There are many stories about the movie released on 12 December 1980. The movie could not break the record of Sholay but it captured hearts and minds. The songs were liked a lot. Even today when antakshari is played, the song that comes to people's tongue as soon as the letter 'Y' is mentioned is 'Yamma-Yamma' which was also from this movie.

Shakaal also scared people a lot. This was a role that Sanjeev Kumar was initially supposed to do. But then he suffered his first heart attack and reportedly backed out due to ill health.

Ramesh Sippy wanted to repeat the star cast of Sholay. Everything was set but Dharmendra did not like his role and he backed out. Soon Hema also backed out. This pair was replaced by Shashi Kapoor and Bindiya Goswami. So Kulbhushan Kharbanda played the role of Sanjeev Kumar.

Not only this, Vinod Khanna also parted ways. He joined spiritual guru Rajneesh. In this situation, the role fell in the lap of Shatrughan Sinha.

Shaan was the most expensive film of that era. A lot of money was spent. The movie was made on a budget of 6 crores which was almost twice the cost of 'Sholay'. When it was released, the shows were going well but then the negative word of mouth publicity dashed everyone's hopes. It proved to be a flop but was later re-released. The makers earned more than the cost from it. The total collection of the movie was 8 crores. When it was shown on Doordarshan, it was included in the list of cult films. State-of-the-art technology was used. The sets were inspired by foreign films.

As soon as the movie was released, one character captured everyone's hearts and minds and that was Takla Shakal. After Gabbar, Shakal became the king of villains. He was the soul of the movie.

The dialogues and look were not like the dreaded dacoit of Sholay, but his style and mannerisms were chilling. This character was inspired by Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the 'James Bond' series.

The character of a crime lord dressed in suit and boots and laughing was new for the Indian audience and this unique treatment won people's hearts.