Don (1978 film)

The film begins with Don as one of the most successful criminals in Bombay who always eludes the authorities, marking himself on Interpol's "Most Wanted" list. To that end, the police, led by Deputy Superitendent of Police D'Silva and Inspector Verma, is working with Interpol operative R.K. Malik in their attempts to nab Don. When one of Don's men named Ramesh decides to leave the gang, Don kills him, provoking Ramesh's fiancée Kamini and Ramesh's sister Roma to swear vengeance on Don. Kamini tries to seduce Don in an attempt to have the police arrest him, but her plan backfires as Don plays wise to her moves and kills her before escaping once again. Training herself in judo and karate, Roma enters Don's gang after deceiving them into thinking that she too is on the wrong side of the law, impressing Don in allowing her to work for him without suspecting any ulterior motive.

After years of unsuccessful attempts, the police finally succeed in nabbing Don, and D'Silva plans to take him into custody alive in order to reveal the source of crime that Don relies on. Unfortunately, Don dies succumbing to his wounds inflicted by the police during the chase, botching D'Silva's plan. Still wanting a chance to take down Don's gang, D'Silva buries Don's body while ensuring many people to believe he may still be alive as the only ones who know of Don's death are himself, the graveyard priest and his followers. As luck would have it, D'Silva remembers his previous encounter with a slum-dwelling simpleton named Vijay who is an exact lookalike of Don. Meeting up with Vijay, D'Silva explains the situation to him and hatches a plan to have Vijay pose as Don so that he can get the police to arrest the rest of Don's gang and find out the source of crime that they rely on.

As a startup, D'Silva and Vijay staged an 'accident' that lands Vijay in the hospital under police custody, prompting Roma and Don's gang, currently led by Don's right-hand man Narang, to free Vijay, allowing him to infiltrate the gang under the guise of having amnesia. Around the same time, a man named Jasjit "JJ" Ahuja is released from jail and wants revenge against Don and his gang, as they got him arrested for a past robbery that he was involved in. It was also told that JJ only took the job with the intention of using the money to save his wife from death, but was caught by D'Silva in the act; JJ also intends to reunite with his children Deepu and Muni, who are currently taken care of by Vijay himself. As part of his mission, Vijay finds a red diary containing evidence regarding to Don's criminal activities. Vijay replaces the diary with a blank one while telling Narang and the gang members that he is going to take revenge on D'Silva for capturing him, but is actually going to him to give him the real diary. As Vijay heads off, Roma tries to attack him in an attempt to avenge both Ramesh and Kamini's deaths. However, D'Silva intervenes and confesses about Don's death and the situation to Roma, who apologizes to Vijay and agrees to help him out in taking down the gang members. Using the diary, Vijay and Roma learned more about Don's past and feigned moments of doing notorious acts to maintain their covers to Narang and the gang members. D'Silva even learned that the diary also reveals the existence of a notorious crimelord named Vardhan serving as the source of crime in Bombay, and that all of the gang members are working for him (even Don and Narang are nothing more than just middlemen reporting to Vardhan). Despite this, there is no indication to finding out Vardhan's identity as it remains unknown.

After Vijay feigns a moment of regaining his memories to the gang members, this prompts them to announce a celebration on Don's return. However, things take a drastic turn when Malik and the police (acting upon Vijay's information) raided the celebration, and D'Silva is killed in the crossfire, leaving Vijay, Narang and the gang members to be arrested as Malik and the police mistook Vijay for Don. With D'Sliva dead and no one to vouch for him, Vijay is forced to escape, and the commotion caused Narang and the gang members to finally learn that Vijay is an impostor just as they too escape from captivity, swearing to kill him. To make matters worse, Vijay learns that the diary (the sole evidence to prove his innocence) is stolen by JJ, who attempts to use it to reunite with his children. Despite this, Vijay avoids getting captured by the police and the criminals with the help from Roma, who maintains her cover to the gang members. Vijay and Roma then meet up with JJ and explain to him about the events, prompting him to ally with Vijay and Roma. However, the trio are horrified to learn that Malik himself is actually Vardhan, as he captured the real R.K. Malik and posed as the latter to cover his identity. They are even more horrified to learn that Vardhan was the one who murdered D'Silva during the raid-up, and that he already exposed Roma's identity to the gang members before having them kidnap Deepu and Muni so that they can force the trio to surrender themselves and the diary to Vardhan.

