DON THE FILMThree pictures, one record
DON1978
DON2006
DON 22011

A crime boss is killed and the police send in his lookalike. The same premise carries three Hindi films: an original, a remake that reverses its ending, and a sequel that follows the remake out of the country. This page holds the record of all three.

The Films · The entry to read first

The lookalike plot

A street performer is recruited to impersonate a dead crime boss so the police can reach the organisation from inside. The premise carries three films and changes meaning in each.

Vintage film posters, scripts and reel canisters arranged flat on a wooden surface
PlateThe premise is a substitution, and each film asks a different question of it.

Supported by

Two of the site’s supporters. The marks and lines below are stand-ins until the real partners are set.

Also worth reading

Empty theater seats face a blank white screen lit by dim wall sconces

The ending that changed

The remake's final turn inverts who the audience has been watching. What that does retrospectively to everything before it.

The Story Hands arrange a movie poster, film strip, notebook and photographs on a flat desk

Credits

Who directed, wrote, shot, cut and scored each film, set out plainly, with the disagreements between sources noted.

The Making Framed portrait, film strip, ticket stub, notebook and camera arranged as a nostalgic cinema collage

Playback

Songs are recorded first by singers who do not appear, then picturised on actors who mime. The credit belongs to both.

The Songs

One man is sent in to be another man. Three films, and only one of them lets him come back out.

The register

 Don · 1978Don · 2006Don 2 · 2011
DirectorChandra BarotFarhan AkhtarFarhan Akhtar
Written bySalim–JavedJaved Akhtar, Farhan AkhtarFarhan Akhtar, Ameet Mehta, Amrish Shah
MusicKalyanji–AnandjiShankar–Ehsaan–LoyShankar–Ehsaan–Loy
LyricsAnjaan, IndeevarJaved AkhtarJaved Akhtar
LeadAmitabh BachchanShah Rukh KhanShah Rukh Khan
SettingBombayMumbai, Kuala LumpurEurope, centred on Germany

Where published listings disagree on a credit — and on several of these they do — the entry that carries it prints both readings. The full set is in Credits.

Supported by

Two more supporters, carried between the bands rather than banked at the foot of the page.

Five sections

01The FilmsThree releases, in order. 02The StoryPlot, structure and the disguise at the centre. 03The SongsPlayback, picturisation and who sang what. 04The MakingCredits, design and how the sequences were staged. 05VersionsWhere the remake departs from the original.

Twenty-four entries in all. Browse everything lists them without a menu.

The rest of the roll

Every supporter listed once, at the same size, whatever the shape of the mark.