New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- As Sholay turns 50 this year, screenwriter Javed Akhtar, who wrote the script for Hindi cinema's most iconic movie with Salim Khan, reminisced about the time Ramanagara, a small town in Karnataka, turned itself into an industry to accommodate the needs of producer GP Sippy's "larger than life" movie.

Sholay, featuring Amitabh Bachchan as Jai and Dharmendra as Veeru, had generated Rs.3 crore at the box office in 1975.

In an interview with the Indian Express' SCREEN, Javed ji shared that when he was writing the movie with Salim ji, they "didn't have the faintest idea that it could become so big."

But as the story progressed, he said that they had realised that there were more than two or three very important characte...