Sholay released fifty years ago remains the biggest BLOCKBUSTER that India has ever seen and there is a good chance the film will probably hold this title forever as nothing has really come close and it can be said with almost total confidence that nothing will ever come close. There are adjectives like phenomenal and extraordinary used today for many films like Bahubali 2, Gadar 2, Jawan, Stree 2, Pushpa 2 and more so when they are used for these films then Sholay cant really be described in words as its far bigger. On top many films today have manufactured collections to reach the levels which they finally reach.

 

 

Till today there remains a huge misconception that Sholay did not open well and the film picked up and this is in the industry also but nothing can be further from the truth. The film broke all the records on release with higher admission rates (Bombay) than normal (this used to happen even then) in almost every cinema it was released.

 

 

The best way to explain this misconception is NOISE. Its something much that much of the industry will understand today as today when a film releases there is a lot of NOISE which can positive or negative but may not be same as the result of the film. This would have been the same case with Sholay as no way is the initial anything short of bumper. The same critic community that today probably raves about the film had bummed the film but this is how public changes the opinion of a minority who had no clue and probably still does not.

 

 

The film was first released in Bombay and Ahmedabad so the reaction of the public may not have been the jump out of seats type as in both centres it was the social films and dramas which were more liked rather than action films especially dacait action films. The earlier dacait film Mera Gaon Mera Desh which was a huge BLOCKBUSTER and very similar to Sholay had come to Bombay circuit after it had already emerged a huge BLOCKBUSTER in Delhi / UP.

 

 

It was the case with all dacait films as Mera Gaon Mera Desh was the only dacait film before Sholay to emerge a big blockbuster in Mumbai but still collections remained less than a Haathi Mera Saathi the other big blockbuster released in the same year though they were far ahead in Delhi. Basically Sholay was huge HIT from the first show but the NOISE around the film within the industry and trade probably pertubed the makers as the cost of the film was more than double of anything released before.

 

 

The film opened in East Punjab a week later on 21st August 1975 and here the response was wild and it would have been clear that film would create history as Delhi / UP and the Central markets and Bihar had a tendency for similar results. In those days even West Bengal was similar to the Northern and Central circuits. It opened in these circuits on 3rd October 1975 and the response was exactly as in East Punjab.

 

 

The film eventually went on to do a GOLDEN JUBILEE (50 weeks consecutive run) in 28 cinemas and in those days if a film did SILVER JUBILEE (25 weeks consecutive run) in 10 cinemas it would be a BLOCKBUSTER film. Sholay was not just about what it did in those first fifty weeks as it remained a theatricial beast for the next two decades also until the repeat run business slowly died due to satellite television and single screens shut up shop as multiplexes came along. The film eventually trebled the business it had done in the first year. The list of the Golden Jubilee cinemas for Sholay are as follows.

 

1. Minerva - Bombay

2. Roopali - Ahmedabad

3. Alankar - Baroda

4. Galaxy - Rajkot

5. Apollo - Pune

6. Usha - Kolhapur

7. Meena - Sholapur

8. Rex - Belgaum

9. Ajanta - Hubli

10. Plaza - Delhi

11. Novelty - Delhi

12. Sundar - Kanpur

13. Leela - Lucknow

14. Raghunath - Agra

15. Anand - Varanasi

16. Gautam - Allahabad

17. Menka - Meerut

18. Krishna - Gorakhpur

19. Raj - Amritsar

20. Panchsheel - Nagpur

21. Manek - Akola

22. Krishna - Bhopal

23. Regal - Ujjain

24. Jyoti - Calcutta

25. Ramakrishna - Hyderabad

26. Santosh - Bangalore

27. Satyam - Madras

28. Delite - Coimbatore

 

 

The opening collections of Sholay were as follows and records were SMASHED wherever it opened unlike what is said in the media and much of the industry believes.

 

 

Mumbai (Released 15th August 1975)

Minerva - 7,470 (HF)

New Excelsior - 7,992 (HF)

Geeta - 5,285 (HF)

Ganesh - 4,828 (HF)

Deepak - 4,640 (HF)

Sharda - 4,970 (HF)

Badal - 6,207 (HF)

Aurora - 4,746 (HF)

Neptune - 6,252 (HF)

Kala Mandir - 7,524 (HF)

Milan - 4,873 (HF)

Chandan - 4,561 (HF)

Bahar - 4,628 (HF)

Oscar - 4,949 (HF)

Sangam - 4,798 (HF)

Hanjer - 5,730 (HF)

Samrat - 7,587 (HF)

New Era - 4,621 (HF)

Sona - 4,930 (HF)

Jaya - 4,347 (HF)

Akash - 3,999 (HF)

Kalpana - 5,483 (HF)

Basant - 5,564 (HF)

Sahakar - 5,251 (HF)

Shreyas - 6,635 (HF)

Odeon - 5,730 (HF)

Anand - 5,844 (HF)

Vandana - 5,690 (HF)

New Prakash - 3,906 (HF)

Sapna - 3,941 (HF)

Prabhat - 3,830 (HF)

Haseen - 5,662 (HF)

 

TOTAL -  1,73,473 (All 32 Cinemas Housefull). The film smashed the record of Dost (1974) which had collected 1.41 lakhs on day one

 

 

Ahmedabad (Released 15th August 1975)

Rupali - 7,121 (HF)

Anupam - 6,855 (HF)

Milan - 5,715 (HF)

Mohan - 4,673 (HF)

Priya - 5,072 (HF)

Sapna - 3,923 (HF)

Lalit Mahal - 3,487 (HF)

Drive In - 7,465 

 

TOTAL - 44,311 (7 out of 8 theatres Housefull). The film beat the record of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) which had collected 43,565.

 

 

East Punjab (Released 22nd August 1975)

Jyoti Jalandhar - 9,389 (Over Capacity)

Gagan Amritsar - 12,190  (Over Capacity)

Aarti Ludhiana - 10,978 (Over Capacity)

Swarn Jammu - 6,077 (Over Capacity)

Jagat Chandigarh - 5,596 (HF)

Malwa Patiala - 5,743 (Over Capacity)

Hari Ambala - 5,417  (Over Capacity)

Pushpa Hissar - 4,452 (Over Capacity)

KC Karnal - 4,987 (HF)

 

TOTAL - 64,829 (Second to Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) but that film released on 12 theatres compared to the 9 of Sholay. That film had collected 71,987 on day one.)

 

 

Mysore (Released 22nd August 1975)

Kapali Bangalore - 8,856 (HF)

Apsara Bngalore - 6,453 (HF)

Nandi Bangalore - 4,714 (HF)

Nalanda Bangalore - 4,235 (HF) 

Lavanya Bangalore - 3,765 (HF)

Galaxy Bangalore - 5,003 (HF)

Geethanjali Bangalore- 3,425  

Sujatha Bangalore - 4,249 (HF)

Govardhan Bangalore - 3,089 

Sangeet Bangalore - 1,662 (HF) Morning shows only

 

TOTAL - 45,451 (Beat the record of Dharmatma (1975) which had collected 37,564 on day one)

 

 

The film then opened in Delhi /UP,  CP CI Raj, Nizam / Andhra and East India on 3rd October 1975 to a similar bumper response breaking all opening day records in all these circuits. Again like East Punjab, many theatres in UP, Bihar and West Bengal went over capacity from first day.