Ramesh Sippy’s directorial debut Sholay is considered one of the most classic Bollywood films. Released in 1975, this film had Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in the lead roles. The story of the film was about two friends who are hired by an officer named Thakur to kill a dacoit (Gabbar) who used to attack his village every now and then. Every scene of the film is very special in itself and some scenes took a lot of time for the makers to shoot. So let’s know one such interesting anecdote related to this film today.
Big B narrated the story of the shooting of Sholay
You will remember a scene from the film ‘Sholay’ in which Jaya Bachchan goes to the first floor and lights the lamp and Bachchan sahab is sitting on the ground floor of a house opposite. Very few people know that it took Ramesh Sippy three years to shoot this one scene. This was because he needed a special kind of light for this scene. Amitabh Bachchan himself told this story to everyone while speaking at an event.
One scene took three years
Amitabh Bachchan said, “I would be surprised if you remember a scene from the film ‘Sholay’ in which Jaya Bachchan lights a lamp in the corridor of a house on the first floor. A special kind of light was needed to shoot this scene. Our DOP (Director of Photography) wanted to shoot that scene only when the sun was setting. You may not believe this, but it took Ramesh ji almost 3 years to film that scene.”
What was the total collection of Sholay?
“Every time we went to act out that scene, there would be some problem with the lighting. So Ramesh ji told us that we will not shoot this scene until we get the right light. We waited for that kind of light for almost 3 years. After which we got that shot.” Let us tell you that the film ‘Sholay’, made at a cost of just Rs 3 crore, did a business of approximately Rs 35 crore at the box office.
