Varma's Sholay remake court case settled

MUMBAI: Producer – director Ram Gopal Varma has finally decided to change the name of his forthcoming film, which is the re-make of Ramesh Sippy’s classic – Sholay.

As has already been reported by Businessofcinema.com earlier this month, Varma has now changed the title of his remake from Ram Gopal Varma Ke Sholay to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Varma has been fighting a case in the high court as Sholay producer G P Sippy’s grandson Sasha Sippy filed a lawsuit and sought an interim injunction from the Delhi High Court to Varma and K Sera Sera against the use of the names Sholay, Gabbar Singh and Basanti in their movie.

At the case’s hearing today (16 July) Varma’s lawyer informed the court that the director had decided to rename his film to Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag, which was approved the the court.< Page Break >

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag stars Amitabh Bachchan as Baban Singh (original Gabbar Singh played by Amjad Khan), Ajay Devgan as Virendra Chavan (original Veeru played by Dharmendra), Nisha Kothari as Ghungroo (original Basanti played by Hema Malini), Sushmita Sen as Devi (original Radha played by Jaya Bhaduri) and Prashant Raj Sachdev as Jai Ranade (original Jai played by Amitabh Bachchan). The names of characters from the original film like Soorma Bhopali and Sambha have been changed to Rambhabhai and Tambhe respectively.

The court also gave permission to Sippy Films Pvt Ltd and Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, owned by Sascha Sippy and Shan Uttam Singh respectively, “to push for its remaining claims, if any, after watching the film’s remake.”