India, Aug. 8 -- "You cannot plan a phenomenon, it just happens on its own," Sholay director Ramesh Sippy once said.

He certainly didn't expect the movie, his third after the hits Andaz and Seeta Aur Geeta, to be the one he would be remembered by.

He didn't expect that phrases from it would resonate, half a century later, among people, including many who hadn't seen the film, but somehow knew exactly what it was about.

At nearly two-and-a-half years, Sholay took an age to make. Friends and peers began to make jokes about this epic saga in the making, out on the arid fringes of Bangalore.

When it was finally released, on August 15, 1975, it wasn't an instant hit. In the second week, bookings were still so low that trade magazines began...