Over the years, Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Don’ franchise has established itself as a cult classic and to imagine that anyone other than Shah Rukh Khan could play the titular character is almost impossible for netizens. After the massive success of the original ‘Don’ film starring Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood Badshah managed to amass the same fame with his rendition, which is a difficult task in itself. Recently, filmmaker Farhan Akhtar appeared on Raj Shamani’s podcast and revealed that Shah Rukh wasn’t the first person he thought of when he decided to do a remake. Moreover, Farhan also revealed why he cast Ranveer Singh for ‘Don 3’ instead of SRK, a development that shocked several fans.

Spilling details about the blockbuster 2006 film, Farhan revealed feeling dejected after the failure of ‘Lakshya’ and his first phone call after he decided to helm the remake of ‘Don’ was Hrithik Roshan, however, at the time, Akhtar hadn’t even developed the script. “I reached out to Hrithik and I told him that I am thinking about remaking Don. He said ‘sounds amazing’ and I said ‘let me write it and I will bring it to you’. While writing it, the only person whose face kept popping into my head was Shah Rukh.” Adding further, Farhan believed that SRK’s “personality, wit, sarcastic humour,” made him the right person for the job.

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Recounting the incident, Akhtar revealed that he told his dilemma to Hrithik, the ‘Dhoom 2’ star encouraged Farhan to reach out to the person he thinks fits the bill without worrying about Hrithik. Expressing gratitude towards Hrithik’s graciousness, the filmmaker revealed the story behind the casting of the iconic film. Meanwhile, Hrithik was in the sequel film ‘Don 2’ which was also headlined by Shah Rukh Khan.

When probed into why the filmmaker chose Ranveer Singh for the third instalment, Akhtar revealed, “The kind of script that we were writing, what I wanted to do with it… It’s too early to speak about it unfortunately so I can’t into into details but it needed this next-generation actor in it.”

Elaborating further, he added that Ranveer is mischievous and full of energy and the upcoming film’s narrative needs that. Believing the side of Ranveer to be untapped in the actor’s previous projects, Akhtar said, “Don requires a very different kind of performance from him. There is a certain holding everything inside that is needed for this character which I don’t think he has done so I feel, for him also, it is a nice challenge to be able to do this. You will see him in a different way.” As the conversation progressed, Akhtar revealed that he and SRK did share a couple of ideas however their ideas didn’t align.

‘Don 3’ starring Ranveer Singh and Kiara Advani, has been bankrolled by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment. The film is scheduled to release in 2025.