Leading Hindi film critic and author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic, Anupama Chopra, feels the film continues to resonate because of its great story, charismatic characters and catchy songs. “It has a timeless quality and reveals something new every time you watch it – every character gets a moment in the sun. Even the peripheral characters are memorable, like Basanti’s damn horse, Dhanno,” she says.

The film had all-star credentials, with script-writing dream team Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar (fathers of contemporary Bollywood superstars Salman Khan and Farhan Akhtar) and a cast including the biggest actors of the day (Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Hema Malini) as well as rising star Amitabh Bhachan – aka The Big B, who in 2015 is still going strong at age 72 and the most celebrated icon in Bollywood.

Yet during its opening weeks, the big-budget blockbuster struggled so much that Sholay’s cast and crew were ready to reshoot the ending because of negative audience reactions. “It started out as a flop. The critics were brutal, as were the trade magazines. It was called a dying ember and too expensive… [they said] that a competent director could have done better with fewer funds,” says Chopra.