Sholay's climax was changed due to the 1975 Emergency?

Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra starrer Sholay is definitely one of the most iconic films of Bollywood. Apart from the blockbuster songs and dialogues, the amazing camaraderie between the lead stars was the highlight of this cult film. But did you know, the climax of Sholay was changed at the last moment and the censor board was the reason behind this? In the last scene, we see Sanjeev Kumar aka Thakur tries to kill Amjad Khan aka Gabbar with his feet but the police arrives and remind him that only law has the right to punish him.So, the team had to go back to Bangalore, where the sets had been erected. Sanjeev Kumar was in Russia for a film festival at the time, and he had to call him back. A police officer was shown who comes in the end and point out how Thakur himself being an ex-policemen, can take the law into his own hands.

Interestingly, in the original climax, the makers had shot Thakur killing Gabbar as it gives the poetic justice but the censor board didn’t allow it and Ramesh Sippy had to shot the new climax. As per the Indian Express report, “Sippy’s original shows the Thakur killing Gabbar by kicking him into a nail stuck on the same pillars that Gabbar had tied him to when he chopped his hands off. After he kills Gabbar, he falls down with a vacant look and Veeru slowly walks up to him and drapes his shawl on him. The music reaches a melodramatic crescendo as Veeru and Thakur hug each other and cry,” the paper said.

“The release of Sholay coincided with the declaration of Emergency, a period marked by extreme censorship. The censor board was worried that depicting a former police officer as a vigilante would be dangerous in the context of the Emergency and demanded a change in the climax in the interests of the rule of law.” Interestingly, Sholay had clashed with Jai Santoshi Maa at the box office and both films performed extremely well at the ticket windows.

Sanjeev Kumar