In the early 1970s, director Ramesh Sippy and his father, the producer G.P. Sippy, had a vision to make the biggest action-adventure film that India had ever seen. The result was Sholay. This 70mm epic curry western has it all: action, drama, romance, comedy and tragedy, complete with song and dance written by famed duo Salim-Javed and set to music by renowned music composer R.D. Burman. The star-studded cast included Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, and a fledgling Amjad Khan who delivered an epoch-making performance as the chillingly evil Gabbar Singh. The film tells the story of a former police officer who recruits two small-time crooks to capture the dreaded dacoit, Gabbar Singh, who is terrorising his village, Ramgarh. Shot in the rocky, barren terrain of Ramanagara in South India, the film was two and a half years in the making and over three hours long, with an ending that defied all expectations. The film was shot on 35mm and blown up to 70mm in the Technicolor lab in London. Tragically, not a single 70mm print of the film survives. Sholay was released during Emergency – a politically turbulent time of extreme censorship in the country – and the Censor Board insisted that the original ending had to be changed to a watered- down climax. The film had a disastrous opening. The critics savaged the film and it was written off as a flop. It took a few weeks, but the epic visuals, the performances of the actors and the memorable dialogue saw the tide turn. Ten weeks after its release, Sholay was declared a blockbuster and went on to become the highest-grossing film for a record- breaking 19 years, which included an unbroken five-year run at the Minerva cinema in Mumbai. Since then, many films have surpassed the film’s box-office takings, but none has been able to match its indefinable magic, which continues to capture the hearts of audiences 50 years after its release. The restoration was complex and took almost three years. Sadly, the original camera negative was badly deteriorated and could not be used for the restoration. Miraculously, we found the original ending and two deleted scenes among the surviving elements and the final restored version will present the director’s original vision to the world for the first time.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur