The greatest and biggest motion picture in the history of Indian cinema Sholay will hit 43 years tomorrow on Independence Day. Sholay probably has some competition now in the form of Bahubali - The Conclusion considering what that film has done across India and after on television. 

 

 

The difference is that Bahubali - The Conclusion had to be dubbed in Hindi to become so huge in the Hindi markets but Sholay smashed records of local films in South India in its original Hindi language format which is just insane. Also the jury is still out that will Bahubali - The Conclusion will be relevent in 20 years or 40 years time.

 

 

By relevant we dont mean that some people talking about the film or writing about it because this is even done with films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Parinda, Satya, Dil Chahta Hai, etc which were irrelevant when released for most of the country and ditto today. To be actually relevant you have to be watched and have a big audience and it remains to be seen what happens to Bahubali - The Conclusion in the time to come. At the moment with more than a year gone after release its a rage with huge audiences whenever it comes on television but that may not be the case in 10, 20 or 40 years time on the formats available for viewing at that time.

 

 

Sholay released to an unprecedented response though that is not what is generally believed as at the time their were a couple of trade magazines and basically these people thought it was a bad film so spread the word that it opened poorly when the collections told a completely different story with all records smashed. It was a bit like saying that Bahubali - The Conclusion has opened poorly last year but at that time they could actually get away with it because they actually had some takers in the industry and the media in general. In todays digital world this can never happen. It is hard to judge the opening compared to films today as numbers are today are far greater but there probably has not been many openings that have filled out every seat on day one (be it the August day ones in some circuits or October day ones in other places) barring maybe 50-60 seats. Even these missing ones will be more than compensated by so many centers going over capacity. So all in all the opening day would have easily been over 100% but it can only happen in India that a 110% or even 120% plus initial is called a poor opening.

 

 

The film opened on 40 cinemas in Mumbai and Ahmedabad on 15th August 1975 and barring the Drive In cinema in Ahmedabad every cinema recorded housefull collections and both cities saw the highest collections ever. These cities had records by socials like Dost (1974) and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) and action films were not the best bets at the time but Sholay smashed records in Mumbai by a distance and Ahmedabad it got past Roti Kapada Aur Makaan despite releasing on one theater less.

 

 

A week later the film opened in East Punjab and in certain mass markets like East Punjab, UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Bihar there was a tradition for extra seats when a film was really accepted and got going but with a Dharmendra starrer who was at an unimaginable level at the box office at that time the extra seats came out on release. The film did not officially beat the record of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan in East Punjab on day one as it was on less theaters but unofficially it would have as the distributor gave a higher first week share than Roti Kapada Aur Makaan despite lower collections as the over capacity theaters had probably more than covered the ground.

 

 

It was also released in Mysore and this was market was not going to be the strongest for an action dacait film as the ones before had not set this circuit on fire but Sholay easily smashed the record collections of Dharmatma and Deewaar which both had collected 37,000 apprx in early 1975.

 

 

The first day figures of Sholay in circuits where it was released in August 1975 are as follows.

 

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.