Top 10 Bollywood Movies That Ran For The Longest Time In Cinema Halls

2 SHOLAY (5 YEARS)

No one is going to believe you if you say you did not roll a few tears down your cheeks when Veeru finds his best friend Jai breathing his last in his arms as the iconic film ‘Sholay’ races towards its climax. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, ‘Sholay’ was an unexpected hit which went on to become a masterpiece and a reference point for the audience in times to come. The epic film revolutionized the entire Indian cinema. It changed the way films were being made. It changed the way scripts, screenplays and characters were being written. Renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur once said that Indian film history can be divided into Sholay BC and Sholay AD. He was so right in his observation.

Released on August 15, 1975, ‘Sholay’ ran for five years in cinema halls. It is perhaps the only Indian film which cast its spell on all age groups equally. The names of all characters and their dialogues are still on the tip of the tongue of all cinema lovers. Whether it is Gabbar Singh’s menacing voice, Jai and Veeru’s unbreakable friendship or vivaciousness of Basanti or helplessness of Thakur, everything about the film is so fresh in the memory of the audience, as if the film was released yesterday. The film did magic for everyone associated to it. Be it actors or writers, suddenly everyone was in huge demand, especially the scriptwriter duo Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan, who became the most-sought after writers of that time.

The popularity of the film in Indian subcontinent can easily be gauged by the fact that it was released in Pakistan on 17 April 2015, almost 40 years after its theatrical release. Maya Digital, a company owned by renowned by Filmmaker Ketan Mehta, converted the film into the 3D format and re-released it in India on 3 January 2014.

TRIVIA: The entire film has not even a single scene between Hema Malini and Sanjeev Kumar because Sanjeev had just proposed to Hema, and she didn’t want to be near him.