When first released, the film was declared a commercial disaster. Word of mouth convinced movie-goers to give the film a chance and soon it became a box-office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in one Mumbai theatre, the Minerva. Sholay racked up a still record 60 golden jubilees across India, and doubled its original gross over reruns during the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.[1] Sholay was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theatres across India.[1]
In 1999, BBC India declared it the "Film of the Millennium"; Indiatimes movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[2] In that same year, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare awards awarded it with a special award called Filmfare Best Film of 50 Years.