The cast included the who's who in Bollywood of that time -- the leading pairs of the 70s, Dharmendra and Hema Malini ('Veeru' and 'Basanti'), versatile Sanjeev Kumar ('Thakur'), rising star Amitabh Bachchan ('Jai') who had proved himself in 'Anand' and 'Zanjeer'.
Though the entire cast put up a stellar performance, it was Amjad Khan, the ferocious dacoit leader 'Gabbar Singh', who captured the country's imagination so much that he was immortalised by the very name.
Sholay's mastery lay in its sub-plots and minor characters, all of which were etched out with the greatest of detail and completeness, says Mahesh Sarang, a computer engineer who has lost count of the number of time he watched the classic.
Dialogues like 'Hum angrezon ke zamane ke jailor hain' (Asrani), 'Kitne aadmi the?' (Amjad), 'Sardar maine aapka namak khaya hai' (Viju Khote), 'Basanti in kutto ke samne mat nachna' (Dharmendra) remains in the memories of the people.
One of the flick's most memorable characters, MacMohan who played a dacoit named 'Samba', died earlier this year. His dialogue in the movie 'pure pachaas hazzar' has been used innumerable times in satires and spoofs.
The film was one of the rare combinations of technical wizardry, music, acting, screenplay, dialogues and direction.
There isn't a single unnecessary line or shot, every thing is well connected and the intensity never fades, said V K Srivastava, a retired banker and a 'Sholay' buff.
Apart from hard-hitting dialogues, Sippy uses silence to devastating effect -- there is no background music when Gabbar guns down Thakur's entire family.
The catchy script also catapulted writer duo Salim-Javed to fame in Bollywood.
The late Amjad Khan had once lamented that the movie's success had become a noose around his neck, and no matter how versatile his later performances were, movie goers always remarked by saying "Sholay jaisee batt nahi bani".
Shot in 70 mm with stereophonic sound, the movie was the ultimate big screen experience of that period.
The movie set several trends in its aftermath. A spate of multi-starrers followed but none could match up to the film's standards, says 30-year-old Rakesh Gupta, another 'Sholay' follower.
Five years back when remakes were Bollywood's obsession, director Ram Gopal Varma attempted the impossible and ended up making 'Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag', which not only bombed in the box office but is now a benchmark of sorts for bad movies.
In this 'avatar' of 'Sholay', Bachchan did a role reversal and stepped into Amjad Khan's shoes by essaying the role of Gabbar.