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Saudi Gazette
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Saudi Gazette
Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending
DELHI — Fifty years after it first exploded on Indian screens, Sholay (Embers) — arguably the most iconic Hindi film ever made — is making a spectacular return. In a landmark event for film lovers, the fully restored, uncut version of Ramesh Sippy's 1975 magnum opus will have its world premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy, on Friday. This version includes the film's original ending — changed due to objection from the censors — and deleted scenes. The screening will take place on the festival's legendary open-air screen in Piazza Maggiore — one of the largest in Europe — offering a majestic setting for this long-awaited cinematic resurrection. Crafted by writer duo Salim-Javed and featuring an all-star cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and the unforgettable Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh, Sholay draws cinematic inspiration from Western and samurai classics. Yet, it remains uniquely Indian. The 204-minute film is a classic good-versus-evil tale set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, where two petty criminals, Jai and Veeru (Bachchan and Dharmendra), are hired by a former jailer, Thakur Baldev Singh, to take down the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh — one of Indian cinema's most iconic villains. When it first released, Sholay ran for five uninterrupted years at Mumbai's 1,500-seater Minerva theatre. It was later voted "Film of the Millennium" in a BBC India online poll and named the greatest Indian film in a British Film Institute poll. Half a million records and cassettes of RD Burman's score and the film's instantly recognisable dialogues were sold. The film is also a cultural phenomenon: dialogues are quoted at weddings, referenced in political speeches and spoofed in adverts. "Sholay is the eighth wonder of the world," Dharmendra, who plays a small-town crook and is paired up with Bachchan in the film, said in a recent statement. Shooting the film was an "unforgettable experience," Bachchan said, "though I had no idea at the time that it would become a watershed moment in Indian cinema." This new restoration is the most faithful version of Sholay, complete with the original ending and never-before-seen deleted scenes, according to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation. In the original version, Gabbar Singh dies — killed by Thakur, who crushes him with spiked shoes. But the censors objected. They balked at the idea of a former police officer taking the law into his own hands. They also found the film's stylised violence too excessive. The film faced unusually tough censors because it hit the theatres during the Emergency, when the ruling Congress government suspended civil liberties. After failed attempts to reason with them, Sippy was forced to reshoot the ending. The cast and crew were rushed back to the rugged hills of Ramanagaram in southern India — transformed into the fictional village of Ramgarh. With the new, softened finale — where Gabbar Singh is captured, not killed — in place, the film finally cleared the censors. The road to the three-year-long restoration of the epic was far from easy. The original 70mm prints had not survived, and the camera negatives were in a severely deteriorated condition. But in 2022, Shehzad Sippy, son of Ramesh Sippy, approached the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation with a proposal to restore the film. He revealed that several film elements were being stored in a warehouse in Mumbai. What seemed like a gamble turned out to be a miracle: inside the unlabelled cans were the original 35mm camera and sound negatives. The excitement didn't end there. Sippy Films also informed the Foundation about additional reels stored in the UK. With the support of the British Film Institute, the team gained access to archival materials. These were carefully shipped to L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, one of the world's premier film restoration facilities. Despite the loss of the original 70mm prints and severely damaged negatives, archivists sourced elements from Mumbai and the UK, collaborating with the British Film Institute and Italy's L'Immagine Ritrovata to painstakingly piece the film back together. The effort even uncovered the original camera used for shooting the film. Interestingly, Sholay had a rocky start when it first hit the screens. Early reviews were harsh, the box office was shaky, and the 70mm print was delayed at customs. India Today magazine called the film a "dead ember". Filmfare's Bikram Singh wrote that the major problem with the film was the "unsuccessful transplantation it attempts, grafting a western on the Indian milieu". "The film remains imitation western — neither here nor there". In initial screenings, audiences sat in silence — no laughter, no tears, no applause. "Just silence," writes film writer Anupama Chopra in her book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic. By the weekend, theatres were full but the response remained uncertain — and panic had set in. Over the next few weeks, audiences warmed up to the film, and word of mouth spread: "The visuals were epic, and the sound was a the third week, the audience was repeating dialogues. It meant that at least some were coming in to see the film for the second time," writes Chopra. A month after Sholay hit screens, Polydor released a 48-minute dialogue record — and the tide had turned. The film's characters became iconic, and Gabbar Singh — the "genuinely frightening, but widely popular" villain — emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Foreign critics called it India's first "curry western". Sholay ran for over five years — three in regular shows and two as matinees at Mumbai's Minerva. Even in its 240th week, shows were full. Sholay hit Pakistani screens on April 2015, and despite being 40 years old, it outperformed most Indian films over a decade old — including the 2002 hit Devdas starring Shah Rukh Khan. As film distributor Shyam Shroff told Chopra: "As they used to say about the British Empire, the sun never sets on Sholay." Why does Sholay still resonate with audiences, half a century later? Amitabh Bachchan offers a simple yet profound answer: "The victory of good over evil and... most importantly, poetic justice in three hours! You and I shall not get it in a lifetime," he told an interviewer. — BBC
Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Pankaj Tripathi recalls being scolded by director for adding humour to his roles, wants innocence in real life: ‘We should practise being innocent for 5 minutes every day'
Pankaj Tripathi is the modern-day phenomenon of what Ryan Reynolds once described as 'subscription to a personality.' Among a sea of actors transforming themselves with each and every role, there remains a common thread in Tripathi's performances: a dose of common-man humour. As he reprises his popular role of lawyer Madhav Mishra in Criminal Justice: A Family Matter, the fourth instalment in the crime thriller series, Tripathi chats with SCREEN about the impact of the Indian adaptation, and why he believes in injecting humour and innocence into all his characters. Criminal Justice is closely competing with Mirzapur to be your longest-running show yet. Do you remember when you were first approached for the show? Sridhar Raghavan, who wrote season 1, had come and narrated me the first few episodes. I said, 'Ye toh kamaal hai!' Then he revealed it's an official adaptation of a British show. Then I said, 'Phir rehne do.' So he reasoned that it's not a copy, but an adaptation within the Indian judicial system. So then I didn't watch the original show because once I do, I feel that experience is already complete. Isn't it rare that the Indian adaptation has outlasted the original from the West? Just the day before, I was watching the season 4 trailer in a cab in London. Then I started playing a motivational video on YouTube right after. The driver thought it's part of the trailer and said, 'Nice quote.' He thought I was speaking that dialogue in the show. He was from South Africa. He asked me what I do for a living, I said I'm an actor. So then he said, 'I'm also a photographer, at BBC.' I told him the show's trailer I was watching is Criminal Justice, and it's by BBC India. I told him how there are only two seasons in the UK, whereas we're coming up with the fourth one in India! Speaking of your dialogues, there's one in the trailer in which you say, 'Ye naha-dho ke, shampoo kar ke aapke peechhe padi hain.' How do you inject humour in the gravest of situations? I do that with almost every character. In India, we primarily watch films and shows for entertainment. There's already so much stress and burden in everyone's life anyway. If you make them smile before making an important point, then they'll listen to you. Humour is crucial to engagement. And the humour should not be forced, it should be either slice-of-life or satirical. Humour can exist in the gravest of situations, without going overboard. Where did this approach come from in your acting arsenal? I used to do that in theatre. But I was an amateur actor then, so the director scolded me a couple of times, asking why I'm doing buffoonery in the background. Then I realised you can't throw comedy into any and every grave scene. When I moved to Mumbai, I started getting negative roles mostly. So the humour took a backseat. Then, it gradually came back to the fore. The humour also lends itself quite organically to Madhav Mishra, right? Madhav Mishra has been an underdog since season 1. He has eczema, and is fighting for survival. When you come from that section of society, then there's a humour intact. He needs to survive, but also have fun at that. For instance, there's a scene in which he's supposed to rush into the court for a bail hearing. I asked director Rohan Sippy to make a junior artist stand next to me. As I enter, I hold his hand and take him along. He asks, 'Kya chahiye?' I say, 'Confidence.' When the judge asks him something, he just laughs. He has nothing else to say. The audience also roots for Madhav Mishra because of his innocence. Along with humour, that's also a motif in all your characters. Why is that important? I want that innocence in my life as well, and not just in characters. We've all become so corrupt, there's so much burden. I feel we need to practise being innocent. Like how we meditate for five minutes, we should do an exercise of being innocent for five minutes. Kids have so much joy in their lives! As we grow up, the innoncence goes away, and saza mazza ban jati hai. Even if there are mistakes or humour in innocence, that gives a different kind of happiness. Also Read — Pankaj Tripathi doesn't think he is the 'right person' to replace Paresh Rawal in Hera Pheri 3: 'I am nothing in front of him' Ryan Reynolds called this common thread across performances 'a subscription to personality.' Do you feel that's what your appeal is as an actor? But it also has a trap. After a few days, you get stuck in that trademark. You just keep delivering what the audience expects. Then I realized later that I have to protect myself as well. Because when I wish to experiment, and the audience doesn't find the trademark style in that, they'd be disappointed. So acting is a very fragile job. Choohe ko nahi pata hota ki wo trap mein fasne ja raha hai. Life is like that: you feel like you're going in to achieve something only to realize you're inside a trap. Criminal Justice: A Family Matter premieres on Jio Hotstar on May 29.
