The most famous dacoit film is "Sholay" (1975), written by Salim–Javed, and starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Amjad Khan as the dacoit character Gabbar Singh. It was a masala film that combined the dacoit film conventions of "Mother India" and "Gunga Jumna" with that of Spaghetti Westerns, spawning the "Dacoit Western" genre, also known as the "Curry Western" genre. The film also borrowed elements from Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai". "Sholay" became a classic in the genre, and its success led to a surge of films in this genre, including "Ganga Ki Saugandh" (1978), once again starring Amitabh Bachchan and Amjad Khan.