Don franchise has a separate set of fans altogether and all credit goes to Shah Rukh Khan. The actor has made the role iconic in the history of Indian Cinema after legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan. But it came shock to his fans when the makers announced that Ranveer Singh would be the next Don for its sequel. Recently, Farhan Akhtar shared the reason behind choosing Singh for Don 3. He further called Ranveer a very charming guy, mischievous and full of energy which is what he needed for the script. 

In an interview with Raj Shamani for his podcast, Farhan said “The kind of script that we were writing, what I wanted to do with it… it’s too early to speak about it so I can’t unfortunately can’t get into detail. But it needed this next-generation actor in it. He’s just inherently a very charming guy. He’s charming, he’s mischievous. He’s just full of energy, which is what this needs. I feel that when it comes to this aspect of his performance, it’s still untapped. I don’t think he’s done a role like this. He has always played, predominantly, characters which are to an extent – with the exception of Lootera… His characters, because of who he is, as in they’re written for him for this reason, are very external. They are loud, big characters where he’s got the histrionics.”

He continued, “Don requires a different kind of performance from him. There is a certain holding of everything inside that is needed, which I don’t think he has done. So I think it is a nice challenge for him to be able to do it. You will see him in a different way, holding it all together. Personally, there’s a lot of strength in that. You know what the person is thinking but they’re not saying it. The eyes and body language can convey it and to me that’s very meaningful. The personality is going to be different from what he’s played.” 

Farhan also answered why Shah Rukh Khan did not reprise his role, he added “We did try. There were a couple of ideas we exchanged and wrote some stuff also but somehow, either he was excited by something that I didn’t feel or that I was excited by something that he didn’t feel… you know what I’m talking about. That happens. Sometimes that synergy on a script doesn’t happen. It didn’t happen on this. So we said we’ve done two which are really fun and amazing together, let’s just…”