classic.

Talking about it at the festival, Ramesh Sippy shared, “The best way to begin is with that iconic song, ‘Yeh dosti hum nahi todenge, todenge dum agar, tera saath na chhodenge.’ It’s a wonderful song written by Anand Bakshi and set to music by R.D. Burman.”

He added, “As I have always said, every member of the unit – the technicians, the musicians, everyone – is important to a film like this, or to any film for that matter. As the captain of the ship, I can assure you that no film can be made without teamwork.”

Sippy said, “But you also need a good captain, and you need strong key people around you, the writers, the technicians, the cameramen, the music team, and of course the background score. RD Burman did a marvellous job with that!”

The Director added, “From the very first frame, you can feel the impact of the land you are entering and the kind of film you are about to experience. For the first time in India, we even had the fight team come from outside the country, from the UK, adding a whole new dimension to the film’s scale and execution.”

For the uninitiated, the session that saw Ramesh Sippy share unknown facts about Sholay at IFFI was titled ’50 years of Sholay: Why Sholay still resonates’.

In the same session, Ramesh Sippy also spilt the beans over how the late supervillain Amjad Khan got on board for the iconic character of Gabbar in the movie.

“Amjad Khan himself was a discovery. I had seen him earlier in a play with my sister about South Africa, and I remembered he was a good actor, but I had completely forgotten about him.”

He added, “When Salim–Javed suggested we look at him, it clicked. He came in for the part, but only because Danny Denzongpa, who was originally signed for Gabbar, was in Afghanistan shooting with Feroz Khan and couldn’t return. We didn’t have to make changes anywhere because of the language or accent, especially for Gabbar. Amjad’s UP-style accent worked beautifully.”

The filmmaker concluded, “Danny’s absence gave birth to Amjad Khan as Gabbar, and the rest is history.”

Talking about the cult classic ‘Sholay’, the movie starred Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini in the lead.

Sholay, which was released in 1975, is considered to be one of the most iconic movies of all time but surprisingly was declared a flop when it was initially released.

The cult classic gave audiences not just iconic songs but also characters such as Jay, Veeru, Basanti, Thakur, and Gabbar that, even after 50 years of the movie’s release, are considered Bollywood’s finest on-screen characters.

–IANS

rd/khz