Amitabh Bachchan’s costar shares how ‘Khaike Paan’ song ended up in ‘Don’

Veteran Bollywood actor Zeenat Aman, who starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Don,’ has shared an interesting story behind the iconic ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ song.

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The song became a hit and remained etched in the hearts of fans for decades.

Zeenat Aman, who also starred in ‘Don’ opposite Amitabh Bachchan, has now revealed that the song made its way to the film after it faced rejection from the makers of another title.

According to the veteran Bollywood actor, ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ was originally made for another film titled, ‘Banarasi Babu.’

“It was created for Dev Anand’s Banarasi Babu, but had been rejected as too frivolous. Meanwhile Director Chandra Barot had completed his action thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan in a double-role, but found that the second half of the film needed some relief from the intensity of the plot line. And so, long after the film had wrapped, the cast and crew arrived at Mehboob Studio to shoot a new video,” she wrote in a post on Instagram.

 

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While lauding Amitabh Bachchan for his performance in ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala,’ Zeenat Aman said that the Bollywood actor consumed an enormous amount of paans while shooting the ‘Don’ song.

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“It took several days to shoot this number, and what I remember most acutely is the quantity of paan that Mr. Bachchan consumed and the sheer energy he brought to set. He was one of just two male leads at the time who was considerably taller than my 5 feet 8 inches, and so it’s a rare song in which the director had me dancing in ‘proper’ high heels,” she added.

Zeenat Aman also discussed the remake of the song in Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra’s 2006 remake of ‘Don.’

“It was later reenacted by SRK and Priyanka Chopra in Farhan Akhtar’s 2006 remake of the film. And ‘their’ number is just as catchy and upbeat as ‘ours’ was!” the Bollywood actor added.