Don 2: The King Is Back is a 2011 Indian Hindi language action thriller film written, co-produced and directed by Farhan Akhtar.
Jointly produced by Excel Entertainment and Red Chillies Entertainment, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan, alongside Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta, Om Puri, Nawab Shah, Ally Khan, Sahil Shroff and Kunal Kapoor.
The film received positive reviews from critics with praise for its story, cinematography, production design, music, action sequences and cast performances.
With a box office gross of over ₹202.81 crore (US$23 million), Don 2 became a commercial success and was the 3rd highest-grossing Hindi film of 2011.
Don gets cornered by his own associates, who reveal that they were offered a deal by the Europeans to have their cocaine from Asia open for sale in Europe.
Don returns to Malaysia and surrenders to Detective Malik and Roma, who have joined Interpol, where he is sentenced to death, sent to prison and soon meets his old rival Vardhaan.
In Zurich, Don meets his trusted companion Ayesha and they retrieve a tape from a secret locker whose key was under Vardhaan's possession.
Roma and Malik arrive in Berlin and unsuccessfully interrogate Diwan, while Don and his team execute a bank robbery.
However, Don blackmails Diwan into giving him German immunity in exchange for erasing the evidence of him being involved in James Warden's death.
Don negotiates with the Berlin Police and Interpol over surrendering the plates and a disc, which contains the details of the European underworld, in exchange for the safety of the hostages and defusing the bombs in the bank.
Following Vardhaan's arrest, Don obtains his immunity papers and surrenders the plates and the disc as agreed, while also getting Roma to an ambulance.
[11] Boman Irani lost 12 kg for the role and grew a beard to make his character look "cold, cunning and deceitful"; he felt that playing a villain was "a big stretch" for him as an actor.
[25] Khan trained with Hollywood stunt and fight director Wolfgang Stegemann, who also played Karl in the film.
The idea of 3D conversion occurred to Akhtar while shooting; after tests in Los Angeles, it was decided to convert the entire film.
The vocals were performed by Vishal Dadlani, Anusha Mani, Usha Uthup, Shankar Mahadevan, Sunitha Sarathy, KK and Caralisa Monteiro.
[38] The producers collaborated with McDonald's and Café Coffee Day in 20 cities to provide free Internet access with Wi-Fi in their stores so that viewers could watch songs in 3D on their computers.
[42] The cast, director and producers embarked on a multi-city tour across India (including Patna) to promote the film.
The firm developed a third-person action-adventure console game in which the player performs actions similar to Don's in the film.
[52][53] Reliance Entertainment obtained a "John Doe" order from the Delhi High Court allowing it to serve cease-and-desist notices on film pirates.
[60] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India rated the film 4 stars out of 5 and called it "a classic action/crime thriller that doesn't let go, even for a moment.
More importantly, the plot has been finely crafted, with every twist and turn falling into place like a complicated albeit neat little jigsaw.
[65] Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Analysis gave 3 out of 5 complimenting Khan's performance and action sequences, which he thought made the film work.
[66] Mid-Day gave it 2.5 out of 5, praising Khan's performance and wrote "The film is slick, the cinematography is captivating but the racy, edge of the seat pace that you expect from an action thriller of this kind is sorely missing.
"[67] Raja Sen of Rediff.com termed the film as "a glossy, unashamed action offering polished within an inch of itself, visually coming together seamlessly and effectively.
"[68] Rajeev Masand gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, calling it "spectacularly boring", and wrote "Don 2 is nicely shot, and there are moments where Khan is riveting.
"[69] Sonia Chopra of Sify also gave 2.5 out of 5, feeling that the original film was better as compared to the sequel but praised the action sequences, writing "The car chases are superb and will have you at the edge of your seat.
"[70] Writing for Hindustan Times, Mayank Shekhar was disappointed with the film, calling it "never ending" and criticized the stretched storyline.
He does his job to the best of his ability and is almost done when he hears that line “Don Ko Pakadna Mushkil Hi Nahin...”"[72] Among the overseas reviewers, Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Khan's foray into bad-boy territory is all swagger with not much substance.
"[73] David DeWitt of The New York Times called it the "slick cousin" of "Mission: Impossible and Ocean's Eleven".
[86][87] It set a record for the all-time biggest opening week for a Hindi film in North America, earning $2.64 million.