Amitabh Bachchan’s Don left producer in massive debt, he died before movie’s premiere; Zeenat Aman let go off her fee, his debts were paid off with film’s earning

In an interview with DD Urdu, Sameer said that his father’s ‘guru’ promised to make him the next Harivanshrai Bachchan. “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?”

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Sameer explained, “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’. 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.”

Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat Aman Don. (Express Archive)

According to Sameer, Nariman Irani told Javed Akhtar that shooting a new song would be impossible, considering the state of his finances, but Javed wouldn’t take no for an answer. “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. They came up with the idea to go to Goregaon, and shoot the song at one of the ‘tabelas’ that folks from UP had there. You won’t believe it, but the went to a ‘tabela’, shot the song in a couple of hours, and the rest is history,” Sameer said.

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Directed by Chandra Barot, the film’s music was composed by the legendary pair of Kalyanji-Anandji. The soundtrack also included the hit song “Yeh Mera Dil.” But Nariman Irani’s story ended in tragedy. A few weeks before the film’s release, he died in a freak accident when a wall fell on him during a cloudburst on the set of a Manoj Kumar film.

In an interview with Rediff in 2006, Chandra Barot said that everybody came together to make Don in the first place to bail Nariman out of trouble. His first film had flopped as well. “He produced his first film Zindagi Zindagi with Sunil Dutt, which flopped badly. He was in debt so, as his friends, we decided to bail him out. Amitabh Bachchan, Pran, Salim-Javed and Zeenat Aman came forward to make a film. It took three years and six months to make Don. There were tremendous budget constraints, but we knew we had to make a good film.”

Cinematographer Nariman Irani and Ralhan on the set of film Talash. (Express Archive)

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Barot added, “Don was shot with a budget of around Rs 25 lakh. After Nariman Irani’s death, we somehow managed to wrap the film without any money for promotion. When it became a big hit, we gave the money to Salma Irani, the producer’s widow, to settle her husband’s debts.”

In an interview with Rediff as well, Zeenat Aman remembered Nariman Irani as “a wonderful man.” She said, “I had just worked with him on Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. And Chandra Barot had been Manoj Kumar’s chief assistant. We had all worked together on Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and when they talked about the project and wanted me in it, I was very happy. And we didn’t work on it like it was a unit or a set. It was all very family-oriented. So much so that when he passed away, I did not take any of my renumeration. I just wrote all of it off. I didn’t get any of my payment for Don.”

Don was remade with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role in 2006. A sequel, Don 2, followed some years later. The franchise is set to be rebooted with Ranveer Singh in the lead role.