Amitabh Bachchan pens heartfelt observe to Don director Chandra Barot

Veteran filmmaker Chandra Barot, finest recognized for guiding the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Don, handed away on Sunday (July 20, 2025) on account of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Mumbai, his household stated. He was 86.

After the announcement of Barot’s passing, tributes poured in from a number of Bollywood personalities, together with megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who described the filmmaker as his “dear dear friend”.

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Barot was battling ‘Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis’ (IPF-fibrosis of lungs) for the final 11 years and had been receiving remedy on the Guru Nanak Hospital, as per his household. Chandra Barot is survived by his spouse and a son.

In a heartfelt observe, Bachchan stated he was deeply saddened by the passing of his shut pal Barot.

“Another and one other unhappy second .. Dear expensive pal and my director of DON – Chandra Barot handed away this morning.

“It is difficult to put in words the loss. We worked together, yes, but he was more a family friend than any else ..I can only pray,” the 82-year-old actor wrote on his weblog.

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Before making his directorial debut with Don, Barot 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 movie – Aashrita (1989).

Released in May 1978, Don, that includes Amitabh Bachchan in a double function – that of a mafioso and a simpleton – went on to change into a blockbuster with its racy music, iconic dialogues and pulsating motion.

One of probably the most celebrated movies of Chandra Barot’s profession, Don had its justifiable share of ups and downs.

On the fortieth anniversary of the film in 2018, Chandra Barot in an interview with PTI shared an attention-grabbing perception that he, alongside along with his buddies Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Pran – all three who featured in “Don” – determined to make the movie to tug one in every of their producer buddies, Nariman Irani, out of debt.

“Bawa’s (Irani) spouse was a hairdresser and knew author Salim Khan. We requested her to place in a phrase for us. When we met Salim, he did not have a script prepared however informed us, ‘There is one topic which nobody understands’.

“We stated, ‘we do not care, we simply need ‘Salim-Javed’ written on the posters’. It was a prepared script and we took it instantly. It did not actually have a title. Everyone within the trade referred to as it ‘Don waali script‘ (A script a few don),” Chandra Barot had recalled.

Sadly, Irani handed away six months earlier than the discharge of Don, he added. The filmmaker additionally revealed that many massive stars within the trade, together with Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Dev Anand, had refused the film, which was one of many highest-grossing Indian movies of 1978.

Don was was a franchise by filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, son of Javed Akhtar, who had written the unique script of the film together with Salim Khan.

Film trade colleagues took to social media to mourn Chandra Barot’s demise, remembering him as an exquisite filmmaker who made one of the entertaining Hindi films – Don.