{"id":14867,"date":"2025-07-20T23:04:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/20\/chandra-barot-the-visionary-behind-don-dies-at-86-india-news\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T23:04:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:04:21","slug":"chandra-barot-the-visionary-behind-don-dies-at-86-india-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/20\/chandra-barot-the-visionary-behind-don-dies-at-86-india-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Chandra Barot, the visionary behind &#8216;Don,&#8217; dies at 86 | India News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<h3>Remembering Chandra Barot: Celebrated Director of &#8220;Don&#8221; Passes Away at 86<\/h3>\n<p>Mumbai: Chandra Barot, the iconic director of the classic film &#8220;Don&#8221; from 1978, has passed away at the age of 86. He died from medical complications at Guru Nanak Hospital in Bandra (East) on Sunday morning. <\/p>\n<p>Barot&#8217;s wife, Deepa, shared that he had been battling pulmonary fibrosis for the last seven years and succumbed to a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from &#8220;Don,&#8221; Barot also directed the successful Bengali film &#8220;Ashrita&#8221; in 1990, featuring Mithu Mukherjee. His family originally hails from Tanzania, but they moved back to India in the 1960s due to racial turmoil. His sister, Kamal Barot, was well-known as a playback singer in Bollywood.<\/p>\n<p>Before becoming a director, Barot collaborated with renowned actor Manoj Kumar, assisting him on several films like &#8220;Purab Aur Pachhim,&#8221; &#8220;Shor,&#8221; and &#8220;Roti Kapada Aur Makaan.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The story behind &#8220;Don&#8221; is quite remarkable. Barot&#8217;s friend and cinematographer, Nariman Irani, was in a tough spot financially after his first film flopped. To support him, Barot, along with stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat Aman, took part in &#8220;Don.&#8221; Sadly, Irani passed away in 1977 before the film was released. In a tribute, Amitabh dedicated his Best Actor Filmfare award to Irani.<\/p>\n<p>At a time when Hindi films rarely had unique titles like &#8220;Don,&#8221; Barot faced some skepticism. His mentor once asked if he was making a movie titled &#8220;Down.&#8221; Barot clarified that &#8220;Don&#8221; is a Spanish word meaning &#8220;gentleman.&#8221; An insightful suggestion from Kumar led to the creation of the hit song &#8220;Khai ke paan Benaraswala.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8221; wasn&#8217;t just a hit; it became a cultural touchstone, leading to various remakes in different languages, including Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. The film celebrated a platinum jubilee and inspired newer adaptations like Farhan Akhtar&#8217;s &#8220;Don: The Chase Begins Again&#8221; in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Following Barot&#8217;s passing, many in the film community expressed their sorrow on social media. Farhan Akhtar posted a heartfelt message, saying, &#8220;Saddened to learn that the director of the OG Don is no more. RIP Chandra Barot-ji. Deepest condolences to the family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On a rainy Sunday, Barot&#8217;s funeral took place in a simple ceremony at the Kherwadi Hindu crematorium in Bandra (East), attended by close family and relatives. As those present paid their respects, memories of Barot&#8217;s legacy echoed, especially his own words: &#8220;I will be remembered as the man who made Don.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remembering Chandra Barot: Celebrated Director of &#8220;Don&#8221; Passes Away at 86 Mumbai: Chandra Barot, the iconic director of the classic film &#8220;Don&#8221; from 1978, has passed away at the age of 86. He died from medical complications at Guru Nanak Hospital in Bandra (East) on Sunday morning. Barot&#8217;s wife, Deepa, shared that he had been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1408,17975,2081,17927,17974,2080,471,2055,2078,2079,17976],"class_list":{"0":"post-14867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india-news","8":"tag-amitabh-bachchan","9":"tag-bollywood-director","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-chandra-barot","12":"tag-don-movie","13":"tag-google-news","14":"tag-india","15":"tag-india-news","16":"tag-india-news-today","17":"tag-today-news","18":"tag-zeenat-aman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}