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Ramanagara’s dry rocky landscape, immortalised as the backdrop of the 1975 blockbuster Sholayhas transformed into an eco-sensitive sanctuary, now home to endangered vultures. The sets of India’s ‘greatest film ever made’ have been demolished and replaced by trees and a thriving forest.

The area, which once echoed with gunshots, the sounds of fast moving horses and the iconic dialogues – Tera kya hoga kaalia to Jo dar gaya samjho woh mar gaya, en kuton ke samne mat nach, basanti!, the Yeh dosti songs of Jai and Veera, have now become a hotspot for trekkers. Many young techies from Bengaluru flock to the area to trek as the rocky hills and the panoramic views are a major attraction. They enjoy the challenge of scaling the steep, rocky landscapes or climbing the 400 wide steps to reach an ancient Ram temple, from where you can get breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding hilly landscape.

Forest takeover

Once known informally as “Sippy Nagar”, the area, 40 km drive from Bengaluru gained fame for hosting Sholay’s cast and crew. Today, all signs of those cinematic structures have vanished—demolished by the forest department to allow nature to reclaim the land.

Also read: Sholay at 50: How Ramesh Sippy’s film captured India’s angst and anxieties

In their place stands the Ramadevara Betta sanctuary, an 800-acre expanse sheltering long-billed, Egyptian, and white-rumped vultures – though ironically, only about four of these endangered birds reside here.

Opposition to theme park

In 2017, the Karnataka government proposed a Sholay village theme park to revive the area’s cinematic heritage. Environmentalists opposed it, citing threats to the vulture populations and ecological balance. Conservationists won the debate, and the sanctuary endures, its greenery hiding the scarred, distinctive terrain once visible in the film.

Nearly 1,000 to 2,000 visitors land up at Ramadevara Betta from Bengaluru and beyond. Most of these young visitors are unaware of the Sholay connection—particularly non–Hindi speakers. However, there were a few fans and Hindi-speaking trekkers, like Bengaluru-based Anshu Kishore and Saransh, who revelled in the idea of being in the spot where Sholay was shot, hoping to spark cinematic nostalgia.

Curry western

Sholay, a revenge drama was a classic battle of good over evil set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, where two petty criminals, Jai and Veeru (Bachchan and Dharmendra), are hired by a former jailer, Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar), to capture the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh- one of Indian cinema’s legendary bad guy. The film, which took three years to make, went on to become a cultural phenomenon: its dialogues are a favourite on social media, quoted at weddings and pulled out to effectively hit out at rivals in political speeches.

When it was first released, Sholay, often called a ‘curry western’ as it imitated American western movies, and the Japanese film, ‘Seven Samurai’, ran for five uninterrupted years at Mumbai’s 1,500-seater Minerva theatre.

Also read: Sholay screening offers fans a nostalgic trip down memory lane

As India’s most popular Indian film turns 50 this year, fans across the world are remembering, celebrating and acknowledging this cinematic milestone. In Italy, a restored version of this timeless story of much (friendship) was screened, while in Iran, a full-page ad to honour its 50th anniversary was released!

At Ramdevara Betta, a forest guide leads visitors to some lingering traces of the filming spots, but today even director Ramesh Sippy may struggle to locate them. The terrain, once covered with closepet granite, providing a dramatic, dry, and harsh setting for films, is now cloaked in dense greenery. The spot was once so popular that David Lean’s A Passage to India was shot here too, as well as a few Kannada films.

Echoes of Gabbar

The stories of Indian cinema are being erased, says one tourist sadly, regretting that there are no signs of the Sholay spots at Ramnagara anymore.

Amid the pilgrims and trekkers, the whispers of dreaded dacoit Gabbar Singh’s terrifying dialogues, the clatter of horse hooves, Jai’s sacrifice, Veeru’s antics, and Basanti’s chatter persist – but only in memory. As time marches on, one wonders whether future visitors will one day ask, “Gabbar who?”