Do you know Dharmendra – Amitabh starrer ‘Sholay’ was inspired from this hit film of Dharmendra?

A fan tribute to the one and only He-man of Bollywood – Dharmendra

Yes, I said it right. Sholay – one of the iconic films of Indian cinema, was not an original script. It was the longest running Indian film before DDLJ broke the records. The movie gave super stardom to Amitabh Bachchan. Though Salim-Javed’s screenplay took inspirations from Sergio Leone’s rugged classic Once Upon a Time in the West and owns a series of ancestors including Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai (1954), makers should be grateful to one Bollywood filmmaker too, who already made a dacoit movie based on same theme and plot, four years earlier. More surprising is that, like Sholay, Dharmendra played the lead role in this film, and it was a box office hit too. Do you know which film is this?

Sholay is inspired by Raj Khosla’s Mera Gaon Mera Desh to a great extent

A few years back, when I watched ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ for the first time, I got indeed surprised to see its plot’s similarity with Bollywood’s one of the biggest hits ever, ‘Sholay’. Mera Gaon Mera Desh was released in 1971 and Sholay in 1975, and both the movies registered success as well. Needless to say, Sholay is heavily inspired from Mera Gaon Mera Desh and the main plot of both the movies remains the same. Both the films have desi tadka too – rural drama with action, comedy and romance.

Sholay is believed to be inspired from so many Hollywood films, but we can’t deny the fact that many of its scenes are heavily inspired from Dharmendra-Asha Parekh starrer, and more surprising facts are villains’ screen names are almost the same and Dharmendra plays lead role in both, that too a naughty avatar teasing the heroine. Amputee Thakur, an ex-prisoner as hero and village belle heroine – there are many striking similarities between the two.

Jabbar Singh vs Gabbar Singh

In Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), where Dharmendra played lead hero, Vinod Khanna played villain Jabbar Singh. It was a solo hero film with a happy ending & a hit. Dharmendra received Filmfare nomination for best actor. The iconic villain’s name of Sholay,’Gabbar Singh’ was coined from ‘Jabbar Singh’ without giving credits. The film, ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ was never credited either.

Though Amjad Khan’s character of Sholay was modelled on a real-life dacoit Gabbar Singh Gujjar who had menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s, its striking similarities with Vinod Khanna’s character Jabbar Singh in Mera Gaon Mera Desh can’t be denied. Both were dacoits looting and killing the nearby villagers. We can also give an explanation that both these dacoit characters were inspired from Gabbar Singh Gujjar.

Jabbar is killed the film climax while Gabbar was arrested by police. Ramesh Sippy wanted to ‘kill’ the villain in the climax, but sensor board didn’t want to. Many violent scenes were removed from the film as instructed by censor board, citing bad influences on public.

Dharmendra played the lead role in both these rural dramas, and owns almost the same shade in both

The iconic friendship song from Sholay, the second movie of the year after ‘Chupke Chupke’ where the duo worked together

Mera Gaon Mera Desh was directed by Raj Khosla, and starred Dharmendra, Asha Parekh and Vinod Khanna in lead roles. Only a few actors have started off playing negative roles and later earned success playing leading roles, and Vinod Khanna is the leading name among all. The success of the movie gave him an early break, though his antagonist character Jabbar Singh can never be compared with the aura of Gabbar Singh, played by Amjad Khan for Sholay. Gabbar Singh of Sholay is the most celebrated villain of Bollywood screen ever. Absolutely no doubt in that.

Dharmendra played the lead role in both films, and owns almost same shade in both. He plays a petty-thief who spends in jail, and when his term is over, he’s hired by a Thakur to work in village. Only difference is Amitabh Bachchan plays parallel lead in Sholay. (Dacoits looting and killing villagers and how hero/heroes manage to kill the antagonist form the crux of the story. Teasing the village belle heroine, teaching her how to use gun, killing of a boy, tossing a coin to settle matters and take decision, abduction of its heroine, climax dance along with song in front of tied & helpless Dharmendra, and the iconic “Kitne Atmi The” scenes of Sholay were inspired or copied from Mera Gaon Mera Desh. There are many more inspirations which can be tagged ‘direct lift’. Also read: 25+ Bollywood blockbusters which were actually inspired or copied from Indian films

Dharmendra was Sholay‘s lead hero, not Bachchan. As Amitabh’s character dies in the climax, his role got celebrated & audience got attached to him. Yes, he was already a big star after Zanjeer & Deewar. But it was after Sholay, he cemented his supremacy in B’wood, a position he still holds. Dharmendra too was benefited with the success of the film, and their combo is written in golden letters in history books of Bollywood.

Basic plot of a former officer recruiting a criminal to save his village from a cruel dacoit remains the same

Either it’s a jailor or army officer, the basic plot in both the films is to hire an ex-prisoner in his village as a protector against decoits. While Ajit, Dharmendra’s character in Mera Gaon Mera Desh was been hired by the one-armed Jaswant Singh, Jai & Veeru were hired by former Inspector Thakur Baldev Singh, whose both arms were cut off. How can two stories be so similar? An interesting fact is, Jaswant Singh’s character was played on screen by Jayant, the father of Amjad Khan. Jayant passed away 2.5 months before the release of Sholay and was not fortunate enough to see the immense success of his son through this single role.

 I doubt whether any Bollywood film was made before 1971 based on this theme. Though it’s an inspired plot from foreign film (Bollywood frequently borrows ideas and stories from Hollywood and other industries), to make a film based on this theme for the first time, credit goes to one and one Raj Khosla, the director associated with mystery thrillers. But the sad part is, after the huge success of Sholay, people forgot Khosla’s film. When Sholay became an integral part of popular culture, the reputation of Mera Gaon Mera Desh got doomed.

Both the films had some good music and romantic sequences too. In a single line, we can say, Ramesh Sippy enhanced an already available plot by adding some more interesting elements, characters and developed it a little more. Sippy made Sholay on a wide scale with superbly styled action sequences, and no doubt, Sholay stands above Mera Gaon Mera Desh. To add, tossing the coin to make a decision is inspired from Garden of Evil (1954) directed by Henry Hathaway.

Koi Haseena Jab song from Sholay

The plot has inspired many Bollywood productions ventures later, either direct lift or true inspiration. Shah Rukh Khan-Sridevi starrer Army, a revenge drama released in 1996 too was reported to be inspired from Sholay. But the film flopped at box office.

While Mera Gaon Mera Desh had a simple story with a single hero, Sholay was more like an ode to friendship. That makes a big difference too. Bollywood’s most celebrated film, Sholay completed 50 years in 2025, and it’s so shocking to see two stars gone exactly the same year – The lead actor Dharmendra and Asrani, known for his iconic role of Jailer. To add, it’s a rare feat for any actor to reprise his own role & make both movies hit. Hats off Dharmendra Ji, for pulling both the roles through his versatility and comedy timing. Miss You.