‘Creative Bankruptcy’: Why Javed Akhtar Refused To Touch Border 2 And Amitabh Bachchan’s Don Remake

Javed Akhtar said that if given a choice, he would have preferred to remake films like Kaala Patthar (1979), Mashaal (1984), and Rahul Rawail’s Arjun (1985).

Javed Akhtar said that reworking old songs just to recreate “nostalgia” shows a lack of new ideas, which he described as “creative bankruptcy”.

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Border 2, starring Sunny Deol in the lead role, is slated to release on Friday, January 23. It is positioned as a sequel to JP Dutta’s 1997 blockbuster film Border. During the making of the film, Border 2 makers approached lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar to rewrite the songs from the first part. He said that reworking old songs just to recreate “nostalgia” shows a lack of new ideas, which he described as “creative bankruptcy”.

Javed Akhtar On Why He Rejected Border 2

He also shared that even when his son Farhan Akhtar decided to remake the classic film Don (originally released in 1976 and starring Amitabh Bachchan), he personally would not have chosen to remake it if he had the choice.

“Perhaps not. I see what Farhan’s point is, and it is totally valid. It is a good point. But if I had to choose from my own films, I would pick one that after writing it and after watching it on screen, I felt, ‘Oh god, I should have done this or that.’ So I would like to remake it, rewrite it to mend that mistake,” Javed Akhtar said during a Rediff interview, before stressing, “As a writer, I don’t have a problem with Don, so why would I want to remake it?”

However, if given a choice, Javed Akhtar said he would have preferred to remake films like Kaala Patthar (1979), Mashaal (1984), and Rahul Rawail’s Arjun (1985). He explained that while he believed these were strong films with compelling plots and characters, he felt he had faltered as a writer, particularly in the second half. 

“I feel they were very good films; they were very good plots, they were very interesting characters. But somewhere, I missed the bus as a writer, especially in the second half. The mistakes were minor, but they could have been corrected. If I had taken one avenue instead of another, those films could have been much better.”

‘Loyal To My Don’: Javed Akhtar

When Chandra Barot died, Javed Akhtar had written, “I will always be loyal to my Don.” While he acknowledged that Farhan Akhtar’s versions were successful and well-made, he made it clear that his emotional and creative loyalty remained with the original film.

He added, “Don, for me, is the 1978 original, a film written by Salim-Javed. The films made later by Farhan are definitely successful and well-made, but I will stay loyal to my film.”

In 2006, Farhan Akhtar remade Don with Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor, and went on to become a major commercial success. 

“I think Don is the one film from that time that, in my mind, lends itself to being remade today. For me, it is a film that, back then, was a little ahead of its time. I don't say so technically—not the way it was shot, or the sets, or whatever. But the way the story was told, the language the characters spoke, the writing style, there was—it was very modern even for its time. So today, when you adapt it, it fits very easily into a contemporary space,” Farhan told Rediff in a 2006 interview.

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