50 years of 'Sholay': When Ramesh Sippy saw first-hand audience reaction to 'Sholay' in theatre

Mumbai, Aug 14 (IANS) Director Ramesh Sippy, the director of the iconic film ‘Sholay’, has shared an interesting anecdote when he saw the audience’s reaction to the film in the theatres when it released.

The director spoke with IANS, ahead of the film’s 50th anniversary, and spoke about the time he was invited by a cinema owner to witness the first-hand reaction of the audience while it was being projected to the audience.

He told IANS, “A cinema person called me. He said, ‘Come to my cinema’. It was City Light cinema. He said, ‘Can you see there? No one is coming here to have a cold drink’. There was an interval. No one came. He said, ‘Do you know why? Because those who were inside the hall were super-attentive. They were behaving as if they have never seen anything like this’. I said, ‘Are you sure?’. He said, absolutely. ‘I see it every day. They do not come in the interval’”.

He further mentioned, “Later, when the songs came, they used to come out of the hall, and eat something. They go to the bathroom. Apart from that, at that time, they can neither go to the bathroom, nor drink water, nor cold drink. He told me not to worry”.

‘Sholay’ is considered as the first Western Spaghetti film of Hindi cinema. It starred an ensemble cast of Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar, A. K. Hangal, Sachin and Hema Malini.

The film is considered as one of the greatest movies in Hindi cinema for its grandeur, performances, technical brilliance, action, music and direction. It was top of the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time.

The film was written by the legendary screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, and went on to become one of longest running films of Indian cinema.

--IANS

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