When 'crew members' of 'Don' saw their own graves

(Author: Alex Almeida)

Don (1978) was started in 1974 the film was made in order to support producer Nariman Irani financially who was in debts of twelve lakhs which was a huge amount then.

The film was made on a very low budget and was facing a financial crunch since the beginning over the years the film was made by arranging funds from wherever possible.

But the biggest blow it faced when producer Nariman Irani passed now there was a question whether the film would be complete or not. But finally it got completed and had gone a bit over budget.

Director Chandra Barot wanted to shoot the climax in a real Catholic Cemetery. But did not have that budget and producer was against it.

Chandra Barot decided to erect a set at Chandivali studio in Mumbai famous art director Desh Mukherjee erected the set in 21 days and was ready to shoot. On the day of the shoot when director Chandra Barot arrived with cast Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Om Shivpuri and Pran what everyone noticed was the set looked perfect like a cemetery but something was missing the names on the graves.

There wasn’t much time now to paint the crosses on the graves hence Chandra Barot suggested to paint only the one’s which were in focus. Chandra Barot decided the Crosses to be by the names of crew members. Alfred Francis, Joe Dsouza, Felix J Braganza and Leo Gomes some of it which appear in film titles. Joe Dsouza was the operative cameraman who shot his own grave.

After the release Don became a huge hit and now a cult classic. Narman Irani’s widow was given her share and she was able to clear debts of her husband.

(Writer of this article: Alex Almeida is a passionate Hindi cinema buff with a deep love for the art of storytelling.)

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