As compared to ‘Don’, which deals with rivalry of crime syndicates based in Malaysia, the storyline of ‘Don 2’ will focus on mafia ring in Germany and Britain, SRK said at the premiere of his latest blockbuster Om Shanti Om at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival Saturday night.

Shooting for the new ‘Don’ is scheduled to begin in Germany in few months to be followed by the film crew moving to Britain, the King Khan said.

According to SRK, the opportunities are great for Indian co-productions with German companies and some preliminary discussions on possible alliances between the two sides in this connection were held on the sidelines of the Berlinale.

Last year’s Berlin Film festival provided the ground for signing the first Indo-German Agreement on Audio-Visual Co-production, which provides a legal framework for cooperation between the producers in India and Germany.

Under the agreement, each country is committed to treat co-productions as national films and thereby producers from each will be entitled to benefit from all state support for the film and video industries of the other.

While many filmmakers boast of doing things out of the ordinary, some of them are drawn back to the age-old magic of Sholay, Don, Umrao Jaan , or then others are trying to bring to the audiences the once-upon-a-time black-n-white box office rockers in colour. But it is the Naya Daur , and it’s best that age-old classics remain untouched on their thrones of gold, than adapting them to current day and age situations, and then going ballistic about their new avatar, which is hardly new at all.

And that, we think, is the mistake RGV made. The film was an exact replica of Sholay , but remained unmatched in class and performances. Farhan Akhtar, too, was tempted to make a tribute to the movie he had grown up watching – Don. And though we bashed it for casting SRK as Don in it, let us tell you that his twist-in-the-tale was far more exciting than the picking up of Sholay and placing it on a new canvas. The old wine in new bottles, is just not working! And more so if you have the exact same story to tell.

Take Umrao Jaan as yet another example. We watched it on a television channel recently and vowed that the film should’ve fared better than what it did. It was simply told and beautifully executed, but the shaan and ada of that era, was obviously missing. But our filmmakers won’t understand, or maybe they do but are just trying their luck shooting in the dark. What was a success story once, may just create history again! But dear Directors, only if told with the same charm, magic and panache.

Of all the re-makes and colour re-releases, Farhan Akhtar’s Don seemed to have ‘donned’ more colour than the rest. Reason? It had enough commercial value to hold the audience’ attention. And the story left even the yesteryear audiences stunned at the end of it. The masses didn’t feel cheated, and were happy to have got a whole new experience when they walked out of the theatres. This old wine in a new bottle was tweaked. And that made all the difference.

Nominated in the Top Actor of the year category from India is Shah Rukh Khan, who played the title role in Farhan Akhtar’s Don. However, Shah Rukh Khan may not attend the awards ceremony. Besides Shah Rukh, no other Indian has been nominated in any ofthe categories.
Shah Rukh’s upcoming films include Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and Shimit Amin’s Chak De India.