The greatest and biggest motion picture in the history of Indian cinema SHOLAY will hit 43 years tomorrow on Independence Day. SHOLAY probably has some competition now in the form of BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION considering what that film has done across India and after on television.

The difference is that BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION had to be dubbed in Hindi to become so huge in the Hindi markets but SHOLAY smashed records of local films in South India in its original Hindi language format which is just insane. Also the verdict is still not decided whether BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION will be relevant in 20 years or 40 years time.

By relevant we don't mean that some people talking about the film or writing about it because this is even done with films like JAANE BHI DO YAARO, PARINDA, SATYA, DIL CHAHTA HAI etc which were irrelevant when released for most of the country and ditto today. To be actually relevant you have to be watched and have a big audience and it remains to be seen what happens to BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION in the time to come. At the moment with more than a year gone after release its a rage with huge audiences whenever it comes on television but that may not be the case in 10, 20 or 40 years time on the formats available for viewing at that time.

SHOLAY released to an unprecedented response though that is not what is generally believed as at that time there were a couple of trade magazines and basically these people thought it was a bad film. So they spread the word that it opened poorly when the collections told a completely different story with all records smashed. It was a bit like saying that BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION has opened poorly last year but at that time they could actually get away with it because they actually had some takers in the industry and the media in general. In today's digital world this can never happen. It is hard to judge the opening compared to films today as numbers are today are far greater but there probably has not been many openings that have filled out every seat on day one (be it the August day ones in some circuits or October day ones in other places) barring maybe 50-60 seats. Even these missing ones will be more than compensated by so many centers going over capacity. So all in all the opening day would have easily been over 100% but it can only happen in India that a 110% or even 120% plus initial is called a poor opening.

The film opened on 40 cinemas in Mumbai and Ahmedabad on 15th August 1975 and barring the Drive In cinema in Ahmedabad, every cinema recorded housefull collections and both cities saw the highest collections ever. These cities had records by socials like DOST (1974) and ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN (1974) and action films were not the best bets at the time but SHOLAY smashed records in Mumbai by a distance and Ahmedabad it got past ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN despite releasing in one theater less.

A week later the film opened in East Punjab and in certain mass markets like East Punjab, UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Bihar there was a tradition for extra seats when a film was really accepted and got going. But with a Dharmendra starrer who was at an unimaginable level at the box office at that time the extra seats came out on release. The film did not officially beat the record of ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN in East Punjab on day one as it was on less theaters but unofficially it would have as the distributor gave a higher first week share than ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN despite lower collections as the over capacity theaters had probably more than covered the ground.

It was also released in Mysore and this was market was not going to be the strongest for an action dacait film as the ones before had not set this circuit on fire. But SHOLAY easily smashed the record collections of DHARMATMA and DEEWAAR both of which had collected Rs. 37,000 apprx in early 1975.

The first day figures of SHOLAY in circuits where it was released in August 1975 are as follows.

Mumbai (Released 15th August 1975)
Minerva - 7,470 (HF)
New Excelsior - 7,992 (HF)
Geeta - 5,285 (HF)
Ganesh - 4,828 (HF)
Deepak - 4,640 (HF)
Sharda - 4,970 (HF)
Badal - 6,207 (HF)
Aurora - 4,746 (HF)
Neptune - 6,252 (HF)
Kala Mandir - 7,524 (HF)
Milan - 4,873 (HF)
Chandan - 4,561 (HF)
Bahar - 4,628 (HF)
Oscar - 4,949 (HF)
Sangam - 4,798 (HF)
Hanjer - 5,730 (HF)
Samrat - 7,587 (HF)
New Era - 4,621 (HF)
Sona - 4,930 (HF)
Jaya - 4,347 (HF)
Akash - 3,999 (HF)
Kalpana - 5,483 (HF)
Basant - 5,564 (HF)
Sahakar - 5,251 (HF)
Shreyas - 6,635 (HF)
Odeon - 5,730 (HF)
Anand - 5,844 (HF)
Vandana - 5,690 (HF)
New Prakash - 3,906 (HF)
Sapna - 3,941 (HF)
Prabhat - 3,830 (HF)
Haseen - 5,662 (HF)
TOTAL -  1,73,473 (All 32 Cinemas Housefull). The film smashed the record of Dost (1974) which had collected 1.41 lakhs on day one

