Dharmendra didn’t want to play Veeru in Sholay, Ramesh Sippy told him, ‘If you’ll play Thakur or Gabbar, you won’t get…’

“It was just an idea of four lines and we had to develop it. The other script was ready and I thought, by the time it will develop, I will make the other film. But my father said, ‘Aap issi pe (kaam) kijiye (You work on this only).’ This was the one time he interfered and maybe it was the right interference because if we would have started making that film, we would not have been able to develop Sholay as we did,” shared Sippy.

The filmmaker also revealed that Hema Malini was initially apprehensive about playing Basanti in Sholay due to the length of the role. She told Ramesh Sippy, “Seeta Aur Geeta ke baad aap mujhe aisa role de rahe hain? (After Seeta Aur Geeta, you are offering me this role?)” Sippy told her that though the role is short, it would be a good one and Malini agreed to do it. “When the role was narrated to her in detail, with final dialogues, she put in a lot of effort to do justice to the role,” he shared.

With Amitabh Bachchan, it was easy to convince him to play Jai despite him liking the role of Gabbar since he was coming after a string of flops. But when Sippy went to meet Dharmendra to offer him the role of Veeru, he was not happy. The actor said, “This is is the story of Thakur and he is fighting against Gabbar. What will we do?” Sippy quipped, “Fine. Either do Thakur or Gabbar’s role but then you won’t get Hema Malini.” So, Dharmendra agreed to play Veeru.

Before Amjad Khan, Danny Dengzopa was to play Gabbar in the cult hit but he had to be dropped from the film due to the issue of dates. “Danny was ready to do it. But when we had to shoot, he was struck in Dharmatma’s shoot. So, to have him, we would have had to wait for another 6-8 months and I had already taken 2 years..” Sippy said.

Then, Salim Khan suggested the name of Amjad Khan for Gabbar’s role. “I realised I have seen this boy in a play about South Africa in which my sister was also there. He had done a good job in it. When he came to the office, on the first look, he seemed to be a different face, ek bhaari bharkam chehra aur ajeeb sa ek look hai, so we thought he will fit into what we want to create,” shared Sippy.

Not just this, even Shatrughan Sinha was once considered for the role of Jai. But Ramesh Sippy was not ready to handle another star on his set. He said, “I was against it as I said it would get difficult for me to manage 4 stars at the same time. So, we took him in Shaan.”

Sholay is regarded by many as Bollywood’s quintessential masala movie, which engaged the audience with its well-woven script, evergreen music and entertaining dialogues.