BENGALURU: “Koi haseena jab rooth jaati hai toh, aur namkeen ho jaati hai...” Veeru (legendary actor late Dharmendra) romanced his lady love Basanti (Hema Malini) on Dhanno’s tonga on the muddy jungle roads leading to Ramadevara Betta, a revered shrine around 50km from Bengaluru, more than half a century ago in Bollywood’s magnum opus Sholay.
The jingle of the embellished Dhanno’s hooves as she cantered alongside the village kere (pond), since dried, the chase of horses on the make-do roads and hills on which Veeru and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) immortalised their legendary friendship and valour against a soulless Gabbar Singh iconised by Amjad Khan, are archived in the silence of the bettas (hills) that are also home to the few remaining vultures in their lone sanctuary in India.
The lone road leading to the makeshift Sippy Nagar, famous as Ramgarh on the silver screen, was tarred to help pilgrims, tourists and now inmates of Ramgiri Colony which was borne out of the village created by Ramesh Sippy. As the sun sets behind the giant granite hills surrounding the village, one can still hear horses’ hooves running up the incline where Gabbar teased Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) after tying him to a pole with his bone-chilling one-liner, “Ye haath mujhey de de, Thakur,” (give me your hands, Thakur) and later, Veeru abusing Gabbar in what became Dharmendra’s signature dialogue for villains, “Kutte... kaminey!”
Bettaiah, a farmer, recalled how he used to wait for the Sholay team to arrive in the desolate wilderness of Ramanagara more than 50 years ago, when he was all of 15. “They created the village, Thakur’s haveli, Shiva temple, masjid... None of us would cook those days. Food would come from the makeshift canteen that they had built here,” he pointed out the spot.
‘Veeru’ romanced ‘Basanti’ on tonga along muddy jungle roads in K’taka
“On that betta, Veeru chased Gabbar in the final moments of the film. Look at the kere to your right. Veeru romanced Basanti in the tonga. It’s now covered with hyacinth. See, the hill opposite the kere is where Gabbar had tied Thakur to the pole and chopped his hands. Atop the betta to your left is where Gabbar sat with his men and shot three of them point-blank when they returned from the village empty-handed.
The tree where you are standing is where Veeru and Jai stood when they asked Thakur to give them the rifles to shoot Gabbar’s accomplices and Thakur stared at them, his hands reduced to butts hidden behind his brown shawl. The Shiva temple, where Hema Malini prayed for a good suitor and the mango orchard where she had gone to pluck mangoes for her mausi (Leela Misra) is behind that betta. The masjid from where the Imam Saheb (AK Hangal) came down to realise that his grandson was shot dead by Gabbar, were part of the Sippy Nagar set. Take your photographs before the sun sets,” said Bettaiah, reviving every iconic scene, his eyes twinkling with memories in the glowing dusk.
Another villager, Dharmaiyya, named after Dharmendra, pointed out the spot where Thakur ki haveli (mansion) was set up under the slow incline of the hill, from where Gabbar came down on his horse and shot his youngest grandson. “The water tank from which Dharmendra threatened to jump if mausi didn’t allow him to marry Basanti was dismantled. It’s been half a century since the film was shot. Nothing other than the hills remain,” said Dharmaiyya.
Dusk had slipped into night and the hills had eased into visual oblivion with echoes of the past. That’s what hills do—archive time and its legend.