Happy Birthday Ramesh Sippy!

January 23^rd marks the birthday of renowned Hindi film producer and director Ramesh Sippy who will be turning 66 this year.

Sippy ji started his Bollywood innings as a director with Andaz in 1971, which was a moderate success. His directorial show picked up pace with his second film Seeta aur Geeta in 1872 which turned out to be a raging hit. He reached the pinnacle of success when he directed the all-time blockbuster Sholay which turned out to be a milestone in Indian cinema and held several records, many of them remaining unbroken till date. The legendary character of Gabbar Singh from this film still manages to scare the viewers, so profound is the haunting impact it left behind! One can surely attribute it to Ramesh Ji's vision of the character. Later, he directed films like Saagar and Shakti which were moderate successes followed by Bhrashtachar, Akayla and Zamana Deewana which were box-office failures, leading him to hang up his director's hat for good.

After a gap of 7 years, Ramesh ji returned as a producer with son Rohan Sippy's Kuch Naa Kaho in 2003, Bluffmaster in 2005 and Dum Maro Dum in 2011. He also produced Milan Luthria's Taxi No.9211, Kunal Roy Kapur's The President is Coming and Nikhil Advani'sChandi Chowk to China starring Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone. He may not have got a lot of awards, but receiving the Filmfare Best film of 50 years award for Sholay is an incredible achievement which more than makes up for it.

Ramesh ji is currently married to actress Kiran Juneja. He has two children- director Rohan Sippy and Sheena Sippy from his first marriage.