Even today films like Sholay do not become
Farhan Akhtar said, ‘It was a very emotional film for me, in which there was also a temper of great entertainment. The film was directed by amazing and had never happened before, perhaps except Mughal-e-Azam. When you see its visuals, we wonder how it would have been shot? Its experience in theaters was amazing and technically it was ahead of any other project being built at that time. It still stands on the test of time and even today such films are not made. Nowadays everyone has become very dependent on VFX, but they can never leave an impact like Sholay.
Salim-Javed was not happy with climax
The actor told that his father Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan were not happy with the changes made in the script. He said, ‘The emotional foundation of the film was very strong. The whole story revolves around Thakur’s revenge, when his hands are cut off. We are lost in Jai-Viru’s conversation, but the backbone of the film was the story of an honest police officer who falls behind the dacoit who killed his family. He hits two people and in the end he kills Gabbar himself. But due to emergency, he had to change it and now the real climax is available. In the same scene he cries when he crushes Gabbar with his feet.
There was no other option
Talking on Sholay’s climax, Farhan Akhtar revealed, ‘When Papa and Salim Saheb had to change the climax of the film, they were thinking that now everyone has come, villagers, police and also the main characters. He jokingly said that now there is only a postman who has not come. For him, he did not have any meaning of ending and police, but he had to make changes, because he had no other option.
What was the real climax of ‘Sholay’?
Director Ramesh Sippy also spoke about ‘Sholay’ changed climax during the Pune International Film Festival in 2018. He told that the censor board forced him to change the end of the film. He said, ‘I shot a separate climax of Sholay, in which Thakur kills Gabbar. But the censor board did not allow it. He was not happy that Thakur is killing Gabbar with his feet. I was also trapped in a difficult situation that how else would Thakur kill him? He could not run a gun, because he did not have his hands. He also objected that there is a lot of violence in the film, he said that you have to change the climax. I was not happy, but I had to do it.