His father, Amjad Khan, immortalised the role of Gabbar Singh in Sholay. But Shadaab Khan, who starred as a leading man opposite Rani Mukherjee in Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat, felt way back in 2006 that Ram Gopal Verma shouldn’t try to remake the film.
Said Shadaab, “I think remaking Sholay is a very bad idea. No matter how good a job Ram Gopal Varma does, he won’t be able to make a film better than the original. Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay was magical. You can’t get one legend (Amitabh Bachchan) to play the role of another legend. It’s like getting Kishore Kumar to sing a song sung by Mohd Rafi.”
Shadaab rightly felt father’s portrayal of Gabbar is entrenched in the audience’s memory. “Both Bachchan Saab and my dad have very strong images. It won’t work. The image of my dad as Gabbar is too strong. Anything Mr. Verma does will now only look like a caricature. No matter how hard Bachchan Saab tries, he won’t be able to do better than my dad’s Gabbar.”
Shadaab revealed his father’s state of mind when he portrayed Gabbar. “When my dad took on the role, he had his back against the wall. He had no money in his pocket at a time when his father (actor Jayant) was terminally ill and I was just born. My father couldn’t come to the hospital to fetch me and my mother because he had no money to pay for her discharge. On the sets of my dad’s first film, Hindustan Ki Kasam, the director Chetan Anand finally gave my dad the Rs 500 required for her discharge. That’s how desperate he was.”
Shadaab was bang-on when he stated the difference between the two Gabbars. “My dad put everything into Sholay. But for Bachchan Saab, Sholay is just one more film. I can’t see him putting in the same intensity in this Sholay. In Ramesh Sippy’s film everyone had a point to prove. Here no one has any point to prove.”
Shadab proved to be prophetic. Ram Gopal Varma’s version of Sholay was a disaster. Bachchan Saab as Gabbar (they had to rename him Babban for copyright reasons) failed to make a mark. Mr. Bachchan invests the villain’s part with loads of nuanced diabolism, wacky humour and seemingly casual one-liners. Sanjeev Kumar’s chopped hand from Sholay becomes Mohanlal’s severed fingers in Aag. The silently weeping widow Radha from Sholay is transformed into a mutedly militant medico with not even a medical kit by her side to prove her sincerity towards her profession. And the post-Holi dacoit’s attack on Sholay becomes a Diwali mayhem in Aag. Ramesh Sippy was aghast. “Ramuji ko main hi mila tha iss kaand ke liye?”
