Sholay at 50: Shehzad Sippy on restoring uncut version of Ramesh Sippy’s film in 4K

In an interview with The Federal, Shehzad Sippy shares, “I have an investment background but I bought the company since I saw a big opportunity here with all the assets: a film library with some great movies. Unfortunately, not much was happening with them.”

The Sippy banner, which is more than seven decades in the film business, had 33 films in its library, which includes hits like Shaan, Seeta aur Geeta, Saagar, Brahmachari, Andaz and more. But on top of it all sits the undisputed “crown jewel,” Sholay.

With Sholay’s 50th anniversary around the corner, and the film being an ‘important part of Sippy family's legacy’, Shehzad decided to track down the iconic film’s original negatives and restore them. Notably, this restored version includes a befitting climax for a revenge drama. The killing of Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) at the hands (in this case, the legs) of Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar).

This climax was part of six minutes of footage from the film that had been chopped. The censor did not want to show Thakur, a retired police officer killing Gabbar and taking law into his own hands. Shehzad says that the Emergency was on at the time and the censor board did not want that kind of message to filter down to the public.

This incident was penned by journalist Anupama Chopra in her book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic (2000). “She writes how Ramesh Sippy was livid and had threatened to walk out and wanted his name removed from the credits. He felt his artistic vision was being compromised for a political issue,” points out Shehzad.

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“My grandfather tried his level best to speak to the I&B ministry but they could not sort it out. In the end, GP Sippy was a businessman and the film had gone way over schedule and budget. He just wanted to release the film and I guess Ramesh Sippy too understood,” reveals the entrepreneur, who loves films.

A major roadblock

When Shehzad started on his ambitious plan to restore Sholay, he hit a major roadblock. There was no sign of the original film stock anywhere. While some film reels were found languishing in the company warehouse in an extremely poor condition, Shehzad remembered his father mentioned that the Sholay’s original cut was stored at Technicolor, the visual effects company in London.

As luck would have it, when he contacted Technicolor they had 500 cans of reels of Sholay and Shaan. And, Ramesh Sippy’s son, Rohan Sippy, stepped in to introduce him to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder director of Film Heritage Foundation. Dungarpur’s foundation, which was founded in 2014, is committed to conserve, preserve and restore films.

In a conversation with The Federal, Dungarpur recalls, “We found the Sholay film cans housed in a Mumbai warehouse but they were in a bad condition. Sadly, the original camera negative had deteriorated and could not be used for the restoration. The main elements finally used in the restoration were the interpositives found in London and Mumbai. Miraculously, what we found in London had the film’s original ending which was cut by the censors and two deleted scenes.” Another amazing discovery was the original Arri 2C camera used in the filming of Sholay, which helped in the restoration process.”

Subsequently, the reels from both London and Mumbai were transported to L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna to start the intricate restoration process, which took three years. “Bologna is the best in the world for classic cinema. All of the old Sergio Leone films are restored there. It is thanks to Shivendra again, who does most of his restoration work there and has led the entire effort,” admits Shehzad.

The restoration process

Elaborating on the restoration process, Dungarpur says, “What viewers will see in this restored version is the original revenge story of Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar). They will see the original ending which ends with the death of Gabbar, which actually completes the film. In the earlier version, a policeman takes Gabbar away. But, now fifty years later, viewers will see the final cut as we are calling it. It is the complete version of Sholay, intended to be shown in 1975. It will be 3 hours and 24 minutes long.”

Talking about the challenges Dungarpur faced while restoring Sholay, he says the biggest task was to put the entire film together with no material. “We could not see the images in the negatives since it was badly damaged and we had to rely on the interpositives. But since we found the film’s sound negatives, we were able to bring back RD Burman’s tracks. The 3D version had removed RD Burman and used Raju Singh’s tracks,” explains Dungarpur.

