'India's tryst with its movies has been long and beautiful'

As her father Amitabh Bachchan's iconic film, 'Sholay', turned 45 on August 15, Shweta Bachchan posted a throwback picture from the sets. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, the revenge saga featured Amitabh, Dharmendra, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachchan. All the lead male actors can be seen in the on-set image shared by Shweta Bachchan.

"India's tryst with its movies has been a long and beautiful one. What a perfect day to

celebrate both (thank you Sheena for this) and as they say in

the movie business - the show must go on," Shweta captioned the image.

In his recent interview, director Ramesh recounted working on the film.

"The basic idea was about two young guys (Jai and Veeru) on the run, their love for adventure and how they get involved in this emotional story of Thakur. All the characters came into place one-by-one.

It took a life of its own as we discussed and moved further in the script. The journey of creating 'Sholay', including scripting and casting, took a little over two years," said Ramesh.

The shoot had started on October 3, 1973 and the film hit the theatres on August 15, 1975.

The veteran director added, "We felt that we were making a damn good film, but certainly not that 45 years later we would be talking about it. Everyone put their best foot forward. But we did not expect this much (love and following). It has become a phenomenon."

Amitabh and Dharmendra, who essayed the roles of young men hired by an ex-cop to save his villagers, initially wanted to play the iconic villain, Gabbar. However, the role eventually went to Amjad Khan.