Sholay 1975
Producer G.P Sippy and Ramesh Sippy dreamed big, and they had the courage to follow their instincts. Money, market, box-office - all these commercial considerations became, in the final analysis, secondary. The prime motive was to make a mega movie, the like of which had never been seen before on the Indian screen. Ramanagaram was a vast emptiness, a blank canvas waiting to be fashioned into fantasy. A crew of nearly a hundred people worked round the clock to construct an entire village.
Ramanagaram, an hour's drive from Bangalore, has a varied topography. Building-sized black boulders arch toward the sky. Small knolls seque into grassy flatlands. It is austere but textured. Ramesh loved it. He flew in the next day with his cinematographer, Dwarka Divecha, and two assistants from the production and direction departments. 'It captured my imagination,' he says. 'I was facinated.' Divecha cast his eagle eye on the landscape, and confirmed his decision.
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