Often you know and do not know that you will secretly make history. Even when everything is against you. One of these stories is about the director who made one of the biggest films in Bollywood. Director Ramesh Sippy. The director who gave Bollywood a gem. The name of this gem is “Sholay”.
What this film achieved is history. The film is also relevant because Sholay is still an institution for all film enthusiasts, directors and actors. Ramesh Sippy, born on January 23 in what is now Karachi, Pakistan, just before independence, made Sholay and the more you talk about what happened next, the less it is.
The film was released in 1975. When the film came out, it stayed in cold storage for the first 4 days. From the critics to the audience, everyone started criticizing it. Some may not like the songs and some may like Gabbar's voice, but something wonderful can only stay on screen for long. As the film gradually gained traction through word of mouth, it continued to run from weeks to months and months to years. Recently, director Rohit Shetty also spoke about it in the Indian Express.
During this, Rohit Shetty also explained why only Amitabh's character was killed. He said that when he was cast in the film, he was not that big of a hero then. Except for one or two scenes, there was no scene where he was seen alone. He was seen in every scene with Dharmendra. However, by then Amitabh's Zanjeer and Deewaar had released and he had become a big star.
Before Sholay, Ramesh Sippy had debuted as a child artist at the age of 6 with the film Shahenshah. But his first film was released in 1971, four years before Sholay, which was called Andaz. Ramesh Sippy has not only done films like Sholay but also different types of films. Ramesh Sippy later also made excellent films like Shaan, Akela and Shakti.
When Ramesh wanted to make Sippy Sholay, he lacked the budget. When his father went to GP Sippy, he decided to invest money in the film. Then this film was made for around 3 million rupees. If this budget is calculated based on today's inflation rate, its price reaches hundreds of crores. At this point, Sholay had earned around Rs 35 Crores. This means that this film, which grossed 12 times the total budget, is still one of the highest-grossing films in Bollywood.