In the world of movies, certain movie franchises are synonymous with certain iconic actors and actresses and it is almost near to impossible to imagine the series of the movie without them. One such iconic face from the Hindi movie industry is the most beloved Shah Rukh Khan, who has enthralled millions and millions of his fans and the audience alike with his memorable portrayal of an underworld kingpin in the most famous ‘Don’ movie series. Such has been the performance of the actor in the series of the movie that ‘Don’ and Shah Rukh Khan have almost become inseparable from each other. However, one recent announcement that has been made by the director of the ‘Don’ franchise, Farhan Akhtar has left the fans of Shah Rukh Khan fuming over his decision and chastising him over the internet. Recently, Farhan Akhtar announced that the new series of the ‘Don’ franchise, ‘Don 3’ will be seeing a new face as he has decided to replace Shah Rukh Khan with Ranveer Singh. This drastic decision has not just angered the fans but also made them call for an unofficial boycott of the movie if it is released in the theatres without Shah Rukh Khan reprising his role as the age-old ‘Don’.

The Dawn of a New ‘Don’

It was after the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan that the character of ‘Don’ has become almost synonymous with Shah Rukh Khan when he featured himself in ‘Don 1’. The film was a reboot of the original ‘Don’ that was played by Amitabh Bachchan. However, even though the original ‘Don’ received immense appreciation from the audience and was a blockbuster hit at the box office, everybody went crazy over the portrayal of the character of ‘Don’ by Shah Rukh Khan in the rebooted version ‘Don 1’. Since then, Shah Rukh Khan has been unofficially bequeathed the sobriquet of the ‘Don’ of the Hindi movie industry for his spectacular and memorable portrayal of the character in the movies. No wonder it is practically impossible for the audience to imagine some other face portraying the character all of a sudden.

On Tuesday, 8^th of August in this year, the director of the movie Farhan Akhtar took to his social media accounts on Twitter to announce before the audience that he would want the beginning of a new era with a change of face of the actor, who is supposed to play the role of the ‘Don’ in his upcoming movie ‘Don 3’. This caused quite a buzz in the air as it left the audience engaged in various kinds of thoughts and speculations. As soon as it was told that the director has chosen the actor Ranveer Singh for the role of the ‘Don’, the netizens and fans alike started slamming the director and the entire authority associated with the making of the film severely on the internet. The sudden and drastic decision to get a new face portraying the character in the place of the ‘King Khan’ of the Hindi movie industry has left the fans shooting out at Farhan Akhtar and the makers of the movie.

It has been announced by Farhan Akhtar that the new face, who would be portraying the role of ‘Don’ in the film will be Ranveer Singh. Though nothing has been said for certain still as per the sources that are associated with the film, Ranveer Singh is the final choice for Farhan Akhtar this time.

Ranveer Singh, the New ‘Don’

Though it is undoubtedly true that with his energetic performance, natural charisma and good skills in acting, Ranveer Singh has often won over the hearts of several people, especially, the younger generation of boys and girls who are a fan of his weird sense of fashion. However, taking over the lead from Shah Rukh Khan’s hands is not an easy feat for anybody, no matter how good the person is with the craft of acting. That he is going to be encountering several challenges and backlashes this time is inevitable.

The Reactions from Fans and Netizens

It is no wonder that this significant diversion from the existing formula has not gone down well with the fans of the ‘King Khan’ and they have lashed out at Farhan Akhtar and even Ranveer Singh for accepting the offer to play the character. “Is Don Ko Accept Karna Mushkil Hi Nahi Namumkin Hai” was one of the comments on Farhan Akhtar’s social media accounts after he decided to make his decision public by posting a tweet on his Twitter account. Going through his comment section will not be a nice experience for someone as it has all the negative things said about him, some being quite harsh and even insulting. Some fans and netizens have even given a call to boycott the film if it is dared to be released in the theatres without their favourite ‘Don’ in it.

“There’s no need to call it Don 3 if you don’t have SRK in it. If it’s a new era, just call it a reboot. Fly on the coattails of Don & Don 2 and not even have the courtesy to value fan emotions in the right way after years of us wanting an SRK Don 3 is just disrespectful,” wrote another user, visibly disapproving of Farhan Akhtar’s “A New Era Begins” formula. However, not all comments are critical of the decision of the director. Few of the netizens have stood by him in his quest to give the series a new look this time. Some have welcomed his decision by voicing their approval of him, whereas, some have dropped heart-eyed emoticons to extend their support towards him in his decision. Twitter debates between the fans of Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh fans have broken out too. While Shah Rukh Khan fans claim that portraying such a serious and menacing role as that of ‘Don’ is not going to be an easy job for Ranveer Singh, who is mostly known to promote funny, flamboyant and carefree characters in most of his films, the fans of Ranveer Singh would jump in their ‘Simmba’s defence by pointing out to his menacing and violent portrayal of the historical Afghan Sultan ruler of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji, in Sanjay Lila Bhansali’s period drama ‘Padmavat’ that was released in the year 2017.

Thus, this clamour is going to persist there for some time as has become the norm before the release of any Hindi movie nowadays. Though a new change is always welcome but at the same time it is also to be kept in mind that old habits cannot be broken easily. Thus, all we can do is wait patiently to see how such a bold move taken by Farhan Akhtar pays off.