Bollywood Wave

One of Bollywood’s most popular villains, who mouthed some of Hindi cinema’s most memorable lines, is back.

‘Gabbar Singh’ will be up on screen again, but in a completely new avtaar in Ramgopal Varma Ke Sholay, an audacious remake of Ramesh Sippy’s enduring classic of the seventies.

This time, it’s superstar Amitabh Bachchan who will bring back the magic of Gabbar to the silver screen.

“It’s like life completing an entire circle. I loved the character of Gabbar when I first heard the script way back in the 1975. I pleaded and begged to Ramesh Sippy but he disagreed and got me to play Jai and Amjad Khan to play Gabbar. Amjad did a marvelous job, that’s historic and can’t be repeated,” says Bachchan.

The Jai of Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay who sang songs of undying friendship with Veeru, will now chase Ramgopal Varma’s Jai and Veeru, who’re being portrayed in the new film by Mohit Ahlawat and Ajay Devgan respectively.

But Varma also clarifies that the new Sholay will be his interpretation of the old story in a completely new set-up.

And that’s why the film’s title bears the ambitious prefix of the filmmaker’s own name - a fact the filmmaker is not in the least bit embarrassed about.

“I think it’s audacious. I think Sholay is an audacious film. Everything about it speaks about attitude. I take great pride in it,” he says.

The film went on the floors only three days ago and already the team associated with it is has begun to discover good omens, like the infection in Bachchan’s eyes, which the actor explains also happened before when he was shooting for Sarkaar, his first collaboration with Varma.

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After months of talk in the media over whether it would see the light of day, work on the remake of the cult film ‘Sholay’, being directed by Ramgopal Verma, will begin later this month.

However, rather than a frame-to-frame copy of the Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 blockbuster, Ramgopal verma’s ‘Sholay’ will be part of an effort by the filmmaker to revive the “long-forgotten” genre of action films and the “intense angry young man” that characterised the films in the 70s and the 80s.

Ending all speculation over the status of the ‘Sholay’ ramake, Ramgopal Verma has said the shooting the film would begin later this month or early next month.

“Shooting for the remake of ‘Sholay’ will commence later this month or early next month,”the filmmaker told UNI here.

With the movie’s cast, except for Basanti, having been finalised; Ajay Devgan will play Veeru (played in the original by Dharmendra), Mohit Ahlawat the quiet Jai (played by Amitabh Bachchan in the original), Katrina Kaif will play the widow Radha (Jaya Bachchan essayed the role in the 70s classic), Mohanlal being cast for the role of Thakur (played by Sanjeev Kumar in the original) and Sushant Singh cast as Gabbar’s henchman, Sambha; Ramgopa, Verma plans to wrap up the film in two month’s time.

“I plan to complete the shooting of the film by December. The film will be ready for release early next year,”Verma said during a promotional visit to the capital for his new film ‘Shiva’, which was released across the world on Friday.

Though staying true to the original, which introduced the trend of action films in Hindi cinema with its “never-before-seen’ action sequences, the new ‘Sholay’ will be made keeping in view the changed times. So while, the story will be the same, the settings will be different from the original.

For Ramgopal Verma, ‘Sholay’, following close on the heels of his ‘Shiva’, is past of his efforts to revive the genre of action films and the “angry young hero” of the 70s and the 80s. “The intention of making ‘Shiva’ , as also the remake of ‘Sholay’, is to bring back the intense angry hero who ruled the 70s and the 80s. It was that hero who made films of that era “larger than life” with Amitabh Bachchan leading the brigade and, in varying degrees, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty and Sunny Deol,”Ramgopal Verma said at the press meet of ‘Shiva’ in the capital, where the film’s lead actors Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari were also present.

thehindu.com