'Sholay' Ticket From 1975 Goes Viral, You Will Be Shocked To Know The Price
A 50-year-old 'Sholay' ticket has gone viral, showing prices from Rs 1.50 to Rs 3 . Directed by Ramesh Sippy, 'Sholay' became a cult classic despite poor initial reviews
Sholay, released in 1975 under the direction of Ramesh Sippy, is an evergreen film. The epic storyline, the blockbuster songs and the indelible dialogues of this film made years ago continue to bring a smile to people’s faces. Several revenge dramas have been released in the history of Bollywood, but none like Sholay. As the film completes 50 years this year, let’s go down memory lane to 1975.
Cinemas Empty At The Time Of Release
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Whenever there is talk of cult classic films, this multi-starrer film is placed at the top, with characters, dialogues and songs remembered by people even after five decades. But the scene was completely different at the time of its release. When the film was released, the cinemas were completely empty. The makers were upset as the critics had declared it a flop.
The film’s fortunes picked up when songs like Koi Haseena Jab Rooth Jati Hai and Jab Tak Hai Jaan became popular three days after the film’s release. It became the first multi-starrer film to break all records. The situation was such that people used to stand in line for hours to buy tickets for the film.
The Sholay Ticket
Years later, a ticket stub from the movie is going viral and you will be shocked to know the price of a movie ticket in those days.
In 1975, the ticket prices of lower stall, middle stall and balcony in theatres used to be very low. Today, even a bottle of water cannot be bought for that amount. The ticket prices for Sholay were as follows:
Lower stall — Rs 1.50 to Rs 2
Middle stall — Rs 2.50
Balcony — Rs 3
What Were The Actors Paid?
Sholay was made at a budget of Rs 3 crore. Of this, Rs 20 lakh was spent by Sippy on casting. If media reports are to be believed, Dharmendra was paid Rs 1.5 lakh for the character of ‘Veeru’, Sanjeev Kumar got Rs 1.25 lakh for playing the role of ‘Thakur Baldev Singh’ and Amitabh Bachchan was paid only Rs 1 lakh to play ‘Jai’.
Hema Malini brought life to the film by playing the role of ‘Basanti’, but was paid only Rs 75,000. Amjad Khan, who played the iconic ‘Gabbar Singh’, got even lesser than Hema Malini. He got only Rs 50,000 for this iconic role. Jaya Bhaduri got Rs 35,000 for playing the role of ‘Radha’. Asrani was paid Rs 15,000, Viju received Rs 10,000 and Mac Mohan got Rs 12,000.
Earning Rs 35 crore, the film became the highest-grossing movie of 1975. Sholay ran continuously in theatres for five years. It ran for about 286 weeks in Mumbai’s Minerva theatre, which is a record.
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