Sholay Final Cut Box Office Collection: Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra's Film Earns Rs 2 Crore In One Week

Ramesh Sippy's Sholay (1975), with its original ending, was re-released in cinemas in India on December 12, across 1,500 screens. Titled Sholay: The Final Cut, the 4K restored edition of the cult classic included deleted scenes and the original ending in which Thakur kills Gabbar. Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra starrer was re-released to mark the 50th anniversary of the film, in collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), which restored the film’s original 70mm product to 4K version, further amplified by Dolby 5.1 sound. The runtime with the original version was 209.05 minutes.

Sholay: The Final Cut box office collection

According to Sacnilk, the film opened at the box office with Rs 30 lakh, and witnessed a rise on Day 2, earning Rs 50 lakh, followed by a further boost on Day 3, collecting Rs 60 lakh. On Day 4, it slowed down, raking in Rs 15 lakh and remained consistent till Day 7. The total collection of Sholay: The Final Cut stands at Rs 2 crore in seven days.

What is in the original version of Sholay?

In the original version of the film, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) is killed by Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) with a spiked shoe, but the Censor Board didn't allow that, citing it's "too violent" as it was released in theatres during the Emergency. Sippy had to re-shoot its ending at the last minute, before its theatrical release.

The final version shows Gabbar being arrested by the police.

Earlier, Shehzad Sippy, the nephew of Ramesh Sippy, told PTI, "In 1975, there was Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, there were some three to four scenes that were not passed by the censor board at that time, including the ending, where Gabbar Singh is killed."

He added, "As in the movie, Thakur is a citizen then and no longer a police officer; they did not want a private citizen to take the law into their own hands during that climate of the country."