Producers Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Mahesh Pandey are planning another remake of the 1970s Hindi film classic Sholay, albeit in the Bhojpuri language.
The film, titled Gabbar Singh and produced under the banner of Balaji Telefilms and Shri Siddhivinayak Media Entertainment, will be directed by Mahesh Pandey. The film is presented by Jeetendra.
Says Pandey, “Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay was told from the point of view of the Thakur. However, our story will be told from Gabbar Singh’s perspective. It will be a costly film, budgeted around Rs 150 million to 200 million (Rs 1.5 to 2 crore). We have a train sequence with fights, which will be shot with a five camera set-up and on actual locales for two to three days. I am commencing the film from 5 February and will shoot non-stop for a month in Banares and areas surrounding Allahabad, the birthplace of Amitabh Bachchan.”
About the cast, Pandey says, “We have used the same names as in the original. In our film, however, Gabbar Singh is the hero and the villain of the film. We will be finalising the actor playing Gabbar within a week. Jeetendra will play Thakur, Dineshlal Yadav ‘Nirahua” plays Veeru, Sikandar Kharbanda will play Jay, Mona Thiba will be Basanti, Kalpana will play Radha, Brajesh Tripathi will be Ramlal, while lyricist Vinay Bihari will play Soorma Bihari (instead of the original Soorma Bhopali). I have just shot some ‘kumbh mela’ sequences for the film and am on my way back to Mumbai.”
