This Independence Day is more special for Hindi film lovers as the all-time classic Sholay completes 50 glorious years. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, written by Salim-Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar) and starring Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan, the movie continues to win hearts generation after generation.
A major achievement for Sholay was that it ran for as many as five years on a trot in Mumbai’s Minerva cinema. It was founded by filmmaker and producer FC Mehra and was later looked after by his son and veteran filmmaker Umesh Mehra. On Sholay’s 50th anniversary, Mehra went down memory lane in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama on its phenomenal run in their cinema and also provided some interesting trivia related to the film.
Umesh Mehra refutes stories about Sholay struggling in the initial weeks
When Sholay was released in 1975, Minerva and their film business was run by FC Mehra. Umesh Mehra recalled that at that time, he was a young assistant director and was just too happy to attend the film’s star-studded premiere.
It has been said a lot in the media over the decades that Sholay didn’t perform well in the first two weeks and picked up only after that. However, Umesh Mehra said that there is no truth to this. “No truth in it. Bakwaas, sab jhooth hai,” he said. “It was full in advance for two years. Every day it was full. There was this negative publicity which is very common in our industry. Some vested interests will try and bring down a film. There was another lobby which kept saying that the film is going to flop. But who can win against the public?”
Sholay, the only film that genuinely ran in cinema for years
Over the years, there have been quite a few films that have run in cinemas for years. But Mehra said that Sholay was the only film that had an organic run. “In my humble opinion, this was the only film that had a genuine run,” he said. “There are many films that have run (for a number of years) but they have not had that public paid run. Maybe they were paid by the producer, distributor or actor. But this was the only film which the public made run for five years.”
The original run of Sholay was four hours long
Sholay’s runtime was little over three hours when it released. Mehra revealed that the first run of the film was much longer. “I know for a fact that the first run of the film when they shot was over four hours. Shinde sahab (the late legendary editor MS Shinde) brought that down to three hours. It’s not a straightforward screenplay – there is flashback and other things. He was a brilliant man,” he said. Interestingly, MS Shinde was the only member from the Sholay team to receive a Filmfare Award that year.
Sholay’s print was stuck with the Customs just before the premiere
Just before Sholay’s premiere at Minerva on the evening of August 14, its 70 mm print couldn’t reach the cinema. “The whole industry was there,” recalled Mehra. “It was a huge premiere. An interesting part is that the 70 mm print was stuck in the Customs. So, they showed the film in cinemascope print for the premiere. And 95% of the people could not make the difference at that point of time. Minerva had that special projection system through which cinemascope covered the whole screen. So, people were like, ‘Kya effect hai!’, ‘Kya impact hai!’.” The 70 mm print reached the cinema later in the day and the movie was played again.
Pic 1 - Advance booking for Sholay which opened a week before its release Pic 2 - Sholay enter into 35th Week in Minerva
Pic 3 - Sholay enter into 246th Week in Minerva. Balcony Ticket price - ₹5.50
Image Credit - Naved & Shiv Shetty https://t.co/IyuvsfsTqE pic.twitter.com/e8C3ITnH7t
— Mumbai Heritage (@mumbaiheritage) August 31, 2024
One-kilometre-long queues for advance booking
Umesh Mehra revealed that for two years, every show of Sholay in Minerva was full one week in advance. “There was one (ticket) window for balcony and one for stall,” he said. “Every Friday when the booking opened, each of these lines would be one kilometre long. The film continued (in regular shows) for two years and then in matinee it continued up to five years.”
He added, “Minerva always had this unique position of having huge openings even for films like Deewar or our own Alibaba Aur 40 Chor. The queue of a kilometre became a norm. Minerva got connected to all successful films. Anybody who put up a movie in Minerva, knew, at least, 15 to 25 weeks was confirmed. Metro just took the tagline but Minerva was called the ‘Pride of Maharashtra’.”
Audience throwing money on the screen was common back then
Those were the days when the public reaction was seen to be believed. “Whether it was Sholay or the opening sequence of Alibaba’s cave in Alibaba Aur 40 Chor, public used to whistle and clap,” he said. “During songs, they used to throw coins. The sweepers would be happy as they could collect that money. And dancing in the aisles was a common phenomenon. The whole atmosphere was something else to watch a film.”
Stars often visited Minerva to check public reactions
Like other cinemas, filmstars used to visit Minerva too to check out public reactions. From the cast of Sholay, the debutant villain showed up once. “I think Amjad Khan came,” said Mehra. “Whenever stars would come, they would come late at night. We had a special sort of system where the lift took them directly to the top floor of the auditorium. So, nobody used to realize when they came and left.”
How many times Umesh Mehra has seen Sholay?
When asked how many times has he seen Sholay, Mehra said, “I would have seen the film 50 or 100 times. I don’t even remember how many times. My office was in the basement. So, whenever I had time, I used watch. It was a huge learning on how screenplay moves, how action moves, how a film is shot, etc. It was a textbook for all of us in that generation.”
Also Read: Sholay to be honoured at Toronto International Film Festival along with Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws, confirms Javed Akhtar
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