Shah Rukh's Don 2 converted to 3D

Farhan Akhtar is probably the first and the only Bollywood filmmaker to change the format of his movie a few months before it releases. 

Don 2, the sequel to the producer-director-actor-singer’s 2006-hit Don, is now in the process of becoming a 3D venture. He admits it was friend and his film’s hero-cum-villain Shah Rukh Khan who inspired the move. “We make all the decisions together. Shah Rukh convinced me that it would be great to convert the sequel into 3D,” he adds.

However, Don 2, the year’s much-awaited Christmas release, is the third Bollywood film in the 3D format this year. Vikram Bhatt’s Haunted was the first and Shah Rukh’s super hero fantasy RA.One is being considered for 3D conversion as well. “It’s great that Shah Rukh and other filmmakers are working with the 3D format. It’s a sign that we’ve begun to trust technology,” asserts Farhan. 

The Dil Chahta Hai director claims that the conversion’s demo test on a couple of key sequences blew him away. “It’s co-incidental that certain moments, thrills, and some of the action sequences made a lot of sense when viewed in 3D,” he says. Farhan wasn’t familiar with the technology while planning and executing the change in Don 2’s format. But now he’s hooked: “I would love to experiment with 3D in the future. Once I had said that I wont make a sequel to Don. But the character just didn’t leave my system. I find him fascinating. I was drawn by magical powers to come up with this film. As for a sequel to Don 2 or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara in 3D, I’ve learnt my lesson: never say never. ‘Wanted Don in a new avatar’

Farhan, also the film’s co-producer, hired a German action team called Action Concept to make the fight sequences edgier. Point out that the don looks more menacing in the just-released promos, and the Rock On!!! hero smiles, “I’d wanted Don to be introduced in a new avatar, something that immediately suggests that he’s been taking it easy for the last few years and killing time before he makes his next big move.”

Hair-styling experts, Farhan’s wife Adhuna, and Dilshad Pastakia, worked on Shah Rukh’s new look for the Don sequel. “He had to maintain that look for a couple of weeks and it wasn’t easy in the Malaysian weather. But Shah Rukh is a sport. He told me that his son Aryan felt he looks perfectly like a don. That helped,” says Farhan, adding that the temporary tattoo was designed as a representation of the central character’s attitude.