Don
(Don)

In the remakes of Don, some people perhaps saw Shah Rukh Khan slip into the shoes of the character (and his double) originally played by Amitabh Bachchan. Yet Chandra Barot’s film remains a specimen for many reasons: here, Bachchan takes on two roles for the first time – a merciless gangster and a simpleton forced to don the suit of a gang leader. The film was originally produced solely to save its producer from bankruptcy and the script by the Khan-Akhtar duo had just been rejected by the entire industry. Released without any promotion, Don flopped in its first week, before being re-edited to include a singing number that propelled the film virally to a box-office hit. JB