50 years later: Sholay's unstoppable pop culture ride

Time of India

17 hours ago

Sholay has been an important of the country's pop-culture.
"Arre o Sambha, kitne remakes, ads, parodies, aur spoof hain?'
Too many, Sardar. If you got the reference, you are a Sholay connoisseur; it would be unfair to call you just a fan. The Ramesh Sippy film, which ran for five consecutive years at Mumbai's Minerva Cinema after its release on August 15, 1975, is 50 years old now.
Its iconic scenes and quotable dialogues, written by Salim-Javed, are deeply woven into India's pop culture fabric.
Whether it is Jai-Veeru's yaarana or Thakur's hands being as deadly as a noose (ye haath nahi phaansi ka fanda hai), Basanti's titter-tatter (Yun ki, ye kaun bola?) or Gabbar's menacing 'Kab hai Holi?', there is a bevy of Sholay moments which TV shows, movies and ads have mined for clever and hilarious callbacks.
Soorma Bhopali, Mausi, Kaalia and Sambha are the stuff of folklore. One of Hindi cinema's finest creations has birthed of numerous parodies and homages.
Sholay lives on as a meme machine
Just like films and ads, memes have borrowed liberally from Sholay, introducing the cult classic to a Gen Z audience that may have never watched it. The most viral of the lot being the iconic 'Yeh haath humein de de Thakur' dilaogue, with meme-makers inventing savage comebacks from Thakur.
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The film's scenes and characters continue to serve as readymade comic strips, adaptable to everything from politics and cricket to heartbreak and Monday blues.
Thakur and Gabbar have been the most popular Sholay characters for the memers.
The visual grammar of Sholay has also made its way into lifestyle marketing. Several apparel and lifestyle brands have dabbled in Sholay-inspired graphics and slogans. Gabbar T-shirts, Ramgarh road-sign merch, and even pop-up cafés themed around the film have found traction in metros.
In 2023, Coca-Cola India launched a limited-edition 'Basanti's Orange' retro can, a tribute to Hema Malini's iconic character, which sold out within days.
In the same year, Bharti Airtel's #KitneAadmiThe Reels challenge saw over 12,000 user-generated videos in just 72 hours.
Sholay: The marketing gold mine
For decades, Sholay has echoed across radio jingles, billboards, TV commercials, and viral videos, celebrated through both loving tributes and tongue-in-cheek parodies.
What draws viewers in is the magnetic presence of each protagonist, snappy dialogues, and the film's strikingly vivid sequences, which lyricist Prasoon Joshi once said 'make sense even if pulled out from the film.' Interestingly, while many rank Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) as their favourite character, it's Gabbar, played by Amjad Khan, who dominates the advertising world.
'Arey o Kaalia, gaanv se mere liye kya laaye re?'
'Yeh biscuit laaya hoon, Sardar.'
The iconic Glucose-D biscuit ad gave Hindi cinema its first advertising icon –
Gabbar Singh
, the soft-voiced villain who ended up selling biscuits to children.
Ad filmmaker Kailash Surendranath recalls tapping into the Sholay craze and turning Bollywood's most feared villain into a brand ambassador back in 1976. 'From being scary to being the face of a children's brand was really something. Gabbar's popularity contributed to the success of the ad,' he shares.
Gabbar's biscuit ad was one of the most popular ads.
Sunil Alagh, then Britannia's group product manager, had initial doubts – until his wife convinced him. As per The Economic Times, she told him, 'Children wanted to be Gabbar and not any hero,' adding that kids wouldn't even remember Amitabh, Dharmendra, or Sanjeev Kumar's dialogues.
The bigger hurdle was convincing Amjad to appear in the commercial. 'In those days, doing an ad was beneath the dignity of actors... 'We do such big films, why should we do 'sabun-tel ki ad?'' shares Kailash. Amjad agreed to reprise Gabbar – on one condition – 'He said that if the press asks you about this ad, you must say I gave the money to charity and didn't keep it for myself.' The actor found it embarrassing to accept payment for the ad, so he donated the money.
Mac Mohan and Viju Khote also returned as Sambha and Kaalia, respectively. Kailash even sourced the original props from JP Sippy Films and recreated the rugged backdrop at a stone quarry near Mumbai. The ad's script was written by Javed Akhtar and echoed the same dialect, attitude, and even sound effects from the film.
The ad was a game-changer. 'It was a complete revolution in advertising. It is one of the most memorable ads, and after 50 years, people are still talking about it,' says Kailash.
From Maggi to Clinic Plus, Alpenliebe to Bajaj, brands have gleefully borrowed from Sholay. In a 2005 Tetley Tea ad, Sambha refuses to cower before his Sardar, flipping Gabbar's trademark menace into domestic comedy. Goli, the vada pav food joint chain, used a famous dialogue 'Ab goli kha' for its promotions. In an internet advertisement for Orbit chewing gum made in 2011, animated versions of Gabbar and Thakur enact a hilarious altercation.
Even government and public service campaigns have jumped on the bandwagon. In one voter awareness ad, a Thakur lookalike uses his mouth to stamp and drop a ballot into the box. UNICEF's Sampoorna Swachhta Abhiyan featured look-alikes of all four main protagonists to drive home its message. And in 2014, when Sholay was re-released in 3D, Amul ran a clever ad with Jai and Veeru back on the motorbike and sidecar, Basanti in tow - all wearing 3D glasses.
Iss kahani mein action hai, emotion hai aur iske bohot saare remakes hain...
There have been many reakes and parodies of Sholay.
Sholay has long inspired parodies, spoofs, and reboots. From Ramgarh Ke Sholay (1991) to Ram Gopal Varma Ki
Aag
(2007), filmmakers have reinterpreted the film for decades. There's a Bhojpuri version titled
Gabbar Singh
, starring Ravi Kishan and produced by Ekta Kapoor, and a comic spin-off
Malwa ke Sholay
, where Basanti marries Gabbar.
Salman Khan once expressed interest in a reboot. 'If I had to remake any of their films, I would want to remake
Sholay
. I can play Jai and Veeru both, I can also play Gabbar,' he said in the documentary
Angry Young Men
, about Salim-Javed.
And why not? As Veeru says, "Iss kahani mein action hai, emotion hai, tragedy hai.'
Actor Sachin Pilgaonkar, who had a small role in the original, created a parody titled
Chholay
in 1998 for Star TV's
Ek Do Teen
. It featured Sumeet Raghavan as a duplicate Jai. '
Sholay
is iconic—we've grown up watching it. It still draws fanfare and will remain relevant even in 2075. Every character is legendary, even Mausi, Sambha, and Soorma Bhopali,' says Sumeet.
Even the kids got a slice of
Sholay
. In 2015, Cartoon Network's Pogo channel launched
Sholay Adventures
, an animated series featuring Jai and Veeru as two mischievous, golden-hearted eight-year-olds. Gabbar was reimagined as a tech-savvy supervillain plotting world domination with his intergalactic minions, while Thakur led a secret police agency named Sholay.
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