You aren't allowed to call yourself a Sholay fan if you haven't read Sholay : The Making of a Classic".
I re-read "Sholay : The Making of a Classic", on the day I was going to watch Sholay 3-D. Half of the book bracketed each side of the movie for me. There couldn't have been a better setting to relish this masterclass. If you are obsessed with Sholay, like half of my generation is, you SHOULD order this book today.
Even if you don't remember each dialogue of the movie, like most people watching the 3-D version had, the book still has so much of the inside story that it's a blockbuster in itself.
Anupama Chopra writes with the confidence of a Bollywood insider and recounts fantastic snippets. Here is a sample of a few :-
- The movie actually started as just a 5 line story by Salim-Javed which was purchased for 50,000 by the Sippy's.
- Amitabh's marriage and Jaya's pregnancy actually derailed the shoot by over six months.
- Danny refused Gabbar's role and Dharmendra wanted to do Thakur's role.
- The most fantastic story is about the first fortnight, post the release of Sholay and how the entire industry and movie critics wrote-off the movie as a flop. The Sippy's were then being asked to do a salvage operation by re-shooting the ending or cutting it by 45 minutes. Like any master creator they didn't listen either to the critics or to the stupid box-office pandits. We must thank God for the unadulterated version, which then turned into the best movie ever made in the Hindi film industry.
Rating : 4.5 / 5
No comments:
Post a Comment