Restored Director's Cut of 'Sholay' with previously unseen footage gearing up for release. Premiere screening to be held in Bologna, Italy

A restored and uncut version of Sholay, featuring the original ending and deleted scenes not originally included in the theatrical version, will be screened at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy, on June 27. The festival runs from June 21 to June 29.

The restoration was the outcome of a complex three-year joint effort between the Film Heritage Foundation and Sippy Films. According to the team, the major challenge was due to the original camera negative being "badly deteriorated" making restoration difficult. "The main elements used were the interpositives found in London and Mumbai. Miraculously, the colour reversal intermediate found in London had the original ending and two deleted scenes. We had managed to acquire the original Arri 2C camera that was used to shoot Sholay for our archive," recalled the team.

Elaborating further, the team added that they spoke to veteran cinematographer Kamlakar Rao, who had worked on the original film with its cinematographer Dwarka Divecha, due to the unavailability of 70mm prints. "He told us that Dwarka Divecha suggested putting a ground glass in front of the camera lens on which Kamlakar Rao made markings so that the margins of the 70mm frame could be identified. This helped us to decide on the aspect ratio as 2.2:1 for the restored film. As luck would have it, we also found the original magnetic sound elements at the Sippy Films office. The sound restoration was done using the original sound negative and the magnetic elements."

Directed by Ramesh Sippy, written by Salim-Javed, and produced by G.P. Sippy, Sholay was India's first 70mm film and the first Hindi film to employ stereophonic sound, drawing comparisons to the treatment of big Hollywood VistaVision epics of the late 1950s to '60s.

One of Indian cinema's biggest blockbusters and a towering milestone bar none, the film, which drew influences from classic spaghetti Westerns and Japanese samurai epics, was powered by the stellar, scene-dominating presences of Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, and Jaya Bhadhuri. The music by R.D. Burman was an instant hit, too. M.S. Shinde edited the film.

Most recently, we felt the film's influence in S.S. Rajamouli's global blockbuster RRR.

Producer Shehzad Sippy said the resurrection process has been a "labour of love" and he couldn't wait for the film to "begin its new lease of life.”

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Film Heritage Foundation, says: "My first memory of Sholay dates back to the time when I was six years old and I remember lamenting because my mother refused to allow me to go to the cinema to watch the film. I would never have imagined that 50 years later, I would have the opportunity to work on the film's restoration.  I know every frame and every dialogue of the film by heart. Sholay was a work of passion that generations of Indians have loved and seen time and time again."  

In 2014, the film was re-released in the 3D format. It's not clear when the new version will be available for screening in Indian theatres. An announcement is expected on the same soon.

Entertainment