Bhubaneswar, Dec. 1: A restored version of the iconic Hindi blockbuster ‘Sholay’ with its original ending will be released across theatres in India soon, eminent poet, lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar said on Saturday.
Akhtar, who had a huge role in the making of the film including character creation to shaping the plot and dialogue, said the final scene of ‘Sholay’ had to be altered as the Censor Board in 1975 had objected to the concept of a law abiding former police officer taking law into his own hands to kill a criminal though Director Ramesh Sippy had planned it that way.
The scene had to be changed and the film, which was hailed as one of the most iconic in the history of Indian cinema, had shown the police officer Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) having a duel with Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). He allowed the law enforcers to arrest him.
But in the restored version, Thakur Baldev Singh will be seen killing Gabbar as was in the original story which the public did not see. The restored version of ‘Sholay’ is being re-launched to mark the 50th year of the release of the film.
Replying to questions on evolution of Indian cinema, Akhtar said cinema was a symptom which only pointed at the disease the society was suffering from. “Cinema is not the disease. It is the symptom. It has been changing keeping pace with the society over time,” he said.
“You cannot make a ‘Devdas’ today”, he said referring to the famous Dilip Kumar starrer made in 1955, adding “if it is made today, it will not run.”
There was a phase when ‘rebellion’ was the theme of Bollywood films followed by the ‘angry young man’ concept. It surfaced at a time when India witnessed the growth of extra constitutional tendencies. “But it could not have happened in 1952,” he said.
Akhtar said there was a period when ‘thakurs’ and ‘zamindars’ played villains in films, but it would not happen today as the zamindari system has disappeared. “In fact, these days we have no villains in films,” he added.
“We have given up literature for about 40-45 years. Now if a person speaks his mother tongue, people may start thinking that he comes from a humble background,” he said.
“In fact, if you take the name of a famous litterateur of the early 20th century, chances are that the present generation might not even have heard of that person,” he said adding “learning English is necessary, but not at the cost of the mother tongue.”
Replying to questions on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on cinema and music, Akhtar said he had done more than 200 songs with singer Shankar Mahadevan including the chartbuster ‘Breathless’.
“But can AI do ‘Breathless’ today using my words and Mahadevan’s voice? It cannot”, he said adding “however, right now, AI is in the cradle, we don’t know what it can do in future.”
Akhtar also reminisced about the way one of his famous songs for the 1994 film ‘1942: A Love Story’, starring Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala, was composed.
The film was discussed one day in the morning at a meeting held at the studio of music director Rahul Dev Burman attended by most members of the set and the musical team. “After listening to the story, at one point I suggested that there was a scope for including a good song in the movie but others were not convinced.”
Akhtar, however, was asked to compose the lyrics and bring it for discussion in the next meeting to be held at 4 pm the same day. “Somehow, I forgot about it altogether till someone reminded me about it at 2 pm. I had not thought about it till then,” he said.
“While driving to the venue of the meeting, I was wondering how I will explain my failure to write the song. Then the first line of the song ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisha Laga’ came to my mind,” he said.
He discussed it in the meeting and sat down to write the rest of the song there itself which became a hit.
