Released on 15 August 1975, ‘Sholay’ is considered one of the biggest and most memorable films of Indian cinema. This film not only created history at the box office, but its dialogues, characters and story are still on people's lips. From the friendship of Jai-Veeru to the fear of Gabbar Singh, ‘Sholay’ gave new heights to every aspect of cinema. Now that this film is going to complete its 50 years on 15 August 2025, it becomes even more interesting to know how much was spent on this blockbuster in that era and how much fees were paid to its actors.

Talking about the budget, the total expenditure of ‘Sholay’ was around 3 crore, which was a record for any Hindi film in 1975. The film's director Ramesh Sippy and producer G.P. Sippy presented this project on a grand scale. Now let's talk about the fees of the actors:

Dharmendra (Veeru) – 1.5 lakhs

Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur) – 1.25 lakhs

Amitabh Bachchan (Jai) – 1 lakh

Hema Malini (Basanti)– 75,000

Amjad Khan (Gabbar Singh)– 50,000

Jaya Bhaduri (Radha) – 35,000

Small characters like Sambha and Kalia were given 12,000 and 10,000 respectively. In today's time when the budget of films has reached 300-400 crores and actors charge more than 50 crores for a film, this figure of 'Sholay' is shocking. But this is its specialty - low cost, strong story and such characters that made cinema immortal.