Sascha Sippy talks about the animated Sholay film, Sholay Adevntures
9:16 AM
With Sascha Sippy
monetising Sholay yet again through animation, we wonder what makes the
chor-police story lucrative over decades
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 25, 2015)
Sascha Sippy's association with cult classic film, Sholay began when he was four. And it never ended.
At its premiere in August 1975 at Grant Road's Minerva Theatre, Sholay's producer GP Sippy's grandson leaned over the balcony in a frenzy as he watched the train robbery opening scene. He would've tipped over in excitement if a production hand hadn't yanked him back. For 44-year-old Dubai-based Sascha, Sholay has been an obsession and lifetime occupation since. His 15-year-old firm, Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (SMEPL) holds exclusive rights to the film that crashed records for continuous showing at theatres across the country, including at Minerva where it ran for five years. For Sascha, it continues to generate revenue from trademark and copyrights, VHS and DVD sales, television screenings, graphic novels (Sholay: The graphic novel; February 2014) and mobile apps (Sholay: Bullets of justice has been downloaded 24,301 times to date). Add to that an animated teleseries that premieres this Monday on a kids channel.
The four-part Sholay Adventures, co-produced by SMEPL and Bangalore-based Graphic India, features petty criminals Jai and Veeru as eightyear-olds on a vacation visit to their uncle, Thakur Baldev Singh's sleepy village Ramgarh. Successful at intercepting a gang that attacks their train, they are recruited as agents by S.H.O.L.A.Y, a secret organisation run by him. Unlike the original, they will not just fend off Gabbar Singh supported by Kalia and Sambha, but vampires, mummies, supernatural monster Vinaashak and evil scientist Piddu, too.
Graphic India's co-founder Sharad Devarajan, who first watched the film as a teen on VHS with his uncle in America, and calls Gabbar the Darth Vader of India, has been careful with protecting the innate character of each protagonist - Thakur's quiet sense of righteousness; Gabbar's maniacal laugh; and Jai and Veeru's undying friendship that would set the standard for every buddy film after.
Its writer, Mumbai-based Alok Sharma, beat the 'what to leave out' challenge by weaving his story around the film's most iconic, and naturally, his favourite sequences.
"We want it to be a show that father and son watch together. Adults will connect with their favourite characters while kids will be entertained by Jai and Veeru's antics," he says. That the film's script, with its good-nixes-evil theme, has loyalty, friendship, integrity and courage at its core, makes it a good pick for a positive message relayed through animation, believes Devarajan.
It's the script, written by the ace screenwriter team of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, that film critics say is Sholay's greatest strength.
And, any competent attempt to present it, albeit in contemporary fashion, should succeed.
An instance of this meticulous scriptwriting, says Khan, is evident in the climax when Jai dies. "The fake coin story needed an end, and this is how we had planned the film will fold up from the very beginning." "Initially, critics argued it wasn't a good idea to kill Amitabh Bachchan, but the film's success went onto prove otherwise." The tele-series, he believes, is a compliment to his work. "It's a win-win situation for us (original scriptwriters). If this interpretation is better than ours, we'll be happy. If it isn't, it's a pat on our back," Khan chuckles.
Film critic, passionate Sholay fan, and author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic, Anupama Chopra admits to going teary-eyed every time she watches Jai die. What will make it survive in a market swarmed by Japanese manga and mythological superheroes is simple, she says. "Why does everyone keep turning back to Sholay is like asking why is Shakespeare relevant after 500 years? The film is like good art and successive generations will identify with it. The script's strength is that it's hard to tell which time it is set in. The characters wear jeans; there are horses and cars. But more importantly, their emotions aren't dated."
Social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan considers the film a "transposed myth". "It's a great Indian novel played out as a Western. It celebrates the myth of violence through the creation of Gabbar," he says, adding, "It's an indigenous cops-versus-robbers story, but it also discusses desires and temptation. It touches on the needs and emotions of a widow, something few mainstream films discussed back then."
This can only be good news for Sascha. Industry insiders says Sholay's spin-offs are about the only work his firm has manufactured. He is unperturbed. "Every dialogue is so unique, it can have application across several brands," he says over the phone from Miami. And he is willing to license it for a price. And when someone's unwilling to pay, his legal team pulls up brands that make references to dialogues or characters. Like the time a Renault commercial used Yeh Dosti without licensing it. In 2005, director-producer Ram Gopal Varma was forced to call his Sholay remake Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007), renaming Gabbar, Babban. "I don't remember how many people I have sued," Sascha says in a dead-pan voice. "But in the last few years, people have become more careful about copyright infringement," he adds, revealing that he may consider a live-action Sholay TV series next.
He hasn't spared family either.
In January last year, Sascha stood his ground as holder of exclusive rights to the film when his uncle, and Sholay's director Ramesh Sippy approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the release of the film's 3D version by SMEPL. It wasn't as sweet a victory as he would have imagined after it made 10.53 cr in net box office revenue, barely half the cost of converting the original into 3D.
Visvanathan wonders if the tele-series will meet a similar fate. "The idea of a dacoit is gone; the concept of town-versus-city has changed. That was (1970s) a time when people enjoyed repeating jokes. Today, they might find it moronic."
But Sascha's is always willing to take a chance on Sholay.
