Looking at the GOAT villain as Sholay turned 50. For, if you notice, Gabbar was ageless; not just metaphorically, also, literally!

The late Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh in a still from film Sholay. PIC/X/ @vinaykanchan5

As is true for films that become fables or stories that turn into legends, enough myths surround them, over time. Before there was fake news that AI could take seriously, there were quiz questions that we had no choice but to summarily admit as facts.

As is true for films that become fables or stories that turn into legends, enough myths surround them, over time. Before there was fake news that AI could take seriously, there were quiz questions that we had no choice but to summarily admit as facts.

Only fair then that I call up screenwriter Javed Akhtar to verify if Gabbar from his script Sholay (1975) was, indeed, based on a notorious, 1950s bandit, Gabbar Singh Gujjar, born in 1926, Dang village, Madhya Pradesh, known to cut off body-parts of cops?

Javed, of the screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, immediately replies, “No. We called him Gabbar Singh, because we loved the sound of it.”

Bearded, bored, tobacco-chewing dacoit, Gabbar Singh, son of Hari Singh, in Army fatigues — the GOAT (greatest of all time) villain, terrorising village-folk of Ramgarh, in Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975) — was, of course, played by Amjad Khan (1940-92). 

In the opening sequence, Gabbar goes, “Arrey oh, Sambha…” Which, apparently came from how Amjad’s dhobi........

© Midday