Chandra Barot, who gave Amitabh Bachchan one of his career-defining films in the form of the 1978 hit Don, passed away in Mumbai on Sunday. He was 86 and had been battling pulmonary fibrosis.
Bachchan mourned Barot’s passing in his blog. “Another and another sad moment.... Dear dear friend and my director of DON — Chandra Barot passed away this morning… It is difficult to put in words the loss... we worked together yes, but he was more a family friend than any else... I can only pray.”
Barot’s career as a director is largely distinguished by Don, which attained cult status and spurred a remake in 2006. Don, directed by Farhan Akhtar, had Shah Rukh Khan playing the eponymous character. Five years later, Akhtar directed Don 2, also starring SRK, and is all set to helm the third sequel with Ranveer Singh in the lead. On Sunday, Akhtar paid tribute to Barot on social media, referring to him as “the director of the OG Don”.
Don was one of the landmark films in Bachchan’s career, which was shaped by the screenwriting duo Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan. However, unlike many other films starring Bachchan, which had him portraying the “Angry Young Man” archetype, Don gave the actor one of his most iconic double-role outings — one as the dreaded crime boss and the other as the simple street performer.
Barot had assisted actor Manoj Kumar in many iconic films as director, including Purab Aur Pachhim, Yaadgaar, Shor and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan. It was during the making of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan that he approached Bachchan and Zeenat Aman — who were both acting in the film — to star in his debut directorial Don. Cinematographer Nariman Irani, who also produced Don, soon ran out of money and died in a freak accident before the film could be completed. Barot and the rest of the team, including his lead actors, pitched in funds to bring the film to the theatres.
Apart from being one of the biggest hits of 1978, Don spawned remakes in a host of languages. Its iconic dialogue — “Don ka intezar toh gyarah mulkon ki police kar rahi hai lekin ek baat samajh lo ki Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai” — is part of pop culture. The songs Yeh mera dil, Khaike pan Banaraswala, Main hoon Don and Ee hain Bambai nagariya — scored by Kalyanji-Anandji — have become ageless. Yeh mera dil was used by The Black Eyed Peas for their hit song Don’t Phunk with My Heart in 2005. The song won them their first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while Kalyanji-Anandji were given the BMI Award for being the originators of the melodies.
Khaike pan Banaraswala was inserted in Don on the suggestion of Manoj Kumar, who saw the rushes and told Barot that the second half of the movie felt “too intense”.
Kalyanji-Anandji came up with Khaike pan Banaraswala, which had originally been composed for Dev Anand’s 1973 film Banarasi Babu, but was rejected. Salim-Javed reworked the script to ensure that it was Vijay, and not Don, on whom the song would be picturised. The song was shot almost overnight in a cow shed in Mumbai’s Goregaon as Bachchan was due to fly abroad for another shoot.
Barot was born and brought up in Tanzania and was working in Barclays Bank in Dara-es-Salam when racial turmoil forced his family to leave the country in 1967. He was planning to settle in London, but decided to visit his sister Kamal Barot, who was a playback singer in Hindi films. During his visit, he met Kalyanji-Anandji, who introduced him to Manoj Kumar, who was giving the final touches to his directorial debut Upkar. On set, Barot pointed out a “mistake”, which Kumar not only acknowledged but also told him that he should be a director.
Kumar even offered Barot a job as his assistant director, but Barot wanted to try out his luck in London first. When nothing worked out in London, he came back to Bombay to join Kumar as an assistant on a salary of ₹457 per month.
In an interview with Rediff a few years ago, Barot had spoken at length about the “formative years” he spent on Kumar’s sets, which helped him helm Don.
The success of Don, however, didn’t help Barot’s career. The director had once said that he got 52 offers after Don, but selected only two. One of them was his ambitious film Master, starring Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, but it couldn’t be made eventually. He directed a few lesser-known films like Pyar Bhara Dil, Hong Kong Wali Script and Neil Ko Pakadna... Impossible. In 1990, his Bengali film Ashrita was a big hit.
Asked in an interview why he thought his career hadn’t reached the heights it should have after Don, Barot had said: “How many films did K. Asif make? Hardly any, but he will always be known for Mughal-E-Azam.... I made one film, Don, and will always be remembered for it.”