By Gurmukh Singh
TORONTO: It was a big-bang celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the release of Bollywood’s most iconic film Sholay at the on-going 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) here as director Ramesh Sippy joined the audience to celebrate the milestone.
The auditorium at the city’s Roy Thomson Hall was filled to the rafters as the audience watched the new version of the all-time Bollywood blockbuster restored in 4K by including the longer version of two events and its original ending.
As TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey walked in with director Ramesh Sippy and others before its screening, the Roy Thomson Hall exploded with shouts and clapping.
Calling Sholay “a synthesis of everything we love: the romance, the action…,” Bailey had the audience in splits when he said this screening would also have an intercession of 15 minutes – customary in Bollywood films but unknown to the audiences in the West.
Waving to the huge audience, Sippy said, “Hello Toronto… it’s 50 years of TIFF and 50 years of Sholay… I can’t believe it. I’m overwhelmed to be here, and I hope you enjoy the film all over again.”
Standing in for his father Dharmendra, Bobby Deol, who is at TIFF with his own film, said, “Dad would have loved to be here but he couldn’t make it to Toronto as he is unwell.”
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation which has restored the blockbuster in 4K, was also on hand to narrate how his team brought back two deleted scenes and the original ending to the new Sholay screened at TIFF.
These deleted scenes include the longer version of the killing of Ahmed and Thakur Baldev Singh’s spiked shoes for his last encounter with Gabbar.
The original ending in which Thakur Baldev Singh killed Gabbar Singh with his spiked shoes has also been included in the restored version. The original ending scene was deleted as the Indian censors didn’t want to show an ex-cop becoming an outlaw himself.
“That was the period of the Emergency (1975) and the government didn’t want it in the ending,” said Ramesh Sippy, who was very upset by the deletion.
But his wish the final scene’s inclusion has been fulfilled 50 years later.
“I am very happy and humbled. Each character was brought out by each actor. I was lucky that this happened under me, and 50 years later people are still talking about it.”
