Ramesh Sippy’s cinder Returns in an enhanced 4K version titled Sholay – The Final CutReleasing in its fully restored form in over a thousand theaters on December 12th. The controversial replacement of “Tatya Tope” in the “James Bond” trailer has also been reversed.
Sholay 4K re-release restores the original vision and James Bond line
Clarifying the issue, Neeraj Joshi, in-charge of marketing and strategy, says, “In the original version it was ‘Tatya Tope’, and then came ‘James Bond’ to make the dialogue more audience-friendly. In the version being released now, it is ‘James Bond’ again.”
The new version of this timeless classic, helmed by Shehzad Sippy, nephew of director Ramesh Sippy, lives up to its legendary stature, with excellent production values, dialogues that have become an intrinsic part of India’s pop culture, and performances that remain endlessly brilliant.
Three important sequences have been added to this restored version, viz. A scene where a brave Sachin Pilgaonkar faces the dreaded Gabbar. (In the original cut, Sachin’s character Ahmed was shown walking through ravines and was later found dead as a body on horseback.) At one moment, Thakur’s loyal aide Ramlal (Satyen Kappu) was shown hammering a nail into the sole of Thakur’s shoe. And, of course, the spectacular finale where Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) crushes Gabbar with his spiked shoes.
This gruesome but glorious climax now ends with a deeply emotional moment of shared grief between Thakur and Veeru that has never been seen before.
“The restoration took three years to complete,” says Shehzad Sippy, “All credit goes to the original cast and crew for the masterpiece they have created, as well as the Film Heritage Foundation for the amazing restoration work done by them.” I’m just glad we’re able to bring forth the creators’ original vision fifty years later and preserve this classic for future generations. I hope everyone gets to see it on the big screen for the first time and hopefully not the last time.
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