Don (2006), subtitled The Chase Begins Again, turns 20 this week. The action thriller was co-written and directed by Farhan Akhtar, with Shah Rukh Khan as the titular anti-hero and Priyanka Chopra as Roma. Its making is a list of production choices that still sound like film-buff trivia—from an impossible location yes to double twists and high-speed plotting.
A Prime Minister opened a door Hollywood couldn’t
The most surprising access story may be the Petronas Towers. The crew filmed inside the personal office of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the Towers. He had previously declined even Hollywood films permission to film there.
Malaysia became the film’s real backlot
Malaysia was not a brief stop. 80% of the film was shot in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi. Filming ran over 70 days at 42 locations, including KLCC, Kampung Baru and Penchala Link, and used more than 1000 extras selected through auditions.
A media ambush used real journalists
Authenticity was built into the crowd scenes too. For a scene depicting a media ambush, the team hired several real-life journalists from India and Malaysia. Earlier in Mumbai, scenes were shot on a closed set in actual chawls at real locations.
Action muscle came from Hollywood veterans
For the action, Excel Entertainment reached for specialists. Hollywood technician Angelo Sahin, the special effects supervisor behind Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), and aerial stunt co-ordinator Joe Jennings, known for Charlie’s Angels (2000), were hired for the action sequences. Filming also took place at the Petronas Towers.
A high-speed pursuit drove the plot
The chase is a plot engine, not just spectacle. During a high-speed pursuit following a police raid in India, Don suffers severe injuries and slips into a critical coma. D’Silva keeps Don’s survival a secret and recruits Vijay, a cheerful Mumbai street performer who is Don’s exact lookalike.
The double twist was in the script
Then the story bends. D’Silva is revealed to be Vardhaan, the lieutenant long presumed dead, who remains incognito until he retrieves a computer disc containing the cartel’s financial network and operational secrets. Farhan Akhtar changed several aspects of the original climax because he felt the earlier ending was outdated.
Chopra did her own stunts
Chopra treated the action as hers. Don was her first action role, and she decided to do all the stunts by herself. Akhtar was happy: it gave him scope to film the fight sequences from different angles.
Saroj Khan returned for Khaike Paan
The musical set-pieces carried their own legacy. Veteran choreographer Saroj Khan agreed to choreograph the new version of Khaike Paan Banaras Waala, the song her mentor P. L. Raj had choreographed in the original. It was filmed in Malaysia on 13 May 2006 with Shah Rukh Khan and Chopra.
The remake began with a remix
The whole remake started small. Farhan Akhtar conceived the idea after listening to a remixed version of a song from the 1978 original. He co-wrote the film with his father Javed Akhtar, who had also written the original with Salim Khan, and he retained elements he thought were still strong: the background score, two songs, some dialogue and some situations.
Twenty years later, the production is its own trivia trove. Which Don detail did you know first?
Facts from Wikipedia: Don (2006 Hindi film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.