 Filming began on location on 3 October 1973 , with a scene featuring Bachchan and Bhaduri . The film had a lavish production for its time ( with frequent banquets and parties for the cast ) , took two and a half years to make , and went over budget . One reason for its high cost was that Sippy re @-@ filmed scenes many times to get his desired effect . " Yeh Dosti " , a 5 @-@ minute song sequence , took 21 days to shoot , two short scenes in which Radha lights lamps took 20 days to film because of lighting problems , and the shooting of the scene in which Gabbar kills the imam 's son lasted 19 days . The train robbery sequence , shot on the Mumbai – Pune railway route near <unk> , took more than 7 weeks to complete . 
