Editing Sholay (section)

=== Development ===
The screenwriter pair [[Salim–Javed]], consisting of [[Salim Khan]] and [[Javed Akhtar]], began narrating the idea for ''Sholay'' as a four-line snippet to filmmakers in 1973.<ref name="open" />{{sfn|Chopra|2000|pp=22–28}} The idea was rejected by two producer/director teams, including directors [[Manmohan Desai]] and [[Prakash Mehra]].{{sfn|Chopra|2000|pp=22–28}} About six months after the release of ''[[Zanjeer (1973 film)|Zanjeer]]'' (1973),{{efn|name=Zanjeer|Salim-Javed won their first [[Filmfare Awards]] for ''Zanjeer'': [[Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay]] and [[Filmfare Award for Best Story|Best Story]] in [[21st Filmfare Awards|1974]].}} Salim-Javed contacted [[G. P. Sippy]] and his son [[Ramesh Sippy]],<ref name="open" /> and narrated the four-line snippet to them.{{sfn|Chopra|2000|pp=22–28}} Ramesh Sippy liked the concept of ''Sholay'' and hired them to develop it. The original idea of the film involved an army officer who decided to hire two ex-soldiers to avenge the murder of his family. The army officer was later changed to a policeman because Sippy felt that it would be difficult to get permission to shoot scenes depicting army activities. Salim-Javed completed the script in one month, incorporating names and personality traits of their friends and acquaintances.{{sfn|Chopra|2000|pp=22–28}} The film's script and dialogues are in [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]];<ref name="Cinar" /> Salim-Javed wrote the dialogues in [[Urdu script]], which was then transcribed by an assistant into [[Devanagari]] script so that Hindi readers could read the Urdu dialogues.<ref name="Akhtar" />

The film's plot was loosely styled after [[Akira Kurosawa]]'s 1954 [[samurai cinema]] film, ''[[Seven Samurai]]''.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="rediff1" /> ''Sholay'' is a defining example of the [[Dacoit Western]] film, combining the conventions of Indian [[dacoit film]]s, especially [[Mehboob Khan]]'s ''[[Mother India]]'' (1957) and the [[Dilip Kumar]] and [[Nitin Bose]] film ''[[Gunga Jumna]]'' (1961),<ref name="Teo" /> with that of [[Western (genre)|Westerns]],<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="rediff1" /> especially [[Sergio Leone]]'s [[Spaghetti Western]]s such as ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'' (1968) as well as ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' (1960).<ref name="rediff1" /> It also has some plot elements borrowed from the Indian films ''[[Mera Gaon Mera Desh]]'' (1971) and ''[[Khote Sikkay]]'' (1973).{{sfn|Chopra|2000|pp=22–28}} A scene depicting an attempted train robbery was inspired by a similar scene in ''Gunga Jumna'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Tapan K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0d6GAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |title=Bollywood Baddies: Villains, Vamps and Henchmen in Hindi Cinema |date=2013 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|SAGE Publications]] |isbn=9788132113263 |page=55 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130151204/https://books.google.com/books?id=0d6GAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |archive-date=30 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> and has also been compared to a similar scene in ''[[North West Frontier (film)|North West Frontier]]'' (1959).{{sfn|Varma|2010|pp=159–160}} A scene showing the massacre of Thakur's family has been compared with the massacre of the McBain family in ''Once Upon a Time in the West''.{{sfn|Heide|2002|p=52}} ''Sholay'' may have also been influenced by [[Sam Peckinpah]]'s Westerns, such as ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1969) and ''[[Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid]]'' (1973), and [[George Roy Hill]]'s ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'' (1969).<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 June 2009 |title=Bollywood continues to lift from Hollywood scripts |url=http://www.sify.com/movies/bollywood-continues-to-lift-from-hollywood-scripts-news-bollywood-kkfrNmejhbc.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205195840/http://sify.com/movies/bollywood-continues-to-lift-from-hollywood-scripts-news-bollywood-kkfrNmejhbc.html |archive-date=5 December 2010 |access-date=22 December 2010 |website=[[Sify]]}}</ref>

