Watching Sholay on my Cinema 3D TV

The recent death of veteran actor, A.K. Hangal reminded me of a newspaper article that I had read earlier this year. This article was about Sholay – one of the films that stamped the presence of A.K.Hangal in our memories. Coming back to the said article – it was about the imminent release, or shall we say, re-release of Sholay in a 3D avatar. 

Sholay in 3D

Now, Sholay is arguably one of the most successful masala films of Bollywood. Since the day it was released, it has blazed a trail in the cinematic history of India. A great box-office hit, it soon went on to become a cult into itself. Most Hindi movie lovers will have seen the movie a gazillion times, and most of us remember a few dialogues by heart. Indeed, some of the dialogues have become a part of popular lingo.

But I digress again! The article that I had mentioned earlier – regarding 3Dfication of Sholay – said that the 3D version would be released around August – Independence Day to be precise. Now, 15^th of August has come and gone, yet no news of Sholay in 3D! Nothing turned up in a Google search, except that perhaps the work is still on – with no word of a release date. So, fans will have to still wait some more time for a 3D version of Sholay.

2D to 3D Conversion

I, on the other hand, have been quite fortunate in that regard. As I had mentioned in an earlier blog post, I own an LG 3D TV – it is the model LG 47LM6400 – a really smart TV! One of its features is 2D to 3D conversion – where it can convert normal 2D pictures to 3D on the fly. Once you put this feature on (at the flick of a button on the Magic Motion Remote), plain 2D becomes an exciting 3D! And so it turns out that I have already watched Sholay in 3D – at least a couple of times.

The 2D to 3D conversion features works not only for recorded videos, but also for normal TV broadcast – even live telecast. So, you can watch all sorts of programs in 3D whenever the mood strikes you – even your favorite soaps. So, if you are bored with the daily squabbles of saas-bahu, add some spice to it with 3D!

There have been some recent Bollywood releases in 3D – and I feel the Indian film industry is really only waking up to the true potential of 3D. We are likely to see a greater adoption of 3D, and more and more films will be shot in the 3D format from the very start. Apart from Sholay in 3D, another classic film that I would like to view again in 3D is Mughal-e-Azam. The epic battle scene between Akbar and Saleem is a prime candidate for 3D viewing – in my opinion. One of these days, I will try to get hold of a DVD and watch this classic on my LG 3D TV.