HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai: Jai had to die or there would be no Sholay, says Sippy
Ramesh Sippy and Farah Khan were chatting during a session organised as part of the Snapdeal cinema section of the HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.
If Ramesh Sippy had to direct Sholay again, what would his star cast be? It didn’t take Sippy a moment to answer the question, posed to him during a talk on cinema with fellow filmmaker Farah Khan on Wednesday.
“Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Hema Malini, of course. But I wouldn’t be able to bring [the late] Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan back,” said Sippy. “But you know what, I will never make it again and one shouldn’t even attempt it.”
Sippy and Khan were chatting during a session organised as part of the Snapdeal cinema section of the HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.
Discussing the director’s journey with his various films, Khan asked Sippy why it took him five years to make Shaan (1980). The shoot had to be stalled because actress Parveen Babi was unwell for a year, Sippy said.
Other trivia that emerged was that the song ‘Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge’ in Sholay was shot in one take.
Sippy also discussed how he would go to theatres where Sholay was playing and worry because nobody was hooting, clapping or cheering at moment that he thought were iconic. “Then I realised they were stunned,” he said, laughing.
Why did you kill Bachchan in the end, came a question from the audience. To which Sippy replied, “Only to be asked this one day. If he didn’t die, there wouldn’t be any Sholay.”
The session ended with Sippy singing the birthday song for his wife, Kiran, who had accompanied him to the event on her special day.
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