The character [[Gabbar Singh (character)|Gabbar Singh]] was modelled on a real-life dacoit [[Gabbar Singh Gujjar]] who had menaced the villages around [[Gwalior]] in the 1950s. Any policeman captured by Gujjar had his ears and nose cut off, and was released as a warning to other policemen.{{sfn|Khan|1981|pp=88–89, 98}}{{sfn|Chopra|2000|p=26}} The fictional Gabbar was also influenced by larger-than-life characters in Pakistani author [[Ibn-e-Safi]]'s [[Urdu literature|Urdu novels]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 July 2011 |title=Urdu pulp fiction: Where Gabbar Singh and Mogambo came from |work=[[Daily News and Analysis]] |url=https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/review-urdu-pulp-fiction-where-gabbar-singh-and-mogambo-came-from-1564148 |access-date=3 June 2019 |archive-date=3 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603155106/https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/review-urdu-pulp-fiction-where-gabbar-singh-and-mogambo-came-from-1564148 |url-status=live }}</ref> Dilip Kumar's dacoit character Gunga from the film ''Gunga Jumna'' who speaks with a similar mixed [[Kauravi dialect|Khariboli]] and [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]] dialect,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chopra |first=Anupama |date=11 August 2015 |title=Shatrughan Sinha as Jai, Pran as Thakur and Danny as Gabbar? What 'Sholay' could have been |url=https://scroll.in/article/745687/shatrughan-sinha-as-jai-pran-as-thakur-and-danny-as-gabbar-what-sholay-could-have-been |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108092131/http://scroll.in/article/745687/shatrughan-sinha-as-jai-pran-as-thakur-and-danny-as-gabbar-what-sholay-could-have-been |archive-date=8 November 2015 |website=Scroll}}</ref> and villains from Sergio Leone's films.{{sfn|Chopra|2000|p=34}} Sippy wanted to do away with the clichéd idea of a man becoming a dacoit due to societal issues, as was the case in other films, and focused on Gabbar being an emblem of pure evil. To emphasise the point of Gabbar being a new type of villain, Sippy avoided the typical tropes of dacoits wearing [[dhoti]]s and [[Pagri (turban)|pagris]] and sporting a [[Tilaka|tika]] and worshipping "[[Bhavani|Ma Bhavani]]"; Gabbar would be wearing [[Military uniform|army fatigues]].{{sfn|Chopra|2000|p=38}} The character of the jailer, played by [[Asrani]] was influenced by [[Adolf Hitler]]. Javed Akhtar brought a book on [[World War II]] which had several pictures of Hitler posing to set the typical posture of the character in the film. Asrani spiced up his character with some ideas about Hitler's speech delivery he had heard from a teacher in [[Film and Television Institute of India|FTII]]. The trademark 'Ha Ha' at the end of his monologues was inspired by a similar performance by [[Jack Lemmon]] in ''[[The Great Race]]''.{{sfn|Chopra|2000|p=37}}{{sfn|Banerjea|2005|p=183}} Soorma Bhopali, a minor [[comic relief]] character, was based on an acquaintance of actor Jagdeep, a forest officer from [[Bhopal]] named Soorma. The real-life Soorma eventually threatened to press charges when people who had viewed the film began referring to him as a woodcutter.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 February 2013 |title=How 'Soorma Bhopali' and 'Calendar' were created! |url=https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/how-soorma-bhopali-and-calendar-were-created/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121104754/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/how-soorma-bhopali-and-calendar-were-created/ |archive-date=21 November 2016 |access-date=24 April 2013 |website=[[Bollywood Hungama]]}}</ref> The main characters' names, Jai and Veeru, mean "victory" and "heroism" in Hindi.{{sfn|Hogan|2008|p=90}}