Sachin Pilgaonkar’s Bollywood bombshell: Actor says he and Amjad Khan directed most of Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay | Bollywood FilmyMeet

Sachin Pilgaonkar recently made a revelation about Ramesh Sippy’s classic Sholay. The actor who played a crucial role in the film revealed that the filmmaker did not direct the entire film. In an interview with Kunal Vijaykar for his YouTube channel Khane Mein Kya Hai, Sachin said that he and Amjad Khan directed some crucial portions of the Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra starrer action-drama. (Also read: Shriya Pilgaonkar on rumours of her being adopted by Sachin and Supriya: ‘I’m not going to flash my birth certificate…’)

Sachin Pilgaonkar on directing Sholay

While recalling his experience during the film, Sachin stated that, “Rameshji decided to have a second unit to do some action sequences which don’t feature the main stars. These were just passing shots. For this, he had a director of stunt films, Mohammed Ali bhai. He was a renowned stunt filmmaker, and with him was an action director, Azim bhai. And the latter got two guys from Hollywood, Jim and Jerry. He (Ramesh) wanted two persons to represent him because these people came from other countries. How would they know about the film and what’s happening? At that time, there were only two bekaar (useless) people in the unit: one was Amjad Khan and the other one was me.”

He further said, “He was supposed to come only when Dharamji, Amitji, and Hari bhai (Sanjeev Kumar) had work. Rameshji shot those portions, and we handled the remaining scenes.”

About Sholay

Sachin played the character of Ahmed in Sholay. Amitabh and Dharmendra’s portrayal of Jai and Veeru became iconic in Hindi cinema. The movie also featured Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amjad Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Iftekhar, AK Hangal, Jagdeep, Asrani, Mac Mohan, Viju Khote and others in crucial roles. Sholay is considered one of the most successful films in writer duo- Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar’s career. The action-adventure drama was produced by GP Sippy. It was the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time, and was the highest-grossing film in India up until Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). The film was also the longest running film in Maratha Mandir before it was surpassed by Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.