Also read: Sholay at 50: How Ramesh Sippy’s film captured India’s angst and anxieties

On using a 4K scan, Dungarpur says that a higher resolution like 4K allows for more detail, a sharper image, and potentially faster frame rates, better contrast, and wider colour gamut. “Restoration means the common viewer will not see any difference from the1975 version,” stresses Dungarpur.

No use of AI

Keen not to make cuts or changes in the restored version in tune with Ramesh Sippy’s wishes, Shehzad says that they did not re-record or change anything in the film. “All we’ve done is to add all the deleted scenes and the original climax. It is a lot of work to get a digital copy that's been restored of the movie and have it look good. The original camera negative was not in great shape and we had to use interpositives,” he says.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the world of cinema today, worrying purists. Shehzad makes it clear that AI was not used to recreate anything. “Sholay is a legendary film. We don’t want to touch it in any way or disrespect it. Or else, people will be coming for my head,” he says with a laugh. In his view, the producer does have the legal authority to make changes but he believes it’s important to respect the artistic integrity of a filmmaker.

“Earlier, when Sholay was rereleased 10 years ago in 3D, they put all these effects and re-recorded the music. They had removed RD Burman’s music and I knew Uncle Ramesh was upset about that. I didn’t want to be the guy to repeat that mistake,” he admits wryly.

Restoring such a historic, iconic film is a huge burden, he acknowledges, but it’s also a huge blessing in a way, he points out. “As I am starting on my journey of relaunching Sippy Films this year, I couldn’t ask for a better start than to begin by restoring Sholay on its 50th anniversary,” he says.

Foreign stunt and cameraman crew

On what made Sholay such a super hit, the 40-year-old Shehzad says he was not born when the film was made but he grew up hearing stories about the tireless efforts of the entire crew to make a great film. “The movie’s execution is at a much higher level than other Hindi films of the time. They even had a foreign stunt and cameraman crew from the UK — two guys who had worked on James Bond movies from Pinewood Studios — Jim Allen and Gerry Crampton. The action and the camera work are all top notch,” he adds.

He continues, “The credit also goes to my uncle, a perfectionist, who went 3X over the budget to get every little thing right in the film. Salim Javed for crafting those characters, and a salute to the cinematographer Dwarka Devecha, editor MS Shinde and, of course, RD Burman. My granddad too took a huge risk. Everyone thought the family was finished because they spent Rs 3 crore on the film at that time, when films were made in just under Rs 25 to 30 lakh.”

Also read: Raj Kapoor at 100: The showman who held up a mirror to a nation’s hopes and despair

Interestingly, Shehzad shares that Polydor (now Universal Music) back then had released a LP, which had the entire movie on audio. “I’ve heard from a lot of people that in many street corners and villages this LP was played on a loudspeaker. So, that’s how the dialogues and songs got ingrained in people’s minds,” he reveals.

‘A part of India’s cultural heritage’

Nothing remains of Basanti’s colourful tonga or the water tank from which Dharmendra threatened to jump off (which also happens to be the veteran actor’s favourite scene) and the bike featured in the Yeh Dosti song.

Regretting that nothing remains of the memorabilia, Shehzad recalls that Anand Mahindra’s Birmingham-based bike company DSA had recently reached out asking for the BSA model used in the Yeh Dosti song. “My uncle in Hyderabad who runs a bike restoration company told me it was a BSA MC20. I am getting a replica done,” he says.

The final cut of Sholay will be next shown at three film festivals. It will be screened at the Toronto film festival on September 6, the New York Film Festival at the end of September or early October and the London Film Festival in mid-October. “We will probably look to release the film in India at some point. But there’s no official announcement on the release date yet,” he admits ruefully. What prompted Shehzad to embark on this journey fraught with pitfalls?

“I have attempted this restoration exercise more out of respect for the film. Also, I want to preserve this film which has become a key part of India’s cultural heritage. I want people to see the movie on big screen again as it is meant to be seen,” he states, adding prophetically about his labour of love, “This may well be the last time Sholay releases in theatres.”