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 25, 2015)
Sascha Sippy's association with cult classic film, Sholay began when he was four. And it never ended.
At its premiere in August 1975 at Grant Road's Minerva Theatre, Sholay's producer GP Sippy's grandson leaned over the balcony in a frenzy as he watched the train robbery opening scene. He would've tipped over in excitement if a production hand hadn't yanked him back. For 44-year-old Dubai-based Sascha, Sholay has been an obsession and lifetime occupation since. His 15-year-old firm, Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (SMEPL) holds exclusive rights to the film that crashed records for continuous showing at theatres across the country, including at Minerva where it ran for five years. For Sascha, it continues to generate revenue from trademark and copyrights, VHS and DVD sales, television screenings, graphic novels (Sholay: The graphic novel; February 2014) and mobile apps (Sholay: Bullets of justice has been downloaded 24,301 times to date). Add to that an animated teleseries that premieres this Monday on a kids channel.
The four-part Sholay Adventures, co-produced by SMEPL and Bangalore-based Graphic India, features petty criminals Jai and Veeru as eightyear-olds on a vacation visit to their uncle, Thakur Baldev Singh's sleepy village Ramgarh. Successful at intercepting a gang that attacks their train, they are recruited as agents by S.H.O.L.A.Y, a secret organisation run by him. Unlike the original, they will not just fend off Gabbar Singh supported by Kalia and Sambha, but vampires, mummies, supernatural monster Vinaashak and evil scientist Piddu, too.
Graphic India's co-founder Sharad Devarajan, who first watched the film as a teen on VHS with his uncle in America, and calls Gabbar the Darth Vader of India, has been careful with protecting the innate character of each protagonist - Thakur's quiet sense of righteousness; Gabbar's maniacal laugh; and Jai and Veeru's undying friendship that would set the standard for every buddy film after.
Its writer, Mumbai-based Alok Sharma, beat the 'what to leave out' challenge by weaving his story around the film's most iconic, and naturally, his favourite sequences.
"We want it to be a show that father and son watch together. Adults will connect with their favourite characters while kids will be entertained by Jai and Veeru's antics," he says. That the film's script, with its good-nixes-evil theme, has loyalty, friendship, integrity and courage at its core, makes it a good pick for a positive message relayed through animation, believes Devarajan.
It's the script, written by the ace screenwriter team of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, that film critics say is Sholay's greatest strength.
And, any competent attempt to present it, albeit in contemporary fashion, should succeed.
An instance of this meticulous scriptwriting, says Khan, is evident in the climax when Jai dies. "The fake coin story needed an end, and this is how we had planned the film will fold up from the very beginning." "Initially, critics argued it wasn't a good idea to kill Amitabh Bachchan, but the film's success went onto prove otherwise." The tele-series, he believes, is a compliment to his work. "It's a win-win situation for us (original scriptwriters). If this interpretation is better than ours, we'll be happy. If it isn't, it's a pat on our back," Khan chuckles.
Film critic, passionate Sholay fan, and author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic, Anupama Chopra admits to going teary-eyed every time she watches Jai die. What will make it survive in a market swarmed by Japanese manga and mythological superheroes is simple, she says. "Why does everyone keep turning back to Sholay is like asking why is Shakespeare relevant after 500 years? The film is like good art and successive generations will identify with it. The script's strength is that it's hard to tell which time it is set in. The characters wear jeans; there are horses and cars. But more importantly, their emotions aren't dated."
Social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan considers the film a "transposed myth". "It's a great Indian novel played out as a Western. It celebrates the myth of violence through the creation of Gabbar," he says, adding, "It's an indigenous cops-versus-robbers story, but it also discusses desires and temptation. It touches on the needs and emotions of a widow, something few mainstream films discussed back then."
This can only be good news for Sascha. Industry insiders says Sholay's spin-offs are about the only work his firm has manufactured. He is unperturbed. "Every dialogue is so unique, it can have application across several brands," he says over the phone from Miami. And he is willing to license it for a price. And when someone's unwilling to pay, his legal team pulls up brands that make references to dialogues or characters. Like the time a Renault commercial used Yeh Dosti without licensing it. In 2005, director-producer Ram Gopal Varma was forced to call his Sholay remake Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007), renaming Gabbar, Babban. "I don't remember how many people I have sued," Sascha says in a dead-pan voice. "But in the last few years, people have become more careful about copyright infringement," he adds, revealing that he may consider a live-action Sholay TV series next.
He hasn't spared family either.
In January last year, Sascha stood his ground as holder of exclusive rights to the film when his uncle, and Sholay's director Ramesh Sippy approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the release of the film's 3D version by SMEPL. It wasn't as sweet a victory as he would have imagined after it made 10.53 cr in net box office revenue, barely half the cost of converting the original into 3D.
Visvanathan wonders if the tele-series will meet a similar fate. "The idea of a dacoit is gone; the concept of town-versus-city has changed. That was (1970s) a time when people enjoyed repeating jokes. Today, they might find it moronic."
But Sascha's is always willing to take a chance on Sholay.
Top
L: Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), Veeru (Dharmendra) and Basanti (Hema Malini)
have made it to the tele-series but Radha (Jaya Bhaduri) has been
dropped; Above: Print production manager Nilesh Mahadik and graphic
designer-letterer Rakesh Mahadik are part of the Sholay Adventures team
at Graphic India
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