The Motorcycle That Defined Friendship in Sholay Finds New Life With Classic Legends

BSA Motorcycles’ classic silhouettes and thumping presence shaped Indian pop-culture long before ‘retro’ captured rider imaginations. It was a 1942 BSA WM20 motorcycle that immortalised the on-screen friendship between Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (the late Dharmendra) in the cult classic, Sholay (released on 15 August 1975).

The enduring image of the motorcycle still symbolises camaraderie, swagger, and youth culture, underpinning the culture of motorcycling. The legendary motorcycling brand that has lived on in the collective memory as the aspirational British machine was fittingly re-launched on 15 August 2024 by Classic Legends. It brought back BSA as a modern classic shaped by British roots and contemporary engineering for riders worldwide.

BSA’s Birmingham roots gave it an engineering reputation that has always carried it across borders. As Anupam Thareja, Co-founder of Jawa Yezdi Motorcycles, said, “BSA was the heart of Birmingham, a brand inseparable from Britain’s industrial mettle and tenacity that came to be revered in racing circuits and motorcycling communities. As with everything in India, we made BSA our own through movies like Sholay, building it into our pop-culture since the seventies.”

BSA’s revival is shaped by Classic Legends’ strategy of matching each of its three brands (Jawa, Yezdi and BSA) to its natural home. So, BSA’s modern renaissance began in the UK, its birthplace, where riders aren’t just buying a global product but “the best version of their heritage,” said Thareja.

The company has launched three BSA motorcycles (Scrambler 650, Bantam 350, and the Thunderbolt 350) for global markets in 2025. The launches have met with consistent praise for design, value and accessibility. In India, it had unveiled the BSA Goldstar 650 in 2024. As Classic Legends ramps up expansion across international markets, BSA will be the bridge between Western provenance and Indian engineering ambition.

This global approach allows the brand to grow with authenticity, while giving Indian riders the pride of seeing an iconic motorcycle brand resurrected by an Indian company. The manufacturing excellence of the Mahindra Group defines the modern performance engineering of BSA, produced by Classic Legends.

BSA’s return celebrates a motorcycling brand that carries cinematic dreams, garage lore, and the unmistakable charm of British motorcycling for the Indian motorcycling community.