'50 years of 'Sholay': Sachin Pilgaonkar talks about his important scene being cut from lock edit

Mumbai, Aug 15 (IANS) Producer-actor-director Sachin Pilgaonkar, who essayed the role of Rahim chacha's son in the iconic film ‘Sholay’, has spoken up about an important sequence in the film, which director Ramesh Sippy left out in the lock edit.

Sachin spoke with IANS recently, as he celebrated 50 years of ‘Sholay’, and said that although director Ramesh Sippy had edited out the part, there were multiple reasons that led to the decision.

He told IANS, “The scene of killing me, which was shot at Gabbar's den, that scene was cut before the release. And that was cut by Rameshji. There were three reasons for that. The first reason was that the length of the film had to be controlled. The second thing was that he got a very good cut. That ant, the black one, which we call mungda in Marathi, it is walking on Gabbar’s hand. And he says, ‘Ramgadh's son has come'. And he hits the ant like this. Cut-to-dead the dead body of my character in the film comes to the village. That was a symbolic cut. So that was the second reason”.

He further mentioned, “And the third reason, Rameshji felt that killing a 16-17-year-old child would look very cruel. So this was Rameshji's thought, not the censor's. At that time, as an actor, I felt very bad. That I have such a good scene, an individual scene, with Gabbar, and that has been cut. I was very sad about this, which any actor would feel. But today, when I am a director, I am a filmmaker myself, I look at that thing and appreciate it. Whatever Rameshji did, he did it right”.

In ‘Sholay’, Sachin’s character gets killed by Gabbar, essayed by Amjad Khan, in the film. The film is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Friday.

--IANS

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