New Delhi: Filmmaker Farhan Akhtar's Don hits the cinemas next week on Diwali with Shah Rukh Khan stepping into Amitabh Bachchan's shoes. While comparisons are inevitable between the old and the updated, the retro and the slick, CNN-IBN takes a look at what happens when Don meets Don.
The original Don released over 25 years ago in which Amitabh Bachchan played the cold-hearted, suave underworld kingpin under the directorial gaze of a relatively unknown filmmaker - Chandra Barot.
Enter 2006 - Don is uber-cool, slick and Hollywoodesque - born under the gaze of Mumbai film industry's GenNext poster boy Farhan Akhtar.
Rewind to 1978, Amitabh was 36 and was still on the rise career-wise when Don announced to the world his immortality with dialogues like Don pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai.
Amitabh an outsider to the film industry, had struggled through inconsequential roles for four years before he found his feet with Zanjeer.
Films like Sholay, Trishul and Deewar put Amitabh in the big league. He was the angry young man but the drive to establish himself as the superstar was still on.
Fast-forward 2006 - SRK is 41 and at the peak of his career. He's called the badshah of the box office. He's won every popular award, heralded as the darling of the box office, from Tamil Nadu to Toronto Shah Rukh Khan is the current king of cool and charisma.
And the sail for Shah Rukh has been relatively smooth in comparison to Amitabh. After establishing his credentials on the small screen SRK has been noticed from his very first feature debut.
But unlike Amitabh who's credentials as an actor are impeccable - SRK is a star first, an actor who hijacks his character to fit his image.
So, will Don, too, be another shade of SRK? Will the second take on Don be as successful? An unfair comparison but can SRK match his steps to the Big B? Or does he need to?
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