Is ‘Endhiran’ the successor of ‘Sholay’?

August and September are exiting months at the movies. Bollywood’s cult film ‘Sholay’, turned 35 years on Sunday. ‘Endhiran’, India’s most expensive and ambitious bilingual flick is expected to release in the third week of September.

South superstar Rajnikanth says ‘Endhiran’, or ‘Robot’ (the Hindi version) is the first Indian film of its type and that every aspect of it is comparable to cult Hindi movie ‘Sholay’.

Released on August 15, 1975, ‘Sholay’s’ cast included some of Bollywood’s best-known names at the time – Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, upcoming star Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and the inimitable Amjad Khan.

In the initial days following its release, ‘Sholay’ was pegged as a Box Office disaster. What saved the film was word-of-mouth, which convinced the audience to give the film a second chance. The ‘second chance’ went on to create history. No one really explains the phenomenon of ‘word-of-mouth’ in 1975 – we are talking pre-Twitter and digital media days!

While Sholay is a multi-star film and cannot be credited to anyone actor, Rajnikant has ruled the screen with his incredible stunts and unique style.

‘Around Rs.160 crore has been invested to make Robot film. It’s fantastic; technical excellence is there. ‘Sholay’ made history not because of the money or budget involved, not because it was a multi-starrer, not because of the technicalities, but because of its subject. The way Salim-Javed had written it, the way Ramesh Sippy directed the film, the way human emotions were created, the character Veeru, Jay, Basanti…

‘Like ‘Sholay’, in ‘Robot’ too there is an excellent storyline, excellent character sketches. This is the first Indian story of its type. It’s science fiction and excellently made,’ Rajnikanth told reporters at the music release of Robot Hindi Version in Mumbai