In our post-independence history, the 1970s begins “in 1966 with Mrs. Gandhi’s appointment as prime minister and concludes in 1984 with her assassination”. And in between, we had a year that was a full action-packed. Let’s talk about the year 1975 in a little LONG thread:

The year will start with the death of Union Railway Min, L N Mishra in a bomb blast (Jan 2). And a hand-grenade will be thrown at the Chief Justice at his car in Delhi (Mar 20)
In between Mrs. Gandhi, became the first PM to enter Court on Mar 18, at Allahabad High Court.

To defend her 1971 election from Raebareli. She will be in the witness box for 5 hour. and which will also mean that for the first time someone was sitting on a chair which was of the same level as of Judge(her chair was on an elevated platform)

An electorally failed socialist was fighting against her. His personal integrity was unquestionable, and so was his distaste for political office. His ideology was woolly and his talk of a partyless democracy undefined. Thus he was attractive to a wide spectrum of p. parties.

On 12 June, Janata Front, a 5-party coalition had defeated the Congress in Gujarat and the Allahabad high court had found Mrs. Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices (1971) and thus declared her election invalid. She appealed to the Supreme Court, and a hearing was on 14 July.

But JP led opposition was not in no mood to wait. JP called for a nation-wide campaign of mass civil disobedience which was to end with a huge gherao (or siege) of her residence. He also urged the army and police to disregard "illegal" orders.

She called this as an internal disturbance and instructed president F. Ali Ahmed to proclaim Emergency (without telling to her cabinet). To safeguard democracy and maintain law and order. Thousands were arrested

— political opponents, intellectuals, journalists, in fact, anyone who criticized the government. The media was gagged. Indian Express were made targets of Mrs. Gandhi’s ire. Kuldip Nayar was arrested. So was his 82-old father-in-law, Bhim Sain Sachar, ex-CM of Punjab.

Vinod Mehta, an editor of Debonair, was asked to have his articles and pictures cleared before they were sent to the printer. The censor looked over the pages. ‘Porn? Theek hai! Politics, no.’

Her son was running his kitchen cabinet with his wife and MIL, an old family retainer, Mohammed Yunus (Chacha); Navin Chawla; Kishan Chand, who later ended his life by jumping into a well; and Jagmohan, infamous for slum-cleaning. And two ladies, Ambika Soni & Rukhsana Sultana

He was a strict teetotaller and even avoided drinking tea, coffee, aerated drinks & iced water. He had coined: Kaam ziyaada, baatein kum—work more, talk less. He was a young man in a hurry to get things done.

Anyways, this 18 month emergency had forced Indians without our national pastime, talking about politics. Newspapers were unable to report the same. This is where something would come in coming months to fill this gap and kind of change many things in due course.

Gopaldas S., Sindhi, migrated (Karachi), had set-up a restaurant in Bombay. Soon moved into the property biz and built a house for Nargis. Later he was producing some B grade crime thrillers.
For a better future, he had sent his Son to London to study at LSE. But son will rebel.

The 1950s, was the decade of optimism and films were made as per Nehru’s “beautiful dream of India" But by 1970s, with the global oil crisis, 1% GDP, widespread shortages of foods, inflation, and other economic trouble, we need a change.

Enter a son of a police officer from Indore, and, son of a poet (who will taught ABVji), from Gwalior and Lucknow (we share the same school!) he had come to Bombay to meet Guru Dutta, who will kill himself almost as soon as Javed reaches Bombay.

Now, their most significant contribution in Hindi films was a phase that was coined by John Osborne for his 1956 play, look back in anger. Angry Young Man, that will redefine the Cinema, starting from Zanjeer.

Developed from a 4-line idea that Salim-Javed scripted something in 1973, and offered to Manmohan Desai, He ignored it. So they went back to the Father-Son with whom they had a good success (Seeta Geeta).

And soon developed a story that was heavily borrowed from Once Upon a Time in the West, Seven Samurai, The magnificent seven, Butch cassidy, Sundance kid, etc. I will skip all (but one) casting trivias like who rejected and who was selected.

Born to actor Jayant (Zakaria Khan) in Peshawar, in 1940, Amjad belonged to a Pashtun family. SJ suggested him for Gabbar and will later ask Ramesh to kick him out (due to his voice). But by then Ramesh felt that this is a Gabbar’s movie and Khan was made for the role.

Serendipity it was since Ramesh will hire a lot of European technicians and Amjad whose English was quite good, will act as a go-between for Indian action boy and them. And, yes it was our first 70 mm film.

Ramesh’s father-in-law owned a record co. which wanted to fight hard with HMV in India. So, for the first time in Bollywood, someone was paying for music rights in advance, Polydor paid 5lakh, but will regret it for sometime.

Then in promotion also Sholay was way ahead. From 30 may till 15 Aug, each week they had one ad dedicated to their characters in the trade mag. including the supporting cast. But it was massively over budget and the general feeling was they will be not able to make money.

Soon after the release on Aug 15, 1975. It was declared as a disaster, India Today's reviewers had called it a dead ember-and no one in the audience was either clapping or whistling. Even Polydor were cursing them for paying so much and sitting with the record's stocks.

There was a low-budget movie that was released in May which was minting money. People have started fasts after watching Jai Santoshi Maa (same impact DDLJ will have on karwa chauth feasts).

It seems the audience was taking time to understand this ‘Great Indian Western Curry’, and by 3rd-week box-office was in a better position. By then Polydor had known the real worth of their investment, dialogues. They were soon selling the same as a hot-cake.

Sholay will prove to be the biggest hit for everyone, while by 1988 Ramesh will be almost run dry by as he will have to halt his multi-crore Magnum opus, Zameen. But for some it was beyond the commercial success, most know about Dharam and Hema, but for AB, it was more amazing.

Amitabh and Jaya wanted to celebrate the Zanjeer success with a foreign trip. Parents asked them to get married, which they did just before the shot. And, Jaya was pregnant when Sholay started (Shewta) and got released (Abhishek).

Let me end this with 2 more events, which will have a huge impact on us: our 1st satellite Aryabhatta goes into space, IPCL started manufacturing Glycol and DMT (petroleum byproducts needed for polyester fibre).