Kolkata, Nov 7 (UNI) Revealing an interesting casting twist behind Sholay, director Ramesh Sippy on Friday said Dhamendra had once expressed his desire to play the role of Gabbar Singh, the menacing dacoit who later became a cinematic legend through Amjad Khan’s performance.
Delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), Sippy recounted the humorous exchange that nearly changed the course of Hindi cinema.
“Dharamji heard the script and was like ‘very nice script. But nothing left for me to do, so it’s better if I play the role of Gabbar Singh. As the story revolves around Thakur, Sanjeev Kumar will have the highest bid.'”
Joking, Sippy quipped, “I added ‘Dharamji do you want to play the bad guy? But let me warn you, Hema Malini would go with Veeru. Dharmendra swiftly changed his mind and later on played the iconic role of Veeru.”
The director reflected on how every role in Sholay, from Amitabh Bachchan’s stoic Jai to Jaya Bhaduri’s silent Radha, was “well-conceived and beautifully written.” He reminisced about the silent scenes between Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri, set against R.D. Burman’s haunting mouth organ theme.
“The lamp-lighting scene between Jai and Radha took nearly 20 nights to shoot,” Sippy recalled.
“Today’s technology, you can, in post-production, you can do a lot of things. You don’t have to shoot like that. But in those days, by lunchtime, at 1:00, we stopped shooting. Everyone broke for lunch, 2:00 back, and lighting up for the evening shot. ”
“Because if we missed it by a minute or two also, that shot was not possible. So we did rehearsals at around 5:00 and by quarter to 6:00, 6:00, as dusk came upon and as the sun went down, we had to shoot. So, it was painful and maybe today not necessary.”
Sippy also reflected on how Sholay drew inspiration from both Bengali cinema’s artistic storytelling and Western classic like George Roy Hill’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
