MUMBAI: Vidhu Vinod Chopra is one of the most well-known filmmakers in the industry. He recently gave a superhit like 12th Fail and fans cannot wait for his next. Recently, he recalled some anecdotes from his career as well as his collaborations with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rajkumar Hirani.
Also Read : What! 12th Fail: Vidhu Vinod Chopra discloses THIS was the original director for Vikrant Massey starrer
Chopra said, “Sanjay Bhansali was my assistant. Now he’s called Sanjay Leela Bhansali” adding, “He was cutting a trailer for 1942: A Love Story. Sanjay cut a terrible trailer, and I told him it wasn’t going to work. He then cut another trailer, which was also terrible. I asked him who was responsible for this. He said that he knew he couldn’t do it, so he’d asked another person to cut it instead. A skinny boy comes in. Now, I’m illiterate, so I swear a lot. I gave the boy some really bad gaalis.”
Chopra further revealed, “They called me back the next day, to watch another version of the trailer. It was an amazing trailer. I said, ‘See, Sanjay? I kept telling you that you could do it’. And Sanjay said that he hadn’t cut this one either, it was the skinny boy. That was Rajkumar Hirani. I went over and gave him a hug, and that’s where the ‘jaadu ki jhappi’ comes from. I didn’t know this for many years, but Raju told me later.”
Chopra said that when he discussed Munnabhai MBBS with Hirani, the latter said that he wanted to cast Om Puri in the lead. To this Chopra said, “That was the limit of his ambition. There’s an old Punjabi story: a sardar was eating out of an empty plate. Another person saw this and asked what he’s doing. The sardar said that he’s having roti and daal. But there’s nothing in your plate, the second person said. The sardar agreed, but said that he’s imagining the food. ‘If you’re going to imagine it, imagine some chicken’, the second man said.” He told Hirani that if you are imagining it might as well be Shah Rukh Khan.
Munnabhai was initially offered to SRK but he opted out due to an illness and the role eventually went to Sanjay Dutt.
For more news and updates from the world of television and Bollywood, stay tuned to TellyChakkar.
Credit-IndianExpress
Add new comment