Sholay, directed by Ramesh Sippy, released on 15 August 1975. Today, as the film completes 50 years, The Quint got Rajeev Masand, COO, Dharma Cornerstone Agency, to talk about the film and his three favourite scenes
Rajeev recalls watching the film for the first time on Doordarshan, but says he truly understood its significance—and why it remains such a benchmark in Hindi cinema—much later, while studying film in college.
"It’s impossible to pick just three, or even ten, favourite scenes from a film that is so beautifully written and carefully hatched. It’s hard to pin down just a few," he says.
For Rajeev, among the many aspects of the film— it's a story of revenge, love—what spoke to him directly was the friendship between Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra), "the song, yeh dosti hum nahi todenge,' is iconic and it is impossible to forget. It went on to become an anthem song on friendship, and those costumes became iconic—Bachchan saab put denim on the map after Sholay," he says.
For him, this sequence will always be the very first thing, that comes to mind when he thinks of the film.
Want to know which other moments from Sholay made Rajeev’s list? Watch the full video.