Sholay - WikiHQ

(valued at about US$16,778,000 in 1975) in India during its first run, which was many times its 35 million budget. The film's total gross revenue in India amounted to The film sold 48.4million tickets during its initial run at the Soviet box office, before eventually selling 60million tickets including re-runs.

It was the highest-grossing Indian film ever up until Disco Dancer (1982), and the highest-grossing film in India up until Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). which is comparable to the number of tickets sold by some of the world's highest-grossing films of all time adjusted for inflation. It is often cited that, after adjusting the figures for inflation, Sholay remains one of the highest-grossing films in the history of Indian cinema, although such figures are not known with certainty. Box Office India estimated as Sholays adjusted domestic net income in 2008, while Times of India estimated over as the adjusted domestic gross in 2009. Mid-Day estimated the film's total adjusted gross as () in 2014.

3D re-release (2013)

Filmmaker Ketan Mehta's company Maya Digital was responsible for converting Sholay into the 3D format. this was later postponed to late 2013, and eventually finalised for 3 January 2014. It took to convert Sholay to 3D.

Under the leadership of computer animator Frank Foster, 350 people worked to convert the film into the digital 3D format, for which every scene had to be individually restored, colour-corrected, and re-composited in 3D to match the depth. The two original leads, Bachchan and Dharmendra, were also involved in promoting the re-release.

The film was released in 1,000 screens in India and additional screens overseas.

Sholay: The Final Cut (2025)

In 2022, Sippy Films collaborated with the Film Heritage Foundation and L’Immagine Ritrovata for a full restoration in correlation with the film's fiftieth anniversary. Due to significant damage to the original camera negative resulting from severe vinegar syndrome, the restoration utilised an interpositive and two color reversal intermediates located at Iron Mountain and the BFI in the UK, a second interpositive from 1978 deposited by Shehzad Sippy to FHF, and the original sound negative and magnetic elements housed in Sippy Films' Mumbai offices. The film was also restored in 4K to its original 70mm aspect ratio of 2.2:1 with assistance from Kamlakar Rao and incorporates the original uncut ending, along with two previously excised scenes that were removed by censors in 1975. It premiered at Il Cinema Ritrovato on 27 June 2025, and released globally on 12 December 2025.

Reception

Critical response

:August 1975

When the film released on 15 August 1975, it received poor reviews. Among contemporary critics, K.L. Amladi of India Today called the film a "dead ember" and "a gravely flawed attempt". Filmfare said that the film was an unsuccessful mincing of Western style with Indian milieu, making it an "imitation western—neither here nor there." Others labelled it as "sound and fury signifying nothing" and a "second-rate take-off" of the 1971 film Mera Gaon Mera Desh. On the film's 35th anniversary, the Hindustan Times wrote that it was a "trailblazer in terms of camera work as well as music," and that "practically every scene, dialogue or even a small character was a highlight." In 2006, The Film Society of Lincoln Center described Sholay as "an extraordinary and utterly seamless blend of adventure, comedy, music and dance", labelling it an "indisputable classic". Chicago Review critic Ted Shen criticised the film in 2002 for its formulaic plot and "slapdash" cinematography, and noted that the film "alternates between slapstick and melodrama". The film also won three awards at the 1976 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards (Hindi section): "Best Actor in Supporting Role" for Amjad Khan, "Best Cinematographer (Colour)" for Dwarka Divecha, and "Best Art Director" for Ram Yedekar. Sholay received a special award at the 50th Filmfare Awards in 2005: Best Film of 50 Years.

{| class="wikitable"

! Style="width:5%"| Awards

! Style="width:25%"| Category

! Style="width:20%"| Nominee

! Style="width:10%"| Result

|rowspan="3"|Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards

|Best Supporting Actor

|Amjad Khan

|rowspan="4"

|Best Cinematography

|Dwarka Divecha

|Best Art Direction

|Ram Yadekar

|rowspan="10"|23rd Filmfare Awards

|Best Editing

|M. S. Shinde

|Best Film

|G. P. Sippy

|rowspan="9"

|Best Director

|Ramesh Sippy

|Best Actor

|Sanjeev Kumar

|Best Supporting Actor

|Amjad Khan

|Best Comedian

|Asrani

|Best Story

|Salim-Javed

|Best Music Director

|R. D. Burman

|Best Lyricist

|Anand Bakshi for "Mehbooba Mehbooba"

|Best Male Playback Singer

|R. D. Burman

|50th Filmfare Awards

|Special Award

|Best Film for Completing 50 Years

Legacy and cultural influence

Sholay has received many "Best Film" honours. It was declared the "Film of the Millennium" by BBC India in 1999. and was voted the greatest Indian movie in a Sky Digital poll of one million British Indians in 2004. It was also included in the magazine Times "Best of Bollywood" list in 2010, and in IBN Live's list of the "100 greatest Indian films of all time" in 2013. In 2023, Time Out ranked it #1 on its list of the "100 Best Bollywood Movies."