Ahmedabad (Released 15th August 1975)
Rupali - 7,121 (HF)
Anupam - 6,855 (HF)
Milan - 5,715 (HF)
Mohan - 4,673 (HF)
Priya - 5,072 (HF)
Sapna - 3,923 (HF)
Lalit Mahal - 3,487 (HF)
Drive In - 7,465
TOTAL - 44,311 (7 out of 8 theatres Housefull). The film beat the record of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) which had collected 43,565.

East Punjab (Released 22nd August 1975)
Jyoti Jalandhar - 9,389 (Over Capacity)
Gagan Amritsar - 12,190  (Over Capacity)
Aarti Ludhiana - 10,978 (Over Capacity)
Swarn Jammu - 6,077 (Over Capacity)
Jagat Chandigarh - 5,596 (HF)
Malwa Patiala - 5,743 (Over Capacity)
Hari Ambala - 5,417  (Over Capacity)
Pushpa Hissar - 4,452 (Over Capacity)
KC Karnal - 4,987 (HF)
TOTAL - 64,829 (Second to Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) but that film released on 12 theatres compared to the 9 of Sholay. That film had collected 71,987 on day one.)

Mysore (Released 22nd August 1975)
Kapali Bangalore - 8,856 (HF)
Apsara Bngalore - 6,453 (HF)
Nandi Bangalore - 4,714 (HF)
Nalanda Bangalore - 4,235 (HF)
Lavanya Bangalore - 3,765 (HF)
Galaxy Bangalore - 5,003 (HF)
Geethanjali Bangalore- 3,425
Sujatha Bangalore - 4,249 (HF)
Govardhan Bangalore - 3,089
Sangeet Bangalore - 1,662 (HF) Morning shows only
TOTAL - 45,451 (Beat the record of Dharmatma (1975) which had collected 37,564 on day one)

The film then opened in Delhi/UP,  CP, CI, Rajasthan, Nizam/Andhra and East India on 3rd October 1975 to a similar bumper response breaking all opening day records in all these circuits. Again like East Punjab, many theatres in UP, Bihar and West Bengal went over capacity from first day.

Q. Sholay celebrated 40 years last week and all reports suggest it was a disaster on release and was nearly taken off cinemas but with such a film can this be the case?
Ans. No. The opening was historic beating the previous record holder Roti Kapada Aur Makaan by 35% on weekend collections. At the time there were two trade magazines and in usual style they had declared the film a flop to disaster as the reviewers in these magazines did not like the film. This was where the disaster thing came from, the collections told a different story. In Bengal trade these guys were referred as blind even before Sholay was released. The film opened on 15 Aug 1975 on 40 theatres in Mumbai circuit, 32 in Mumbai city and 8 in Ahmedabad. It collected 7,52,362 from these 40 theatres over the weekend, every single show was housefull. There was a slight issue on the weekdays in Mumbai city as the film was not going full in advance and current booking was open. This was probably because it was a dacait action film and in Mumbai it was the non action films like Bobby and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan which were creating history till Sholay happened.  Still it ended with 96% collections over the week. On 22 Aug 1975, it opened in East Punjab to miracle collections as the theatre rentals were nearly covered by the extra seats that exhibitors had to put in the theaters. It recorded 118% occupancy over the week. East Punjab was an action circuit, the same happened again in October 1975 when it opened in Delhi/UP and East India.

C. Shastri

Q. Last week you said that Sholay had a historic opening then why is it that you read everywhere that it had a disaster opening and makers wanted to change the film?.
Ans. At the time business was not about the weekend or first week and a huge film like Sholay had to do a multiple centre jubilee to cover its cost and with such poor feedback from trade, reviewers and the industry in general, the makers would have been worried that collections will come down and film will not run so they may have thought what could be changed. Looking at collections it beat every initial record that had been set by Roti Kapada Aur Makaan the previous record holder for initial records.

M. Shukla