Everyone knows the actors in a film. Fame and celebrity status is a given when you have your face flashing on the screen and a million fans to your credit. But very often we tend to miss out the actual stars behind a film. Stars who always remain in the background and who are actually responsible in creating the blockbusters.
Let's take a look at all those technicians who had a big and small hand in making Sholay what it is even today.
Director: Ramesh Sippy
It's a given fact that everyone knows the legendary man who made Sholay. Born in Karachi the young director worked for 7 years as an assistant before becoming the director of Andaz, in 1969. Although this was only a moderate success, his second film Seeta Aur Geeta starring the 'Dream Girl' Hema Malini brought him huge success. In 1975 Ramesh Sippy directed Sholay which has been written down in the history of Hindi films with a permanent ink. He shot the film in 75mm as well as 35mm. That is one of the reasons why Sholay took two years to complete.
Producer: G.P. Sippy
Gopaldas Parmanand Sippy started his career with carpet selling and moved onto construction work. Belonging to a Sindhi family, GP Sippy, was making great buildings, when he began nurturing the idea to venture into filmmaking. He directed and produced his own movies. He began his career with the film Marine Drive in 1955. He was the Chairman of the Film and TV Producers Guild of India for several years. He produced his son's film Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay, Sagar, Shaan, etc.
Music Director: R D Burman
Rahul Dev Burman aka Pancham Da is still a common name in every house that enjoys Bollywood music. The name 'Pancham' because as a kid whenever he cried it sounded like the fifth note (Pa) in classical music. He composed his first song when he was just nine years old for the film Funtoosh. He was famous for his unique, grunting bass singing style. In 1975, R D Burman created soundtracks Sholay in which he even sang the song 'Mehbooba mehbooba', picturised on Helen. He received a Filmfare nomination for playback singing and the Filmfare Best Composer award for Sholay.
Cinematographer (DOP): Dwarka Divecha
Born on March 19, 1918, Dwarka Divecha barely worked on 30 films. Sholay was his third last film. He even tried his hand at acting but has only one film to its credit, Singapore in 1960. He has given cinematography for prominent films like Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan, Amrapali, Khilona, Lal Pathar etc.
Writer: Salim Khan / Javed Akhtar
Javed was born as Jadoo Akhtar in Gwalior. He has to his credit some of the best works the industry has ever seen. Dialogues written by him are still livid in people's memory. Javed Akhtar has received about five National awards for best lyricist, and seven Filmfare awards for best script. Akhtar joined with his friend Salim Khan to develop the story for Adhikar.
Salim was born in Indore, he was initially hired as an actor in films like Teesri Manzil. But that career never lasted. He met Javed Akhtar on the sets of Sarhaadi Lootera. They were hired by G. P. Sippy's Sippy Films as resident screenwriters and produced the screenplays for successful films like Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don. Together they were known as Salim-Javed who then split in the 1980's.
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