Bollywood Kissa: The 2003 film ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ proved to be a turning point for Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay Dutt and his father Sunil Dutt were seen together in the film. This film not only transformed Sanjay Dutt’s image but also actor Arshad Warsi, who was known by most people as Circuit. But few people know that earlier there were plans to cast three different actors in this film, whose names you might not even be able to guess.
There was talk of casting Anil
Then director Rajkumar Hirani’s analysis and understanding changed everything. Rajkumar Hirani suggested Anil Kapoor’s name and Vidhu Vinod Chopra found Vivek Oberoi fit for the role of Munnabhai. In an interview, Rajkumar Hirani said that in this way the matter reached Shahrukh Khan and we thought that Shahrukh Khan would be given the lead role in Munnabhai MBBS.
Shahrukh had suggested the name of Aishwarya Rai
Rajkumar Hirani told that when Shahrukh Khan’s name came up, he was not able to find him fit for this role. Still he went and met Shahrukh Khan, those days he was shooting for the film Devdas. Rajkumar Hirani told that when he was narrating the story to Shahrukh Khan, he was judging him for a long time whether he would be able to make this film or not. Rajkumar Hirani told that then Shahrukh Khan suggested Aishwarya’s name for this film and he was completely dazzled.
There would have been a long gap because of Shahrukh Khan
Vidhu Vinod Chopra told that the story took a U-turn when Shah Rukh Khan went out for surgery and he was not going to do any work for the next 6 months. After this, Shah Rukh Khan had to do films like ‘Main Hoon Na’ and ‘Veer Zara’, so he would have to wait for the next two-and-a-half years, but that did not work out. Rajkumar Hirani said that when Sanjay Dutt’s name came up, he thought that his film was being made with Shah Rukh Khan and now how did Sanjay Dutt’s name suddenly come up.
This is how Sanjay Dutt’s name was finalized
Apart from ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’, Rajkumar Hirani, who has made films like ‘3 Idiots’, ‘Sanju’, ‘PK’ and ‘Donkey’, then decided to do an analysis. He made a checklist and started imagining how each actor would perform this scene. Rajkumar Hirani said that there were a total of 81 scenes in that film and I imagined all the actors in each scene with my eyes closed. I kept ticking the one I thought would be the best. The director said that when he finally totaled all the scenes, Sanjay Dutt’s score was the highest. In this way, he decided to cast Sanjay Dutt.
