New Delhi: 'Sholay' was one of the iconic movies made in the 70s, which does not fail to draw audience even today. The movie had indeed left a mark in the minds of viewers and to the extent that its evergreen dialogues resonate even today. Talking about 'Sholay', the one scene that automatically comes to our minds is the meditative sequence where Gabbar (Amjad Khan) shoots down the entire family of Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar).
But, did you know that the sequence had been lifted from Sergio Leonne's 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968). On Monday, actor Adil Hussain shared a clip which is eerily similar to the long, memorable sequence from 'Sholay' in which Gabbar shoots down Thakur's family members one by one. Though Adil didn't name the movie, netizens were quick to draw the similarity and comment.
Adil wrote in the caption, "Ha ha... Who would have thought that portions of one of the most watched/ Admired films in India will be a copy of this film below... Probably you already knew that!? .. But didn't.."
Netizens immediately took to the comments section and left their views. One of them said, "I think it was Einstein or someone who said creativity is all about hiding your sources", while another one said, "Once Upon A Time In The West is one of the finest Western ever made. Sergio Leone was thinking of retiring from Western genre. He wanted to make last Western with Henry Fonda in a negative role, first time for Fonda and it turned out to be landmark role for him."
A third user wrote, "They’ve just copied everything be it music, beats, lyrics, screenplay and showed it to us as their original work". Another comment read, "Well, sholay is the exact copy of 'magnificent seven' which is the official western remake of '7 samurais'. By now it's not even trivial. Fascinating part : all 3 of the films have had immense success in their own respected markets."
'Sholay' is one of the most recognised Hindi films of all time. It starred Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Asrani, Viju Khote and Jagdeep among others. It was written by Salim-Javed and produced by Sippy Films.
On the other hand, 'Once Upon a Time in the West' stars Henry Fonda. It's the first instalment of Sergio Leonne's Once Upon A Time trilogy, and was followed by 'Duck, You Sucker!' ((1971) and 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984).