Rajnikant first to play ‘Don’ in the Amitabh Bachchan remake Not Shah Rukh Khan or Ranveer Singh
Rajnikant first to play ‘Don’ in the Amitabh Bachchan remake
Not Shah Rukh Khan or Ranveer Singh
The first remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s Don was made years before the Shah Rukh Khan version, and it did not star Rajinikanth either.
Recently, filmmaker Farhan Akhtar announced that he would be returning to the Don franchise with the next instalment – Don 3.
However, this time, there will be a change of lead actor with Shah Rukh Khan making way for Ranveer Singh. Since the original Don was made in 1978 with Amitabh Bachchan in the title role, a number of actors have played the role in various remakes across several languages. Interestingly, contrary to popular perception, Shah Rukh Khan was not the first actor to reprise the role, and many say not even the biggest name to play Don.
Chandra Barot directorial ‘Don’ was released in 1978 and featured Amitabh Bachchan in a double role.
The following year the film was remad in Telugu under the title Yugandhar and featured the regning king of Telugu cinema and one of the biggest names in the Indian film industry NT Rama Rao, popularly recognised as NTR.
This was the first ever remake of the film and also featured Jayasudha and Jayamalini with music by Ilaiyaraaja. The film turned out to be a commercial success.
With Yugandhar’s success saw the trend for various Don remakes in other industries down south. The Tamil remake Billa was the first of the lot.
The 1980 film featured a then up-and-coming actor named Rajinikanth. It was Billa that turned Rajini into the top star of Tamil cinema. Helen reprised her role from the Hindi film in Billa. In 1986, Don was remade in Malayalam as Sobharaj with Mohanlal playing the lead role there and in 1991, a Pakistani Punjabi film named Cobra was made with virtually the same story.
In 2006, Farhan Akhtar made Don with Shah Rukh Khan. This inspired Tamil maker to remake Billa in 2009, starring Ajith Kumar in the lead. A prequel charting Billa’s rise to power was made in 2012 with Ajith in the lead again. In 2009, another Telugu remake called Billa was made, this time with Prabhas in the lead. In 2011, Shah Rukh himself reprised the role in the successful Don 2.
A few years later, the third Don film had been discussed following the release of Don 2 but could never see the light of day due to the clashing schedules of Shah Rukh and Farhan.
This year Farhan eventually decided to make the film but Shah Rukh refused to return to the iconic role, paving the way for Ranveer Singh to enter the franchise with Don 3, scheduled for theatrical release in 2025.
News Edit K.V.Raman
