‘Sanjay Dutt was cast for Jimmy Shergill’s role in Munna Bhai MBBS,’ recalls Vidhu Vinod Chopra: ‘He didn’t even read the script’

Vidhu Vinod Chopra said that Sanjay Dutt was cast in Munna Bhai MBBS after a big movie star backed out at the last minute.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | November 23, 2024 11:48 AM IST

3 min read

Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals Sanjay Dutt wasn't the first choice for Munna Bhai MBBS

Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra was a special guest for a session Living Movies: Filmmaking and the Creative Life, at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on Friday. During the conversation, Vinod opened up about the making of Munna Bhai MBBS and shared that Sanjay Dutt was initially cast as Zaheer in the film, the role which was ultimately played by Jimmy Shergill. He shared that another star was supposed to play the titular role but backed out last minute.

During the session, 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. Sanjay Dutt was supposed to do Jimmy Shergill’s role, he wasn’t Munna Bhai.” It has been previously been reported that Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to play the titular role, with Makrand Deshpande playing Circuit.

Vinod went on to share that Sanjay did not read the script of the film even after he was told that he was playing the lead role. “When Sanjay came, I said ‘Tu Munna Bhai kar raha hai (You are playing 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,” Vidhu added.

ALSO READ | Arshad Warsi says most of his jokes in Munna Bhai MBBS were improvised by him: ‘Assistant directors would ask what’s so funny in this?’

At the unveiling of SCREEN in October, director Rajkumar Hirani revealed that he is seriously thinking about making the film’s third instalment. He said, “I have five half-finished scripts for Munna Bhai. I spent six months on a script, reach the interval, and it just would’t go beyond that. There is a Munna Bhai LLB, Munna Bhai Chal Base, Munna Bhai Chale Amreeka, and more,” said the Dunki filmmaker, who spoke about the biggest challenge of writing a Munna Bhai film. “The most important factor is that the next instalment has to get better than the previous films. But now, I have a unique idea. Of course, over the course of 100 years of cinema, everything has been said. But yeah, I am working on that idea.”

“I think Sanju might just come home and threaten me to get done with the next. He really wants to do another Munna Bhai film. I am seriously thinking about making the next Munna Bhai film,” he added.

Munna Bhai MBBS had a sequel titled Lage Raho Munna Bhai in 2006.

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