any admakers still swear by Gabbar Singh. Since its release in 1975, Sholay has inspired admakers, song remixers (Gabbar Remix) and stand-up comedians (Raju Srivastava's spoof on 'Gabbar getting old' in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge show) as well. Even after 31 years of Sholay, what makes the dacoit so popular?

"Sholay was a cornerstone movie and Gabbar the most iconic personality a movie could give. Gabbar is still fresh in public memory and this gets reflected in public space like ads," says Shirshendu Banerjee, head, radio division, Mediaguru, a media consultancy. Banerjee, himself has made many internal ads centred on Gabbar while he was programming head at Radio Today (Delhi). ... more