The film Don played a major role in cementing Amitabh Bachchan’s superstar status, especially after hits like Zanjeer, Deewaar, and Sholay. But behind the scenes, its journey was far from smooth. Producer Nariman Irani, despite delivering a hit, was left financially devastated.

Don turned out to be the last film he produced, as he tragically passed away just before its release. The money the film made went into clearing the heavy debts Irani had taken on during production. Don starred Bachchan along with Zeenat Aman, Pran with Helen in a special appearance. The film was directed by Chandra Barot. Lyricist Sameer Anjaan once opened up about the making of Don and shared a fascinating story behind one of its most iconic songs—“Khaike Paan Banaras Wala”, written by his father, the lyricist Anjaan. In an interview with DD Urdu, Sameer revealed, “My father’s guru had promised to make him the next Harivanshrai Bachchan. But little did my father know that instead of becoming the next Harivanshrai Bachchan, he would become eternally linked to Amitabh Bachchan because of the song ‘Khaike Paan Banaras Wala’. Even today, it is impossible to mention Bachchan without mentioning the song. But did you know that the movie wasn’t supposed to have the song at all?” According to Sameer, the film was already complete when Javed Akhtar suggested adding a new song to balance out the action-heavy second half.

“Javed Akhtar watched the movie with everyone else, and felt that the second half was too dry. He felt that it had too much action. So, he advised that a new song be filmed and inserted to balance things out. He was adamant and stubborn about it. He said, ‘No, I want a song’. The movie had been completed, the release date had been locked! Then, my father was summoned.

The poor producer was in such a bad state because of the film that he didn’t even have money for food.” Sameer said Nariman Irani tried to explain to Javed that there was simply no money left for another shoot, but Javed stood firm. “The song was made. But then, a new issue cropped up. Amitabh Bachchan was supposed to leave for abroad. He would be away for over a month. There was only one day to shoot the song, and no set to shoot it on. They came up with the idea to go to Goregaon, and shoot the song at one of the ‘tabelas’ that folks from UP had there.

You won’t believe it, but they went to a ‘tabela’, shot the song in a couple of hours, and the rest is history,” he said. In a 2006 interview with Rediff, director Chandra Barot revealed that the film came together as a goodwill gesture to support Irani, who was already in debt after his previous film failed. “He produced his first film Zindagi Zindagi with Sunil Dutt, which flopped badly. He was in debt so, as his friends, we decided to bail him out. Amitabh Bachchan, Pran, Salim-Javed and Zeenat Aman came forward to make a film. It took three years and six months to make Don.

There were tremendous budget constraints, but we knew we had to make a good film.”