OBJECT

 

‘NAHI--’

To object to what was befalling him the dialogue by the evil villain blasted out from the stereophonic speakers as the 70 mm cinemascope film rolled on the large screen.

The climax scene of a handless Thakur Baldev Singh taking revenge on Gabbar Singh in SHOLAY was on.

In a guttural emotional voice, Thakur was insisting on ’Yeh haath humko de de Gabbar’ as he squashed the villain's hand with his special spiked shoes.

In a pleading tone, Gabbar was replying - NAHI

 

Gabbar Singh had just a few moments back triumphantly proclaimed. ‘Tera haath tho pehle se kaat kar phek chukha hu’ (I have already cut off and thrown away your hands)

To which the gallant ex-police officer had retorted ‘Saanp ko haath se nahi ... pairon se kuchla jaata hai’ (snakes are squashed not by hands ... but by legs)

Taken aback by the ex Inspectors way who was taking ‘eye for an eye’ revenge - in this case, a ‘hand for a hand’, Gabbar Singh watched agape as Thakur revealed his spiked shoes. 

Tables had now turned.

The fight scene continued as the handless Thakur manages to attack Gabbar Singh by repeatedly stamping on the nerves of his hand, injuring him in a way to render his hands immovable.

In the fight sequences, action accompanied the aural dishoom dishoom and gripping background music.

Finally following a proper kick by the handless, well balanced Thakur, the bleeding and injured Gabbar Singh is sent flying, back first, straight onto a protruding huge spike which kills him. 

                   ———////——-

‘NAHI’

The members sitting around the screening objected. 

‘Yeh scene nahin chalenga. Isko kaatna padenga’

(This scene cannot be permitted it needs to be cut.)

 

It was 1975

These were the members of the Censor Board of Film Certification. 

There was too much violence in the whole film. 

The arguments were that from apart being violent, the cutting of Thakur’s hands were deemed unfit for public viewing.   

Also, the killing of Gabbar Singh in the climax scene had to be deleted.  

They were all in agreement.

 

This was communicated to the director Ramesh Sippy.

He was flabbergasted. 

A lot of money was poured into the production and the film release date was announced. They just had a few days left.

He tried to argue that it did not have any blood or gore anywhere in the film.

The board disagreed. They were headstrong.

These were the days of Emergency which had just been declared in July and following this the Censor Board had unlimited powers. They could not be moved. Under these circumstances, his movie would not get the certification to be released unless their demands were met.

 

Aware of this Ramesh Sippy cautiously continued his arguments on the raised point. 

He categorically insisted that Thakur’s hand slicing scene by Gabbar was never scripted, shot or shown in the movie. It was a technique of suggestive revelation where his shawl fell off and his kurta’s empty hands fluttered to provide impact. This worked without the actual bloody hand cutting visuals. 

The board finally agreed and conceded on Thakur’s hand cutting scene.

Sippy was happy that he had overcome this hurdle not realising that they were trying to reach a larger point.

Their OBJECTION was now to the ending of the film.  

They dropped the bombshell.

They wanted to change the ending.

 

                    ———////——-

 

Sholay was a classic story scripted by the rising duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar.

A few years back, in 1973, they had written a four-line snippet narrating the idea for Sholay.

Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, famous producer and directors of the time, heard it and rejected it.

In the meantime Zanjeer the movie they had scripted had become a box office hit and their reputation in the industry as story writers duo ‘Salim Javed’  was gaining ground.    

They now got in touch with G P Sippy and his son Ramesh and narrated their Sholay four-line snippet.

Ramesh Sippy loved it and signed them on to develop the script.

It was full steam ahead. 

Salim Javed completed work on the script in a month. 

 

The initial process of scripting involved a story of two ex-soldiers being hired by an army officer to avenge the murder of his family.

Sippy realising that it would be difficult to get shooting permissions where army activity was involved asked the writers to change the role of the army officer to a policeman.

They agreed.

A bandit kills his family and cuts his hands.

He employs two small time crooks to  help him stand up to the bandit.

A lot of drama is built up in the following scenes.

In the final scene the handless ex Inspector solely takes his revenge and kills the bandit with his feet. 

                   ———////——-

 

The Censor Board had insisted that the climax had to be changed.

Sippy and his Team reiterated that changing the end would change what the essence of the whole story was. 

It was this one man, Thakur Baldev Singh, fighting without hands just with his feet — One man wanting to take revenge.

If the end was edited out or changed the main concept of the story would not be achieved.

The board refused to be convinced on this point and were not willing to budge on this contention.

Digging their boot in and going one step further they also insisted on advising the filmmaker how this movie end should be — They wanted a cop to come in on time to stop the killing of Gabbar. This inspector had to then arrest the criminal bandit.

 

This was a run of the mill ending in most Bollywood movies of its time and it was a joke among moviegoers that the police would land up at the scene after the action had finished. The Sholay Team had wanted to move away from this normal narrative and present something new to the viewers.

It was not to be. 

Sippy and his team were pushed to the edge. 

They now realised that if they kept fighting on this point the board would not allow the release of the film. 

The boards suggestion would have to be taken as a bitter pill.

They just had a few precious day's to make good.

 

They had to edit out the violent scenes — firstly the scene in which blind Imam’s son is killed and secondly the scene where most of Thakur’s family is massacred.

More difficult than doing the first two requirements they had to thirdly rescript and reshoot the ending scene where Gabbar is killed by the handless Thakur.

 

Arrangements had to be made and they had to be made fast.

Amjad Khan who played Gabbar Singh was available however Sanjeev Kumar - The Thakur,  was in Russia for a film festival. 

He was quickly  flown back to the original sets of the climax scene in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara, a town near Bangalore in Karnataka.

The new actors -- an inspector and team of police were selected and briefed on the newly scripted scene.

 

The re-shot scene now depicted Thakur badly beating up Gabbar. At this stage, the police arrive and the inspector convincing  Thakur not to take the law in his hand by killing him but handing over Gabbar to the police. 

Grudgingly Thakur concedes and hands over a bleeding and injured Gabbar to the law.

 

The censor board withdrew their objection once they watched the movie incorporating the suggested cuts and a changed climax.

They finally had their way.

The certificate was granted with a ‘U’ rating.

 

This was the version watched by cinema-goers as SHOLAY released on 15th August 1975.

After a few weeks of lukewarm reception at the box office, it went on by word of mouth to become a super hit movie and attain cult status.

The film has reached a mythic stature in popular culture and has been called the greatest Hindi film of all time.

It was the highest- grossing Indian film ever at the time, and maintained this record till 1994.

However if adjusted for inflation it still can be considered to hold that record.

The original movie was 204 minutes in length.

The censored theatrical version, 198 minutes in length, was the only one seen by audiences for fifteen years.

                   ———////——-

 

 

The original scene where Gabbar Singh is killed by Thakur Baldev Singh stayed buried until 1990 when it came out in a British VHS release. 

This was the scene that the censor board, 15 years back, had objected.

 

 

Credits for image and some trivial details — Google