Sholay (1975)

The three-hours-eighteen-minutes-thrilling action-packed drama, Sholay’s delineated characters of Veeru, Jai, Thakur, Basanti and Gabbar are part of collective cinema consciousness of the Indian audience, till date since 1970s. Sholay’s is imbued with a fair dosage of songs that enfold out with events and situation in the movie. While Sholay is a piece de resistance — script, dialogue, songs, humour, tragedy— the shooting location at  Ramgarh added the much needed charm, without which the movie wouldn’t have seen its 3 decennary.

Location

The highest grossing movie in the history of Indian Cinema, Sholay was shot in the set-apart, rocky terrains of Ramgarh, 40 km from Bangalore. It was here that  the entire sets for Sholay were constructed. The Gabbar’s den, to the small village that Thakur lives in and the roads where Dharmendar and Amitabh sing their friendship couplet of ye dosti hum nai torenge aloud, are all shot at the Ramgarh village. Away from the din of a city, the Sholay town or the Konkanni Dodi, once served to the biggest blockbuster. Today, these destinations have donned new names as Sippy Nagar and Gabbar Town, after the producers Ramesh Sippy and character Gabbar Singh.  Even today, thirty three years after its release, Sholay’s town is just as it was at the time of Shoot.

Sholay was the first movie in the history of Indian  cinema  on 70 MM screen; and was released after  three years of its making.