Did you know that it was not Sanjay Dutt, but Shah Rukh Khan who had been signed up for Munnabhai MBBS; reveals Vidhu Vinod Chopra

There must be hardly anyone who must not have heard or must not have seen the extremely feel-good film Munnabhai MBBS. How can anyone forget the seamless level of friendship that Munnabhai and Circuit (Arshad Warsi) shared on screen. Their respective characters, eventually, went onto became cult figures in the history of Indian cinema.

But, did you know that, it was not Sanjay Dutt, who was the original choice for the film Munnabhai MBBS! Yes... you heard it right! Sanjay Dutt was not the original choice for the film at all. The original choice was none other than Shah Rukh Khan!

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The shocking revelation was done by none other than the film’s director Vidhu Vinod Chopra amidst a conversation at the prestigious Kellogg Management School. He said that, while he was not knowing Sanjay Dutt, still, he went ahead and announced a film with him, because the entire Bollywood had banned him because of his arrest in the possession of illegal weapons during the 1992 Bombay bomb blasts.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra said that he did not know him (Sanjay Dutt) and that he thought it was very wrong that the whole film industry banned him. Eh added that, he felt that, it was wrong because till he was proven guilty, he was innocent. That’s why he went to Sunil Dutt and told him that he would will announce a film with Sanjay.'

Vidhu Vinod Chopra added that, Sunil Dutt had even warned him saying that, Producers Guild would ban him. To which, he decided that, he did not care (about any kind of ban), because, he felt it was wrong what they were doing (by banning Sanjay Dutt).

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After that, he met Sanjay Dutt to tell him that he was doing the role of Zaheer (which was eventually played by Jimmy Sheirgill) in Munnabhai MBBS. To which, Sanjay Dutt readily agreed. And unlike as shown in the film ‘Sanju’, Sanjay Dutt never read the script of the film and had said yes to the film.

As luck would have it, one day Shah Rukh Khan (who was then, playing the role of Munnabhai), came to him (Vidhu Vinod Chopra) and told him about the throat issue. And, that’s when he decided that, it will be Sanjay Dutt, who will be playing the role of Munnabhai MBBS. The rest, as they say, is ‘history’ or should we say… ‘his-story’!