India Gazette
11-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Western reporting on India-Pakistan escalation 'one-sided'
The press is obscuring terrorism as the root cause of the latest flare-up between New Delhi and Islamabad, Kanwal Sibal has told RT The Western media has been presenting a "distorted" and "one-sided" picture of the latest military standoff between India and Pakistan, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal has told RT. On Saturday, the two nuclear powers agreed to a truce following the recent escalation in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack in India's Jammu and Kashmir federal territory in late April. US President Donald Trump stated that Washington had helped mediate the cessation of hostilities. Commenting on the developments, Sibal said that New Delhi never had any intention of escalating its limited military operation. He also criticized the US for seeking to "take diplomatic credit" for the truce. The retired diplomat further lamented the manner in which the escalation was reported by the Western press, which he says gave scant significance to "what caused this in the first place." "The attention is being shifted to the larger issues" existing between New Delhi and Islamabad, as opposed to the deadly terrorist attack last month, he argued. Sibal suggested that the "Western press... totally contort and distort their reporting," presenting a "very one-sided picture." "And somehow they have a very great weakness for Pakistan despite the fact that Pakistan's links with terror are so well known," Sibal claimed. He noted that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been hiding in the country for years before being killed by US special forces in 2011. In late April, anonymous sources told RT that the Indian government had sent an objection to BBC India head Jackie Martin over the British broadcaster's use of the word "militants" to refer to the perpetrators of the terrorist attack that led to the escalation of the conflict. Similar concerns were reportedly raised with other international news outlets, including the Associated Press and Reuters. READ MORE: BBC under fire in India for Kashmir terror attack coverage Speaking to RT around the same time, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif claimed that the West is to blame for his country's terrorism problem, which he explained stems from the "introduction of jihad" on behalf of the West during the Soviet-Afghanistan war in the 1980s. New Delhi has accused its neighbor of aiding and abetting Islamist militants from the Resistance Front, which claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack last month, alleging that at least two of the perpetrators are Pakistani nationals. Islamabad, for its part, has strongly denied any involvement.
Telegraph
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
BBC under fire for calling Kashmir terrorists ‘militants'
The Indian government has complained to the BBC for calling the attackers in last week's Kashmir massacre 'militants' rather than 'terrorists'. In a letter to Jackie Martin, head of BBC India, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said it objected to the corporation's reporting of the April 22 attack in Pahalgam which left 26 people dead. 'A formal letter has been sent to the BBC on the terming of terrorists as militants. The external publicity division of the MEA will be monitoring the reporting of the BBC,' an official told The Telegraph. The BBC has previously come under fire from the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, particularly over its coverage of human rights and minority issues. In January 2023, the corporation broadcast a documentary featuring criticism of Mr Modi's actions as chief minister of state during the 2002 Gujarat riots, during which around 800 Muslims were killed. In response, the government invoked emergency laws to prevent the programme from being shown in India. Authorities ordered Twitter and YouTube to take down links and posts about the film – called India: The Modi Question – and branded it a 'propaganda piece' made with a 'colonial mindset'. A month later, tax officials raided the corporation's New Delhi offices, which led to the BBC restructuring its Indian operations.
Hans India
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
India Issues Notice to BBC Over Pahalgam Coverage After Banning 16 Pakistani YouTube Channels
After banning 16 Pakistani YouTube channels for spreading misinformation about the Pahalgam attack, India also issued a notice to BBC India. The government criticized the BBC for repeatedly using the term 'militants' instead of 'terrorists' in its reports, expressing concern that such language could mislead global audiences and downplay the severity of the attack. Officials argue that such terminology could mislead global audiences and downplay the gravity of the attack. One BBC headline under scrutiny reads: 'Pakistan suspends visas for Indians after deadly Kashmir attack on tourists.' Authorities say this framing could wrongly suggest Indian involvement, rather than placing blame squarely on the terrorists responsible. The BBC isn't the only outlet facing criticism. International platforms like The New York Times, AP News, and Al Jazeera have also been called out by Indian media for using vague or softened terms while covering the Pahalgam attack. This controversy has reignited an important debate: Why are global media outlets hesitant to call terrorists what they are? Where is the journalistic accountability when reporting on acts of terror? As the world witnesses a surge in terror-related incidents, the call for truthful reporting, ethical journalism, and clear narratives has become louder than ever. The 16 banned channels include Shoaib Akhtar's channel and popular Pakistani news outlets like Dawn News, Samaa TV, ARY News, Geo News, and others.
