KBC 13: Amitabh Bachchan reveals Sholay’s ending almost changed after failed first-day expectations

The upcoming episode Shaandaar Shukravaar (Friday Special) of Kaun Banega Crorepati 13 will feature Hema Malini and director Ramesh Sippy, leading to a mini Sholay reunion. In the episode, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema and Ramesh will share anecdotes from the film. They will also be joined by Dharmendra via video call. 

A new promo from the show has been released in which Amitabh and Hema revealed that the opening day reception led to the team reconsidering the fate of Amitabh’s character in Sholay. In the film, he plays Jai, who dies in the fight against Gabbar. 

In the promo, Hema recalled, “Main shooting kar rahi thi Raj Kamal mein and he (Ramesh) to see me and I was very excited ki kya hua kya hua. So when he came inhone aise sir hilaya (shaking his head). I asked ki What happened? Nahi bilkul pasand nahi kiya (No one like it?). I was shocked.” 

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Amitabh then continued the story. “I will tell you what happened after that. We came to a conclusion that widow remarriage is a very emotional topic and after the death of my character in the film, Jaya’s character became a widow again. We thought that we should change this in the film. We decided that my character will be brought back in the film. The Bangalore distributor of the film said that we can travel down, reshoot that bit on Saturday and on Sunday we will release the new version. But Ramesh suggested waiting till Monday and then on that day, history was created,” he said in Hindi.  

Amitabh and Hema have shared the screen in numerous hit films. Besides Sholay, they have also worked together in Satte Pe Satta, Naseeb, Nastik, and Baghban. They also came together for Shah Rukh Khan’s movie, Veer Zaara. Currently, Hema is focusing on her political career. However, she made her comeback in 2020 with Shimla Mirch. 

Read More: Hema Malini says she did not get to spend enough time with Dharmendra after marriage but never complained

Apart from Kaun Banega Crorepati, Amitabh has several films in the pipeline, including Brahmastra with Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, Mayday directed by Ajay Devgn, and The Intern remake with Deepika Padukone, among others.