Veteran filmmaker Chandra Barot, best known for directing the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer “Don”, passed away on Sunday due to cardiac arrest at a hospital in Mumbai, his family said. He was 86.
Barot was battling ‘Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis’ (IPF-fibrosis of lungs) for the last 11 years and had been receiving treatment at the Guru Nanak Hospital, as per his family.
“Chandra passed away at the Guru Nanak Hospital this morning at 6.30 due to cardiac arrest caused by a chest infection. He had IPF, which is fibrosis of the lungs, for the past 11 years,” his wife Deepa Barot told PTI.
Before making his directorial debut with “Don”, the filmmaker served as an assistant director to actor-director Manoj Kumar in “Purab Aur Pachhim”, “Roti Kapada Aur Makaan”, “Yaadgaar”, and “Shor”.
After “Don”, Chandra Barot directed a Bengali film — “Aashrita” (1989).
Released in May 1978, “Don”, featuring megastar Amitabh Bachchan in a double role — that of a mafioso and a simpleton — went on to become a blockbuster with its racy music, iconic dialogues and pulsating action.
One of the most celebrated films of Chandra Barot’s career, “Don” had its fair share of ups and downs.
On the 40th anniversary of the movie in 2018, Chandra Barot in an interview with PTI shared an interesting insight that he, along with his friends Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Pran – all three who featured in “Don” — decided to make the film to pull one of their producer friends, Nariman Irani, out of debt. “Bawa’s (Irani) wife was a hairdresser and knew writer Salim Khan. We asked her to put in a word for us. When we met Salim, he didn’t have a script ready but told us, ‘There is one subject which no one understands’.
“We said ‘we don’t care, we just want ‘Salim-Javed’ written on the posters’. It was a ready script and we took it immediately. It didn’t even have a title. Everyone in the industry called it ‘Don waali script’,” Chandra Barot had recalled.
Sadly, Irani passed away six months before the release of “Don”, he added.
The filmmaker also revealed that many big stars in the industry, including Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Dev Anand, had refused the movie, which was one of the highest-grossing Indian films of 1978.
Chandra Barot is survived by his wife and a son.
“Don” was turned into a franchise by filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, son of Javed Akhtar, who had written the original script of the movie along with Salim Khan.
Film industry colleagues took to social media to mourn Chandra Barot’s death, remembering him as a wonderful filmmaker who made one of the most entertaining Hindi movies – “Don”.
Farhan Akhtar paid tribute to the ‘OG’ “Don” filmmaker on Instagram.
“Saddened to learn that the director of the OG Don is no more. RIP Chandra Barot-ji. Deepest condolences to the family,” said the actor-filmmaker. Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment bought the rights to the 1978 film and directed it in 2006, with superstar Shah Rukh Khan playing the titular role.
