Did Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra's Sholay borrow a scene from 1968's film Once Upon A Time in the West?

Sholay and Once Upon A Time in the West. Pic/Google

If you haven't watched Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, you are certainly living under a rock. Hailed as a classic Bollywood entertainer, the film aged gracefully and served as an inspiration to many aspiring filmmakers. While several scenes have been recreated in different films over these decades, the magic of the original never faded. But did you know a sequence from Sholay has an uncanny resemblance to Sergio Leonne's iconic 1968's epic spaghetti Western film Once Upon A Time in the West?

On Monday, Adil Hussain shared a clip from Once Upon A Time in the West on his Twitter account which reminded people of the scene where Gabbar shot down Thakur's family members. Sharing the video, the actor wrote, "Ha ha... Who would have thought that portions of one of the most watched/ Admired films in India will be a copy of this film below... Probably you already knew that!? .. But didn't.."

Once Upon a Time in the West starred Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale. The film was initially released in December 1968 in European cinemas and was declared a box-office success. However, when it was trimmed and released for the US audience in May 1969, it failed to work.

Sholay, too, didn't pick up at first due to negative reviews. Owing to positive word of mouth, the film gathered momentum gradually and went on to break various records. It was headlined by Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan. Owing to its popularity and cult status, Sholay was re-released in 3D in 2014.

Sholay released 7 years after Once Upon A Time in the West in 1975. The genres of the films are quite similar. While the Hollywood film belongs to the spaghetti Western genre, the Bollywood blockbuster was a combination of this blended with flavours of Samurai cinema.

While people on social media are having their own opinions on the same, the team who worked to make Sholay is yet to react to the similarities with Once Upon A Time in the West. Ramesh Sippy hasn't spoken about it as of now.