Sholay inspired many films and pastiches, and spawned a genre of films, the "Curry Western", which is a play on the term Spaghetti Western. A more accurate label for the genre is the Dacoit Western, due to its roots in earlier Indian dacoit films such as Mother India (1957) and Gunga Jumna (1961).

thumb|A line of Gabbar Singh (Tera kya hoga, meaning, "What will happen to you?") and a picture of him is painted on the back of an [[auto rickshaw, a common mode of public transport. Dialogues and characters from the film have contributed to many cultural tropes in India's daily life.|alt=A dialogue and image of Gabbar Singh painted on the back of an auto rickshaw]]

Certain scenes and dialogues earned iconic status in India, such as "Kitne aadmi the" (How many men were there?), "Jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya" (One who is scared is dead), and "Bahut yaarana laagta hai" (Looks like you two are very close) – all dialogues of Gabbar Singh. and four actors were included in its 2010 list of "80 Iconic Performances" for their work in this film.

The film is often credited with making Bachchan a "superstar", two years after he became a star with Zanjeer (1973). Some of the supporting actors remained etched in public memory as the characters they played in Sholay; for example, Mac Mohan continued to be referred to as "Sambha", even though his character had just one line. Major and minor characters continue to be used in commercials, promos, films and sitcoms. The British Film Institute in 2002 wrote that fear of Gabbar Singh "is still invoked by mothers to put their children to sleep". The 2012 film Gabbar Singh, named after the character, became the highest-grossing Telugu film up to that point. Comedian Jagdeep, who played Soorma Bhopali in the film, attempted to use his Sholay success to create a spinoff. He directed and played the lead role in the 1988 film Soorma Bhopali, in which Dharmendra and Bachchan had cameos.

Sholay was remade in Bangladesh as Dost Dushman (1977), was criticised by many critics in the country. In 2004, Sholay was digitally remastered and shown again to packed theatres in India, including Mumbai's Minerva, where it had run successfully 29 years earlier. Another attempt to remake Sholay, Ram Gopal Varma's film Aag (2007), starring Amitabh Bachchan as the villain, was a commercial and critical disaster.

Because of television and home media, Sholay is widely available and still popular. Twenty years after its release, Sholay was first shown on the Indian DD National television channel, where it drew the highest ratings ever for an Indian film broadcast. Video game producer Mobile2win released the Sholay Ramgarh Express game for mobile phones in 2004, along with other Sholay themed content such as wallpapers, video clips, and ringtones; another video game Sholay: Bullets of Justice developed by Gameshastra has also been released. Sholay Adventures, a 2014 Indian animated television film adaptation of Sholay aired on Pogo TV. In 2019, a film titled The Sholay Girl, based on the stunt woman Reshma Pathan, was released. Pathan had worked as the body double for Malini in the film.

Sholay has been the subject of two books and many articles. Wimal Dissanayake and Malti Sahai's Sholay, A Cultural Reading (1992) attempts a comprehensive scholarly study that sets the film within the broader history of popular cinema in India. Anupama Chopra's Sholay: The Making of a Classic (2000) provides an inside look at the film's production based on interviews with the director, stars, and crew members. The lasting effect of Sholay on Indian cinema was summarised by Anupama Chopra, when in 2004 she called it "no longer just a film, [but] an event". In the 2000 book Sholay: The Making of a Classic, the noted director Shekhar Kapur stated "there has never been a more defining film on the Indian screen. Indian film history can be divided into Sholay BC and Sholay AD". The film was jointly released in Pakistan by Geo films and Mandviwalla Entertainment on 17 April 2015, almost 40 years after its theatrical release. The film's premiere in the country was held in Karachi.

Screenwriter V. Vijayendra Prasad, responsible for a number of blockbusters in the early 21st century, including the South Indian franchise Baahubali and the Hindi film Bajrangi Bhaijaan (starring Salim's son Salman Khan), cited Sholay as a major inspiration on his work.

Footnotes

References

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Bibliography

External links

Sholay: The Final Cut (2025) at IMDb
Sholay: The Final Cut (2025) at Film Heritage Foundation
(1975)
Sholay (1975) at the British Film Institute