Sanjeev Kumar forgot Thakur had no arms while shooting the final scene of Sholay: ‘What arms?’

But, there was one actor in the cast of Sholay, who actually wanted to play Thakur for he saw that this was the real hero of the film. Dharmendra, who was cast as Veeru, asked Sippy if he could play the role of Thakur but the director knew how to convince Dharmendra. Sanjeev Kumar had already proposed to Hema Malini, and Dharmendra knew that he was interested in her. Sippy just had to tell Dharmendra that if they swapped the roles, she would end up with Sanjeev and Dharmendra was back in Veeru’s corner.

Sanjeev also had another character on his mind when he was offered Thakur. As it is famously known, Salim-Javed narrated the fully finished bound script with dialogues to their actors and upon hearing the script, Sanjeev was taken by Gabbar Singh’s role but soon changed his mind because the violence in the film wasn’t his cup of tea. Javed Akhtar, in Anupama Chopra’s book Sholay: The Making of a Classic, recalled Sanjeev’s reaction on the violence, “When we reached the interval point, his face was crushed. It was like somebody punches you on the nose. Sanjeev was totally taken aback.”

When Sanjeev started playing Thakur, he was immersed in his world, and the same is evident from his performance in the film. In fact, Chopra’s book details an anecdote from one of the last days of Sholay’s shoot where they were shooting the scene after Jai’s death when Radha (Jaya Bachchan) breaks down. Hari bhai was so involved in the emotional graph of the scene that for a minute he forgot that Thakur had no arms. Sanjeev reportedly told Ramesh, “I can see in Radha’s eyes that she is devastated… she was married to my son… and then I was marrying her off (to Jai) and then this tragedy happens… I feel so bad for her… Can I take her in my arms and comfort her?'” and to this, Ramesh asked, “What arms?”

Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan in a stillf rom Sholay.

Sanjeev Kumar had received his training in theatre and had been a part of Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) where he often played the role of an old man, even when he was in his late teens. Veteran actor AK Hangal, who was his senior at IPTA once told Sanjeev that if he started playing a ‘hero’, he would never become an actor. Such was the impact of his theatre training that his heroic outing in Sholay perfectly blended with the performance of the rest of the cast who were there to act as a catalyst to his journey.

It is anyone’s guess what Thakur would have looked like in another actor’s hands but with Sanjeev Kumar, he became the man who was living with the guilt of his family’s massacre but still had fight in him. Even though Gabbar took away his arms, Thakur became the man who could bring the bandit down by hiring the right men for the job. Thakur continues to be the most famous role played by Sanjeev Kumar and remains one of the most heroic roles ever seen in Hindi cinema.