Meeting up in the same graveyard where Don was buried, Vijay, Roma and JJ meet up with Vardhan and his gang members, who are holding Deepu and Muni hostage. During a long standoff between the trio and the gang members, Vardhan snatches the diary and burns it before calling in Inspector Verma and the police to the scene to have the trio and the gang members arrested so that he can get away scot-free. However, anticipating the possibility that Vardhan would try to escape, Vijay cleverly revealed that the diary that Vardhan burned was the blank one that he switched, just as he hands the real diary over to Inspector Verma, exposing Vardhan's identity and occupation to the police. As a result, Vardhan ends up being arrested and sent to prison along with his gang members for their crimes, and all charges against Vijay are dropped while JJ is reunited with Deepu and Muni. The film ends with Vijay, Roma, JJ, Deepu and Muni happily walking away from the police station, satisfied that they took down Vardhan and his gang members for good.

Producer and cinematographer Nariman Irani was in a financial mess when his film Zindagi Zindagi (1972), starring Sunil Dutt flopped. He was in debt for Rs 1.2 million and couldn't pay the money off on a cinematographer's salary. When he was doing the cinematography for Manoj Kumar's major hit Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), the film's cast (Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran) and crew (assistant director Chandra Barot) decided to help him out. They all recommended that he produce another film and that they would participate in its production. They all approached scriptwriting duo Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar), who gave them an untitled script that had already been rejected by the entire industry. The cinematographer Nariman Irani, while working on Chhailla Babu, decided to borrow most of the plot of Chhailla Babu and shared a modified story idea with Chandra Barot, who made the new modified story as the film Don (1978). The script had a character named Don. Bachchan would play Don, and Barot would direct the film. Aman and Pran would play key roles in the film.[7]

The film took three-and-a-half years to complete.[8] Before filming was completed, producer Irani died from an accident on the set of another film he was working on. Barot faced budget restraints but received aid.[9] Barot showed the film to his mentor Manoj Kumar, who felt that the film was too tight and needed a song in the midst of the action-filled film, and so "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" was added into the film. Don was released without any promotion on 12 May 1978 and was declared a flop the first week. Within a week after an adding the song "Khaike Paan Banaraswala", the song by itself became a big hit, and by word of mouth spread, so by the second week, the film's fortunes were reversed, and the film was declared a blockbuster. The profits from the film were given to Irani's widow to settle her husband's debts.[10]

The hit-song "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" sung by Kishore Kumar was choreographed by P.L. Raj.[11]

Don was produced on a budget of ₹70 lakh[1] ($860,000).[12] Adjusted for inflation, its budget is equivalent to $3.6 million (₹22 crore) in 2016.[13]

The soundtrack of the film has been composed by the duo Kalyanji Anandji, while the lyrics were written by Anjaan and Indeevar.

According to film music expert Rajesh Subramanian, the song "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" was composed by Babla, the younger brother of a famous music director Kalyanji Anandji.

Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle received accolades at filmfare for the tracks "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" and "Yeh Mera Dil" respectively, both of which have also been remixed in the remake.

At the Indian box office, the film grossed ₹7 crore[3] ($8.6 million).[12] Adjusted for inflation, its box office gross is equivalent to $36 million (₹218 crore) in 2016.[13]

Telugu

• Don was first remade in 1979 in Telugu as Yugandhar, starring NTR, Jayasudha and Jayamalini.
• In 2009, a second Telugu remake titled Billa was released, starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Namitha and Krishnam Raju, and Jayasudha in a different role than the one she played in Yugandhar. This film used the same title as the Tamil remakes.

Tamil

• It was also remade in 1980 in Tamil as Billa, starring Rajinikanth. Helen, who played Kamini in the original Hindi film Don (1978), repeated her role in this remake. Billa was a breakthrough film for Rajinikanth,[5] establishing him as the top star of South Indian cinema.[14]
• The 2006 Hindi remake starring Shah Rukh Khan, titled Don, inspired the Tamil directors who made the Ajith Kumar starrer Billa — a remake of the same-titled Rajinikanth film.
• Billa II (2012) is a Tamil film starring Ajith and a prequel to Billa (2007).

Malayalam

• In 1986, the movie was remade in Malayalam as Shobaraj, starring Mohanlal and Madhavi.[15]

Lollywood

• In 1991, the movie was remade into a Punjabi language Pakistani movie titled Cobra, starring Sultan Rahi and Nadira.

• Don at IMDb
• Don at Rotten Tomatoes