Amitabh Bachchan recalls how Ramesh Sippy waited three years to get a shot in Sholay

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who portrayed the iconic character of Jai in Ramesh Sippy’s cult classic Sholay, on Thursday recalled the time when the ace director waited 3 years to get the “perfect light” for a particular sequence. [caption id=“attachment_3327812” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Amitabh Bachchan as Jai in Sholay[/caption] Addressing the audience at the launch event of the Ramesh Sippy Academy of Cinema & Entertainment, he said, “I wonder if you remember a scene in Sholay where Jaya (Bachchan) had to light a lamp in the corridor and I am sitting in the outhouse playing the mouth organ. There was a particular kind of lighting that was required for the shot. Our Director of Photography Mr Divecha was keen to take the shot at the time of sunset. You would not believe that Rameshji spent almost three years before we finally got that shot.” “Every time we would go to enact that sequence, something would not be right with the lighting. And Rameshji said ‘until we get a correct light, we are not going to shoot this’. We waited for three years for one flash of a shot for the film,” the 73-year-old actor added. The veteran filmmaker of Sholay has ventured into education sector with a film school that has also tied up with Mumbai University, where the students will be receiving complete knowledge and graduating with a degree in various aspects of film production and entertainment. Praising the director-cum-producer, Amitabh said, “Rameshji is a great motivator, a wonderful technician, a teacher who takes care of his artists on the set. Before enacting a sequence, he sits and talks with the actor. He discusses and takes the view of an actor. He has the all-wonderful qualities, which are required to make better cinema. I wish all the very best to him for this initiative. It will be going a long way. The institute is going to be an important element of cinema in our country.”