‘Sholay’ climax was to be re-shot: Amitabh Bachchan

MUMBAI - “Sholay” retains its charisma even after 35 years but megastar Amitabh Bachchan reveals that the climax of the cult classic was to be re-shot with his character Jai being resurrected as the film was not doing good business in the initial days of its release.

“As things were not going right, we all - Salim Saab, Javed Saab and Rameshji - met in our house on Saturday, the next day of the release. All were thinking what we can do to improve it (film) or if we could do something to save the film,” the 67-year-old star told reporters.

“I think ‘Deewar’ had just been released a couple of months before that and I had died in that film. And here I was dying again in this film. Lot of people felt that the audience might not have liked me dying. They thought may be they should get me alive again and within minutes we decided to make my character live.

“We thought of going back to Ram Nagar, shoot that sequence on Sunday, putting it out on Monday and see what happens. All units were called. I remember Rameshji was ringing up Madras and we were all set to leave and re-shoot the whole sequence. When Rameshji was leaving my place, he said ‘Let’s wait for another day before we leave for Bangalore’. And that was historic,” Bachchan added.

This Aug 15, it will be 35 years since “Sholay” was released and Big B wonders how could a film have a life so long.

“I am quite surprised that ‘Sholay’ had a life so long. When we were making it, I don’t think any of us realised that it was going to be that historic,” he said.

The actor says his memories of the film are still fresh and it seems like only yesterday when the film’s script was narrated to him.

“It seems like yesterday when Salim Saab and Javed Saab narrated the script to us. The film has a lot of memories for me particularly because I had just finished working in ‘Zanjeer’ by then. It was just fantastic to be working with Ramesh Sippy, Dharamji, Hemaji… the only newcomer was Amzad bhai,” said Bachchan.

The senior Bachchan also reveals that during the shooting of ‘Sholay’, actress Jaya Bachchan was pregnant with her first child, Shweta.

“Jaya and I had been married just for a year and in fact she was expecting our first child during the making. There were some shots in ‘Sholay’, where you can actually see her working during the pregnancy,” remembers Bachchan.