GP Sippy is no more. He passed away at his home peacefully recently at the advanced age of 93. I fondly recall my childhood days when Sholay was creating waves and rewriting the very basic way of how Hindi Cinema should be produced. Shekhar Gupta once rightly said while carrying out an interview for the Indian Express, how Sholay had vertically divided the Indian Cinema into two distinct categories: the first one the pre-Sholay era, and the second one the post-Sholay phase! And I still remember how each of those flaming posters of Jay, Viru, Thakur, Basanti and Gabbar Singh used to distinctly read on GP Sippy’s signature everywhere.

I’ll have plenty of stuff to speak on regarding Sholay in the coming weeks and months, as I’ll try to write more about Hindi Films and its Music. But for now, let me share the following story from The New York Times, which carried a good brief on Sippy’s life and works. Btw, he was Gopaldas Parmanand Sippy, a born Sindhi and Karachiite before moving on to the dream city of Mumbai after India’s partition. And he had to do plenty of many other jobs before producing Sholay.

Unfortunately, there are no decent photographs of him available right now, and I just missed downloading it from one of those epapers the other day. To sum up, let me say, I salute the man who made Sholay and gifted the Hindi Cinema Lovers with an exceptional movie. It will continue to enthrall many more generations after you and myself had given up watching movies.

May god bless him with eternal peace!