When Kapil Sharma Blunders Kalyanji-Anandji As RD Burman On Don’s Music

In the latest episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show (Season 5, Music Ke Dhurandhar streaming on Netflix from 24 October 2026), Kapil Sharma hosted a musical night featuring Dhurandhar’s composer Shashwat Sachdev, singers Satinder Sartaaj and Jasmine Sandlas, and sitarist Rishab Rikhiram Sharma. While introducing a saxophone player who had contributed to the iconic 1978 film Don, Kapil stated that the musician had played the saxophone piece from Don and attributed the film’s music direction to RD Burman. This is a clear and basic factual error. The music of the original Don (starring Amitabh Bachchan) was composed by the legendary duo Kalyanji-Anandji, not RD Burman. Songs such as “Khaike Paan Banaras Wala,” “Yeh Mera Dil,” “Are Diwano Mujhe Pehchano,” and the film’s unforgettable theme music all carry Kalyanji-Anandji’s signature. Crediting RD Burman instead is not a minor slip of the tongue; it is a fundamental misattribution of one of Bollywood’s most recognisable soundtracks. What makes the mistake especially unacceptable is the context. Kapil was hosting working musicians and singers closely associated with a current film’s soundtrack. When professionals of music are on the stage, casual ignorance about classic film music becomes more jarring. Don is not an obscure title; it remains one of the most quoted and sampled films in Hindi cinema. Confusing its composers with RD Burman (whose own body of work is distinct and equally celebrated) shows a lack of basic preparation. The Great Indian Kapil Show has a team of writers. Attributing the music of Don to the wrong composer is precisely the kind of error a writers’ room should catch. This was a needless blunder on a stage that otherwise celebrated music.