Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Don’ was rejected by Dev Anand, Jitendra

Veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan shot to new heights of fame after playing the titular role of Don, in the movie with the same title.

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The 1978 movie was, however, rejected by several big stars including Dev Anand, Jitendra Dharmendra, and Prakash Mehra before it was offered to the Bollywood actor.

According to reports, the stars of ‘Don’ including Amitabh Bachchan and actress Zeenat Aman along with filmmaker Chandra Barot encouraged producer Nariman Irani to make the movie following the failure of his debut movie.

Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were tasked with writing the script for the movie, however, the makers of the movie were left in trouble after they could not convince any top actor to play the lead role in their story.

The duo would refer to the script as ‘Don story,’ which Barot found appealing as well.

Producer Nariman Irani later registered the movie under the name ‘Don’ and began production on the movie. The film’s soundtrack was composed by Kalyanji-Anandji.

Read more: Jaya Bachchan says she was reluctant to join Amitabh’s ‘Zanjeer’

In an old interview, Chandra Barot, who directed ‘Don,’ revealed that the film was first offered to veteran Bollywood actors including Dev Anand, Jitendra and Dharmendra.

However, they all rejected it, leading them to offer the role to Amitabh Bachchan.

According to Barot, Bachchan then agreed to play the part while promising that he would not accept payment for the movie if it failed at the box office.

However, ‘Don‘ proved to be Amitabh Bachchan’s biggest blockbuster of that time and is still considered one of the most iconic Bollywood movies.

Apart from Bachchan and Zeenat Aman, the film also starred Pran, Iftekhar, Helen, Om Shivpuri, Satyen Kappu, and Pinchoo Kapoor.

The film saw Amitabh Bachchan play two roles; that of Bombay underworld leader Don and his doppelganger Vijay.