When I was going to cover the Screenwriters Association Awards this week, I had expected to finally meet more people from the filmi writing community, rather than most events which are concentrated on celebs. What I definitely did not expect was to be in the presence of the director credited with making the most famous Indian film ever.
During the awards distribution, they suddenly announced that Ramesh Sippy, along with veteran writer Robin Bhatt, would be giving out the award to Kunal Kemmu for the best dialogue for his debut directorial Madgaon Express. Robin also revealed that he had written Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, the 1993 film in which Kemmu was the youngest child.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Shakaal in Shaan
Once all the awards had been distributed and everybody was excited to hear that the bar had opened and dinner was served, I noticed that Sippy was sitting with Robin at a table right next to the stage, and there was no one else there!
With just a few days to go for Sholay’s 50th anniversary, I wasn’t going to let this chance go by. But neither was my topic of discussion with him going to be primarily about Sholay. I went up to him and said that Sholay may be the most talked about and biggest hit in Bollywood ever for several reasons, no doubt, but my favourite Ramesh Sippy film was a different one—Shaan.
The movie, released in 1980, five years after Sholay, is about an honest police officer (Sunil Dutt) who gets killed by international crime lord Shakaal (Kulbushan Kharbanda). His death is avenged by his two brothers (Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor) and Shatrugan Sinha, who teams up with them. The film also starred Parveen Babi, Bindiya Goswami, Rakhee Gulzar, and several others.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional supervillain in the James Bond series
While Gabbar Singh is spoken about constantly in pop culture, my favourite villain had always been Shakaal, who would tap his bald head, push buttons to send people to death, and had a shark tank and a few alligators on his own private island—an excellent inspiration for an Indian Bond villain.
But I had heard a lot of surprising stories about Shaan—that the audience didn’t take to it, it didn’t perform well, etc., and that’s what I asked Sippy saab. It was only in later years that it gained prominence.
“Shaan was such a great film, but didn’t do well commercially, how did you come to terms with that?”
A still from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
“It wasn’t that Shaan didn’t do well, just that it didn’t become a Sholay,” Sippy replied, putting things in perspective.
And what about that dialogue he had once said, Har Sholay ke baad ek Shaan aati hai, signalling after every great high comes a great low?
“Maine toh aisa kuch nahi kaha!” he told me, saying that on the internet there are all sorts of talks and you wouldn’t know what to believe.
A still from Sholay
“And Shakaal was inspired from Ernst Stavro Blofeld, right?” I asked him, naming the famous Bond villain who had appeared in several of the franchise films.
“I must have imbibed that while watching the Hollywood films, as I loved them, but that is something I’ve never denied. Even Sholay was inspired by a few of the Western cowboy films by Sergio Leone, which started Clint Eastwood,” he told me.
The Shocking Child Trafficking Stories Which Dear Men, Starring Sayani Gupta, Brings To Light (Exclusive)Having spoken to the legend himself, I said my goodbyes and finally went to see what dinner had to offer. But my request to you, dear reader, is simply this: there’s frankly been enough talk about Sholay, so this time, check out Shaan and tell us what you think about it!
To end with, here’s a quote from Shakaal when he is describing his crocodile: “Ajeeb janwar hai, jitna bhi khaye, bhukha hi rehta hai.”
What are your thoughts about Shaan? Write to us at kabir@fpj.co.in
