1975: Bollywood's Greatest Year!

By Anant Mathur (February 10, 2012)

In 1939, Hollywood had what is widely considered to be its greatest year. Normally at the Oscars 5 films are nominated in each category, but in 1939, 10 films were nominated for best picture - So many films were worth watching in 1939 that the number could easily have been double or tripled. 

Not before or since have so many films been nominated for best picture in a single year.

The equivalent of Hollywood's greatest year in Bollywood would have to be 1975. In 1975, the best picture FilmFare award went to Deewaar - but it could have easily gone to Sholay or Milli or Chupke Chupke. 

The official nominations at the 1976 FilmFare awards were: 

1. Deewaar - Trimurti Films - Gulshan Rai (WINNER)
2. Aandhi - Filmyug - J. Om Prakash
3. Amanush - Shakti Films - Shakti Samanta
4. Sanyasi - Filmnagar - Sohanlal Kanwar
5. Sholay - Sippy Films - G. P. Sippy

These films came from a wide variety of film genres and sources for their stories and settings, including these:  the "angry young man" (Deewaar), family drama (Amanush and Sanyasi), a film based on the lives of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi and politician Tarkeshwari Sinha (Aandhi), and a curry western (Sholay).

The five nominees for Best Director of 1975 all went on to become legendary film directors/producers with multiple stellar films to their credit. In alphabetical order: Yash Chopra, Gulzar, Sohanlal Kanwar, Shakti Samanta and Ramesh Sippy.

Deewaar won Best Picture with Sholay getting shutout in all categories it was nominated in except for one. Film editor M. S. Shinde won for Best Editing - he had edited 300,000 feet of film into 20,000 feet of theatrical release. In fact, Sholay was nominated in 9 of the top 12 categories but didn't win any of those. 

Though the blockbuster movie didn’t fare too well at the awards ceremony during its release, it was given the Best Film of 50 Years award at the 50th Filmfare Awards. When a blockbuster like Sholay loses out on so many awards it tells us how competitive the year really was.

	Select List of Bollywood films premiered in 1975 (in alphabetical order):
1.	Aandhi starring Suchitra Sen, Sanjeev Kumar, directed by Gulzar
2.	Amanush starring Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Utpal Dutt, directed by Shakti Samanta
3.	Chhoti Si Baat starring Ashok Kumar, Vidya Sinha, Amol Palekar, directed by Basu Chatterjee
4.	Chori Mera Kaam starring Shashi Kapoor, Zeenat Aman, directed by Chander Sadanah
5.	Chupke Chupke starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Badhuri, Sharmila Tagore, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
6.	Deewaar starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi, directed by Yash Chopra
7.	Dharmatma starring Feroz Khan, Hema Malini, Rekha, directed by Feroz Khan
8.	Do Jhoot starring Vinod Mehra, Moushumi Chatterjee, Pran, directed by Jitu Thakar
9.	Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka starring Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Leena Chandavarkar, directed by Devendra Goel
10.	Faraar starring Sanjeev Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, directed by Shankar Mukherjee
11.	Geet Gaata Chal starring Sachin, Sarika, directed by Hiren Nag
12.	Jai Santoshi Maa starring Bharat Bhushan, Kanan Kaushal, directed by Vijay Sharma
13.	Julie starring Vikram, Lakshmi, Nadira, Om Prakash, directed by K.S. Sethumadhavan
14.	Kahte Hain Mujhko Raja starring Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Biswajeet, Rekha, directed by Biswajeet
15.	Kala Sona starring Feroz Khan, Parveen Babi, directed by Ravikant Nagaich
16.	Khel Khel Mein starring Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Rakesh Roshan, directed by Ravi Tandon
17.	Khushboo starring Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Sharmila Tagore, directed by Gulzar
18.	Mili starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Badhuri, Ashok Kumar, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
19.	Pratiggya starring Dharmendra, Hema Malini, directed by Dulal Guha
20.	Prem Kahani starring Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Shashi Kapoor, directed by Raj Khosla
21.	Rafoo Chakkar starring Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Paintal, directed by Narender Bedi
22.	Saazish starring Dharmendra, Saira Banu, David, Helen, Iftekhar, directed by Kalidas
23.	Salaakhen starring Shashi Kapoor, Sulakshana Pandit, directed by A. Salaam
24.	Sankalp starring Arjun Bakshi, Bipin Gupta Farida Jalal, Jankidas, directed by Ramesh Saigal
25.	Sanyasi starring Manoj Kumar, Hema Malini, Prem Chopra, directed by Sohanlal Kanwar
26.	Sholay starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, Jaya Badhuri, Directed by Ramesh Sippy
27.	Umar Qaid starring Jeetendra, Vinod Mehra, Sunil Dutt, Reena Roy, directed by Sikandar Khanna
28.	Zakhmee starring Sunil Dutt, Asha Parekh, Reena Roy, Rakesh Roshan, directed by Raja Thakur
29.	Zameer starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saira Banu, directed by Ravi Chopra
30.	Warrant starring Dev Anand, Zeenat Aman, directed by Pramod Chakravorty

