Dharmendra Fired Real Bullets: Every character and every scene in the 1975 film ‘Sholay’ has left an indelible mark on people’s hearts. The Jai-Veeru pair was well liked in the film. But do you know how much effort was put in to make every scene of this film perfect? In the pursuit of perfection, Dharmendra even made such a mistake that could have cost Amitabh Bachchan his life.
Actually, in the climax scene of ‘Sholay’, it is shown that after being freed from Gabbar Singh’s captivity, Veeru picks up a gun while leaving from there. After this, he kicks a trunk, opens it and fills his pocket with bullets. To make this scene look absolutely real, the action director of the film used real bullets. Dharmendra had to take many retakes for this scene and in this irritation, he fired in the air which passed very close to Amitabh Bachchan.
Amitabh Bachchan had revealed
Amitabh Bachchan talked about this scene during an episode of his show Kaun Banega Crorepati. He said- ‘When we were shooting that scene, Dharam ji was downstairs and I was on top of the hill. Dharam ji opens a trunk and picks up ammunition. He did it once and failed to pick up the bullets, he did it again and failed again. Dharam ji got very irritated.’
Amitabh Bachchan had a narrow escape
Amitabh Bachchan further said- ‘I don’t know what he did, he put the cartridges in the gun and they were real bullets. He got so irritated at not getting the right bullet that he fired the gun. When I was standing on the hill, the bullet passed near my ear and I heard a ‘whoosh’ sound. He had fired a real bullet. I survived. So yes, many such incidents happened during the film and Sholay was really a special film.’