IMAGE: A scene from Sholay.
Two movies from across the world will be honoured at the Toronto International Film Festival in September: Steven Spielberg’s Jaws about a shark which terrorises swimmers, and the other is Ramesh Sippy’s classic Sholay, where Gabbar Singh terrorises a village.
Confirming the honour, Javed Akhtar, who co-wrote Sholay with Salim Khan, tells Subhash K Jha, “You have discovered quite an interesting point of similarity between the two films: The shark and Gabbar. Indeed, Sholay joins Spielberg’s Jaws at the Toronto film festival next month, to be honoured for completing 50 years.”
“Both are iconic films, and I am proud to be associated with one of them. By the way, my wife (Shabana Azmi) worked with Spielberg last year on a series (Halo).”
IMAGE: A scene from Jaws.
While Sholay released on August 15, 1975, Jaws opened on June 20, 1975.
Both were raging successes and are acknowledged among the most influential films of all time.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
