20 years of Don EXCLUSIVE: Cinematographer KU Mohanan recalls Shah Rukh Khan driving through fire in chase scene: “There was no duplicate. He will do anything you tell him”; also shares why the film’s twisted climax added to its success
Farhan Akhtar’s Shah Rukh Khan starrer Don: The Chase Begins Again (2006) completed 20 years today. The film was a remake of Chandra Barot’s Don (1978), starring Amitabh Bachchan. Produced by Excel Entertainment and also starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Om Puri, Boman Irani, Arjun Rampal and Isha Koppikar, the action flick became a success at the box office. It was a major moment for mainstream Hindi cinema as sequels weren’t a regular feature back then.
Even after two decades, Don doesn’t appear old. A major reason for this is the visuals provided by cinematographer KU Mohanan. Interestingly, this was the first time he had worked in a mainstream commercial film. Mohanan revealed that there were apprehensions because of this before he came on board in an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama.
He said, “At that time, I was mainly doing advertising work. I was quite big in advertising films. Maybe, that’s why Farhan got an idea about my work. But he knew I hadn’t done any big feature film before. He was a little apprehensive also in the beginning if I would be able to pull it off. This was a huge film. He expressed his concerns and asked me if I would like to do it. I said I will try because even I was not very sure about myself. But I took it as a challenge and accepted the film.”
Challenges of shooting action sequences
Mohanan faced that challenge of shooting high-octane action sequences for the first time. “It was very challenging,” he said. “But we had a good team, like the second unit director and the action team. The main person was from Australia. He had worked in many Hollywood and international films. We really wanted to make it look world class. Most of the action scenes were done in real. The chase sequences were done in that speed. There wasn’t too much of cheating. Certain things which we couldn’t do in real were done with a little VFX. At that time, VFX was not very popular. It wasn’t easy to do VFX.”
Shah Rukh Khan’s daredevilry made things easier
Mohanan shared that SRK made things easier and he was amazed by his commitment towards shooting action scenes. “He will do anything you tell him,” he recalled. “He used to get very excited for action, even at times when I used to get scared. I was sitting behind him in the car with the hand-held camera during a chase scene. He was driving the car and hitting the water barrel that was coming on the windscreen and then hitting a road roller. Everything is done by him. There was no duplicate.”
One particular scene involving fire astonished Mohanan about the kind of risks Khan was ready to take. “There is also a scene where the car is going through a fireball. That car is driven by Shah Rukh Khan. It wasn’t a stunt double. There was a camera mounted in front of the car, so you can see the actor. He did it twice. He is the greatest star I have worked with. He is a such a great, gentle and warm human being. He is a very hardworking actor and very supportive to everybody. He is a dream to work with. More than a star, I am a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan as a person,” he said.
Don started a good professional bond between Mohanan and SRK, which continued in various projects in the years to come. “Shah Rukh is very fond of me maybe because of the quality of work I come with. He really appreciated the way I worked in Don. That’s the reason I did Raees (2017) and Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017). After that, I did innumerable TV commercials with him,” he recalled.
The end twist played a major role in Don’s box office success
Interestingly, KU Mohanan is a big fan of the original Don. It released when he was a school student in Kerala. He was glad to know that Farhan Akhtar’s remake threw in a major twist in the end. “It was so exciting for me to re-do that film as a cinematographer,” he said. “When I read the script and saw the twist, I felt it was very interesting. Otherwise, what is the point of making it exactly like before? That’s a great twist that Farhan brought in. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the film worked at the box office. We had a very strong team along with the great vision of Farhan Akhtar. He is very supportive as a director and a great producer, along with Ritesh Sidhwani.”
Don’s international look was an effort to break the existing pattern in Bollywood back then
Don had an international look to it. Mohanan said that this is what they always aimed for. “We were trying to break the regular pattern of Bollywood cinema existing at that time,” he said. “Anyways, I am exposed to international cinema. Actually more than Hollywood, I am exposed to other kind of cinema – the cinema from Europe, Japan, etc. So, I have a different kind of way of looking at things. Maybe that worked in the film actually. That’s why it looks different.”
Mohanan made it clear that despite taking inspiration from international cinema, his aim was never to copy anything from foreign films. “You can get inspired by someone else’s work. You can get influenced by people who worked before us. It’s like carrying a baton forward. I tried to make it look very unique and our own. To an extent, I think, I succeeded in doing Don. It wasn’t a copy of Hollywood. But it also wasn’t like the regular Hindi cinema of that period,” he said.
The green colour palette
One can easily notice the green colour palette to the film right from the onset. Sharing the thought behind this, Mohanan said, “When we did the camera and look test, Farhan, myself, the production designer Aradhana Seth and the costume designer Aki Narula discussed decided that we will go with one particular colour palette. It’s a collaborative work, actually. We also decided that we will cut off certain type of a colour. For example, there are no warm colours in the film; it’s a very cold film. You have shades of blue, green and black. We thought this looks like a good colour palette for the film. Otherwise, Hindi cinema was not doing any colour palette at that time. There wasn’t a properly paletted film. It was all haywire. There is only one song (‘Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana’) where there is a lot of warmth, like red, orange, etc.”
Don started a healthy working relationship between KU Mohanan and Excel Entertainment
Don was a pleasurable experience for KU Mohanan. It became a start to a long collaboration with Excel Entertainment, with movies like, Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012), Fukrey (2013) and Raees. He laughingly said, “Most of my filmography is produced by Excel Entertainment. They are very good producers. They are very straightforward and very quality conscious. That’s the reason I did most of my films with them. Ritesh Sidhwani is a very great producer.”
Surprisingly, Mohanan wasn’t a part of Don’s sequel Don 2: The Chase Continues (2011). When pointed this out, he said, “I was busy with some other work actually.”
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