Filmmaker Chandra Barot, best known for directing the 1978 classic Don, died on Sunday, July 20. He was 86. And while Don became a massive hit, its backstory is full of unexpected turns.
Turns out, making Don was not easy at all. The film's producer, Nariman Irani, was in deep financial trouble during its shoot. Things were so bad that he did not even have money for meals.
Even though the film eventually became a hit, Nariman Irani did not live to see it. He tragically died just before the release, after a freak accident on another film's set. The money Don earned later went into clearing his debts.
In a chat with DD Urdu, lyricist Sameer Anjaan opened up about all this. He also shared how Don's most iconic song, Khaike Paan Banaras Wala, almost did not make it into the movie.
Sameer remembered how Javed Akhtar was not happy with the second half of the film. He thought it was too action-heavy. "Javed Akhtar watched the movie with everyone else, and felt that the second half was too dry. He felt that it had too much action. So, he advised that a new song be filmed and inserted to balance things out. He was adamant and stubborn about it. He said, ‘No, I want a song,'” Sameer said.
There was a problem, though – no budget. Sameer Anjaan added, “The movie had been completed, the release date had been locked! Then, my father was summoned. The poor producer was in such a bad state because of the film that he didn't even have money for food.”
Even after being told there was no money to shoot anything new, Javed Akhtar pushed for it. According to Sameer, “The song was made. But then, a new issue cropped up. Amitabh Bachchan was supposed to leave for abroad. He would be away for over a month. There was only one day to shoot the song, and no set to shoot it on.”
So they came up with a hack. They found a tabela (a cowshed) in Goregaon and shot the whole thing there, super quick. “You won't believe it, but they went to a ‘tabela', shot the song in a couple of hours, and the rest is history,” Sameer said.
There is one more cool detail Sameer dropped. His father, the lyricist Anjaan, was once told he would become the next Harivanshrai Bachchan. Instead, he got forever linked to Amitabh Bachchan in a different way. “But little did my father know that instead of becoming the next Harivanshrai Bachchan, he would become eternally linked to Amitabh Bachchan because of the song Khaike Paan Banaras Wala. Even today, it is impossible to mention Bachchan without mentioning the song. But did you know that the movie wasn't supposed to have the song at all?”
Don may have been a hit, but the road to get there was anything but smooth.
