Bollywood filmmaker GP Sippy dead

Sholay broke all Bollywood records

Veteran Bollywood film producer GP Sippy has died in the western Indian city of Mumbai at the age of 93.

Mr Sippy was best known as the producer of Bollywood's biggest ever commercial success, Sholay (Flames).

Sholay broke all previous records in India, earning the equivalent of $60m (£30m) at the box-office.

The film, starring Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and a number of other stars, ran continuously for more than five years at one cinema in Mumbai.

Sholay, loosely styled on Akira Kurosawa's The Seventh Samurai and Hollywood's The Magnificent Seven, is commonly described as India's first "curry western".

GP Sippy's film career spanned four decades, beginning with his first film, Marine Drive, in 1955.

He produced some 20 films and directed many of them. But Sholay made him a household name.