1975 Box Office Report

The following figures (in Indian Rupees) are the sums that were taken in during 1975 - and in particularly for films that made their premieres in between January and December. Note that the number one film (Sholay) premiered in mid-August and shattered all records up to that point becoming the longest running Indian film in the theaters, a record that stood for over 25 years until it was broken by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The second highest grosser (Jai Santoshi Maa) of 1975 only managed 1/3 of the revenue generated by Sholay. Of the top 20 earners in 1975, only 2 were flops (that’s a 90% success rate – today the situation is reversed we’re lucky if films have a 10% yearly success rate). As you can see the selection committee had a tough task in deciding which films get nominated for Best Picture in 1975.

Box Office 1975
Rank	Film	Gross	Nett Gross	Verdict	Business Note
1	Sholay	30,00,00,000	15,00,00,000	All Time Blockbuster	Record Grosser
2	Jai Santoshi Maa	10,00,00,000	5,00,00,000	All Time Blockbuster	-
3	Sanyasi	9,00,00,000	4,50,00,000	Blockbuster	-
4	Deewaar	7,50,00,000	4,25,00,000	Super Hit	Extraordinary in Mumbai
5	Pratiggya	7,00,00,000	3,50,00,000	Super Hit	Extraordinary in North
6	Rafoo Chakkar	5,00,00,000	2,50,00,000	Hit	-
7	Warrant	4,50,00,000	2,25,00,000	Hit	-
8	Chori Mera Kaam	4,00,00,000	2,00,00,000	Hit	-
9	Dharmatma	3,50,00,000	1,75,00,000	Semi Hit	-
10	Khel Khel Mein	3,40,00,000	1,70,00,000	Hit	-
11	Zakhmee	3,20,00,000	1,60,00,000	Above Average	-
12	Kala Sona	3,00,00,000	1,50,00,000	Above Average	-
13	Julie	2,80,00,000	1,40,00,000	Hit	-
14	Dharam Karam	2,50,00,000	1,25,00,000	Below Average	-
15	Do Thug	2,30,00,000	1,15,00,000	Average	-
16	Zameer	2,20,00,000	1,10,00,000	Flop	-
17	Umar Qaid	2,10,00,000	1,05,00,000	Average	-
18	Chupke Chupke	2,00,00,000	1,00,00,000	Semi Hit	Big City Hit
19	Chhoti Si Baat	1,96,00,000	98,00,000	Hit	Excellent in Mumbai
20	Prem Kahani	1,90,00,000	95,00,000	Flop	-

1976 Filmfare Award Winners
 
Best Picture: Deewaar - Gulshan Rai
Best Director: Yash Chopra - Deewaar
Best Actor:  Sanjeev Kumar - Aandhi
Best Actress: Lakshmi - Julie
Best Supporting Actor: Shashi Kapoor - Deewaar
Best Supporting Actress: Nadira - Julie
Best Story: Salim-Javed - Deewaar
Best Music: Rajesh Roshan - Julie
Best Lyrics: Indivar - Dil Aisa Kisi (Amanush)  
Best Male Playback: Kishore Kumar - Dil Aisa Kisi (Amanush)  
Best Female Playback: Sulakshana Pandit - Tuhi Sagar Hai (Sankalp)


1975 Births

Sonali Bendra on 1 January

Preity Zinta on 31 January

Akshaye Khanna on 4 April

Shilpa Shetty on 8 June  

Karishma Kapoor on June 25
Kajol on 5 August
Parminder Nagra on 5 October 
Kunal Kapoor on 18 October
Sushmita Sen on 19 November
Dino Morea on 9 December  


1975 Debuts 

Amjad Khan, actor (Sholay)
Preeti Sagar, singer (Julie)

© Anant Mathur. All Rights Reserved.