SHOLAY - THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC

Reading a book, THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC SHOLAY by ANUPAMA CHOPRA (wife of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Ramesh Sippy’s daughter)
Has me completely gripped!

Did you know Danny was picked to play Gabbar but he was shooting for Feroze Khan’s movie DHARMATMA in Afghanistan and couldn’t bail out. And Salim bumped into a bit stage actor Amjad at Bandra bandstand and invited him to meet the director Ramesh Sippy.

Did you know that Jaya was pregnant with Abhishek during the shoot?

Abhishek was literally on the sets of Sholay –thus bound for greatness even before birth.

Did you know that Script writer Javed and Jagdeep loved imitating the women of Bhopal, it was a standing joke between them; and ultimately was inserted into the script in the character of Soorma Bhopali. Soorma Bhopali had even a song recorded for him, that was cut out to contain the movie’s length..

Shatru was a bigger star than Amitabh and was a shoo-in for Jay’s role – but Amitabh’s rapport with Dharmendar helped clinch the spot.

Jay propositioning Mausi on Veeru’s behalf was actually a real life Salim propositioning Honey Irani’s dad on behalf of Javed.

This book provides a fascinating account of how this movie came about.

Worth a read!