A couple of days back, producer Ritesh Sidhwani in an interview confirmed that Farhan Akhtar is working on the script of Don 3 and an official announcement shall be made once the script is locked. Ever since then, Don 3 has been a trending topic on the digital platform with fans awaiting the return of Shah Rukh Khan as the most wanted Don. However, we had learnt from our sources an exclusive update on Don 3.
According to sources close to the development of the script work, Shah Rukh Khan has decided to exit the Don franchise. “Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani have had multiple detailed discussions with Shah Rukh Khan on Don 3. Before the pandemic, a couple of ideas were also discussed, which took shape of a script through the pandemic. Meetings have happened recently too, but Shah Rukh is not too keen to get back as Don again at this point of time. He is willing to do commercial films that cater to universal section of audience, and Don certainly doesn’t fit the bracket of cinema that he is willing to do for the coming few years. He has conveyed his decision to the stakeholders at Excel,” revealed a source close to the development.
To make the franchise bigger, Farhan and his team also come up with a unique idea of bringing 3 generations of Don together – Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and a gen-next star – to lay down a platform for the generational shift of Don. “But SRK felt the idea of spinning Don universe would be gimmicky and hence advised the team about his exit,” the source added.
Left with no option, Farhan Akhtar is working on a fresh script of Don reboot now. Amitabh Bachchan features in Don back in 1978. The same was rebooted with Shah Rukh Khan in 2005. And now, come 2024, Farhan is planning to reboot the franchise with a new leading man.