Vidhu Vinod Chopra Makes Huge Revelation, Says, 'Other Star Was Supposed To Be Munna Bhai' and Not Sanjay Dutt

Munna Bhai MBBS starring Sanjay Dutt and directed by Rajkumar Hirani is often considered a cult classic in Bollywood. It is a film that touched millions of hearts and it was with this film that Sanjay Dutt got to redefine himself. Fans often believe that Sanjay Dutt aka Sanju Baba was absolutely cut out for this particular role. However, he was not always meant to play the role of Munna bhai but that happened by chance. The producer of the film Vidhu Vinod Chopra recently revealed how Sanjay Dutt was signed for Munna Bhai. 

At the International Film Festival of India, the famous producer was attending a session called Living Movies: Filmmaking and the Creative Life, and that is where he spoke about Munna Bhai MBBS. He said, "Some other star was supposed to be Munna Bhai. I won't mention his name, my wife will kill me. He, as usual, what stars do, backed out at the last moment for whatever reasons."

Chopra mentioned that even though Sanjay Dutt was already on board, he was not supposed to play the titular role but had been signed to play Jimmy Shergill's character in the film. He was quoted saying, "Sanjay Dutt was supposed to do Jimmy Shergill's role, he wasn't Munna Bhai."

He further added, "When Sanjay came, I said 'Tu Munna Bhai kar raha hai (You are going to play Munna Bhai), the main character'. He was like, 'Aap jo kahoge vo kar lunga' (I'll do whatever you say), he wasn't even particular about any character. He doesn't even read the script no matter how hard we try. I gave Sanju the script to read, he came after one and a half hours and said, 'Kamaal ka script hai', he didn't even read a single page."

Several reports had surfaced earlier which stated that Rajkumar Hirani's first choice for the role of Munna Bhai was Shah Rukh Khan. However, SRK later admitted that he could not take up the film at the time since he was dealing with a spine injury and did not know when he would be able to start shooting. The actor had also stated that Rajkumar Hirani did not want to wait for a long period of time since it was in the initial phase of his career.