Toronto: As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will host a gala premiere for a restored version of the Indian cinematic epic, Sholay, which was released in 1975, the year the festival started.
With their anniversaries coinciding, it was no surprise that TIFF sought out a newly restored version of Sholay for a gala screening during the festival. Sholay is one of two blockbuster classics from 1975 featured at TIFF this year; the other being Jaws, director Steven Speilberg’s breakthrough vehicle.
The screening of the film directed by Ramesh Sippy is scheduled for four hours on September 6, and the additional hour includes scenes deleted from the theatrical release along with the original ending, and given the length, an intermission.
“Because the anniversaries lined up, we’re honoured to share the organisation’s birthday with a film of this magnitude,” TIFF’s director of programming Robyn Citizen told the Hindustan Times.
The screening will be at TIFF’s premier venue, Roy Thomson Hall. “We felt like we needed to put something like this in a venue of a proper scale. So, it’s a gala and it’s in our biggest venue,” Citizen said.
The screening came about as TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey, a champion of Indian cinema, was informed about the restoration by the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation, which described the venue for the screening as “befitting the legendary status of the epic film”.
The digital 4k restoration came about due to collaboration between the Foundation and Sippy Films Pvt Ltd. “Audiences will have the unique opportunity to see the original ending and previously deleted scenes that were not part of the widely distributed theatrical cut, offering a fresh perspective on a cinematic masterpiece,” the Foundation said, in a statement.
“Despite the fact that we could not use the original camera negative and that not a single 70mm print survives, we have left no stone unturned to ensure that this historic film has not only been beautifully restored, but that the restored version will have the original ending and some never-before-seen deleted scenes. I can’t wait to watch the film at the gala premiere in Toronto,” the Foundation’s director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur said.
Visual and audio elements were recovered from a Mumbai warehouse and from the United Kingdom, before the “meticulously restored version” came alive at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna. That complex process took nearly three years after Sippy Films’ producer Shahzad Sippy initiated discussions with the Foundation. He said, “I can’t wait for Sholay to begin its new lease of life.”
The film’s stars may be unable to attend the premiere at TIFF, though their Amitabh Bachchan’s son Abhishek and Dharmendra’s son Bobby Deol are expected to be present.
The festival runs from September 4 to 14.