G.P.Sippy

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Born into an aristocratic Sindhi family, Sippy began his professional career as a lawyer in the Sindh province of undivided India. Before Sippy was sucked in by the glamour of the tinsel town, Sippy was a builder in Mumbai for a while.

Sippy claimed to have pioneered the concept of co-operative housing in India. sippy produced his first venture, "Sazaa" in 1951. He turned a director and made "Marine Drive". The same year, he followed it up with "Adil-E-Jehangir" in which he also played a brief role.

The Asha Parekh-Biswajeet musical starrer "Mere Sanam" released in 1965 was his first early major hit. It was followed by the 1968 musical hit "Brahmachari" starring Shammi Kapoor and Rajshri

The turning point in G.P. Sippy's production banner, Sippy Films, came when his son, Ramesh Sippy, debuted as director with "Andaz" in 1971 and made his second film "Seeta Aur Geeta" the next year.

He then planned his next film - "Sholay". The film was planned as a dacoit film and few could imagine the cult status that it would attain.

Sippy once told this correspondent that when Salim-Javed were writing the script for the film, he declared he wanted the film's principal character - Gabbar Singh - to be a jeans-clad dacoit to give him a different image from that of the typical dacoits of Hindi films.

Sippy was not only a filmmaker but also a crusader, he not only wanted to make good films but also wanted to change the way films are made.

Sippy was the first to raise the demand of 'industry' status to the films so that producers could avail of institutional finance for filmmaking, a demand that the government conceded much later.

He was fearless and had tremendous self-confidence. His leadership ventures extended even beyond Bollywood. After the collapse of the Janata Party in 1979, Sippy took the lead along with Dev Anand and Sanjeev Kumar to float an all-India political party called National Party.

G.P.Sippy produced or directed a score of other motion pictures, and in 2000 he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival, Mumbai. As a director G.P.Sippy directed Mr. India in 1961, Bhai-Bahen in 1959, Shrimati 420 in 1956, Marine Drive in 1955 and Adil-E-Jahangir in 1955. Sippy died at the age of 93. But he would be most remembered as the author of a new Bollywood chapter - as producer of "Sholay".