'Don' has given me a new lease of life: Chandra Barot

He was hot..then he vanished into the thickets of oblivion. He had started shooting a film titled 'Boss' with Vinod Khanna and Jaya Prada..but no one knows what went wrong. Neither is the director willing to open up on the rankling subject. Instead, Chandra Barot warms up in an interview with Indu Mirani on the remake of his only film Don (1978)

What was your immediate reaction to the news that Farhan Akhtar is remaking Don?
Only big directors have their films remade like Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Bimal Roy’s Devdas, Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, so I’m quite thrilled that my film is in that league too. Finally, young people are appreciating the work of their seniors. Also Farhan Akhtar is like my own bacha, his father Javed co-wrote Don (with Salim) and I loved his Dil Chahta Hai. I also know Shah Rukh Khan very well.

Didn’t you ever think of remaking it?

Once  Sohrab Modi suggested a remake of Pukar to Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu. Yusuf saab said 'no' because they would be compared to Chandra Mohan and Naseem Banu. I believe Farhan is adapting the Don story to today’s ambience. The bottomline is that the audience should he satisfied. I’m satisfied just being the original Don director.

What do you think of the new cast?

I can assure you Priyanka Chopra will reach the top with Don. Arjun Rampal is very well cast in Pran’s role. Pran saab was 50 plus when he did all those difficult stunts. Arjun will find the action stuff easier.

Any memories of the Don shoot?

When I completed the first schedule, I didn’t show the rushes to Amitabh Bachchan but to Salim-Javed. Amitabh was in Kashmir shooting for Lawaaris. They sent him a telegram saying, “Don is of international calibre.”

For the Khaike paan Banaras - wala number, I made Amitabh eat 35 paans to get that film of paan on his lips which cannot be achieved with make-up. Anandji (of Kalyanji-Anandji) used to eat a lot of paans, he was the inspiration for this.

Are you planning any feature film?

Don has given me a new lease of life, now I get a couple of offers to direct every month. I have two scripts ready. I also know which actors I would like to work with. In a couple of months, I should be back on track.