Daily Times

Do you know? Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan was the first choice of filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani for lead roles in ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ and ‘3 Idiots’.

Khan and Hirani finally had their first project together ‘Dunki’, after 20 years of the latter being part of the Indian cinema. But believe it or not, the two could have collaborated much earlier in their careers or Hirani could have even started his career with SRK if things had worked out as planned.

Reportedly, Khan was locked to play the titular lead in Hirani’s debut project, ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ but could not begin shooting due to a back injury before Sanjay Dutt had to step in. Not only this, the title was even delayed by 10 months because of him, as revealed by an actor. In a recent interview with an Indian media outlet, actor Khurshed Lawyer, who played roommate Swami to Dutt’s character and was also a part of the recently released ‘Dunki’, made a revelation saying, “Munna Bhai MBBS went on floors. It got delayed for nearly 10 months due to Shahrukh Khan’s back injury.”

“Eventually, things moved with Sanjay Dutt. In my personal opinion, Munna Bhai wouldn’t have been Munna Bhai without Sanjay Dutt and Dunki wouldn’t have been Dunki without Shahrukh Khan. They both were meant to do their respective characters. It was God’s will, I guess,” he added.

In an earlier interview, the ‘Pathaan’ actor also revealed that he signed ‘3 Idiots’ and was even involved in the casting process with Hirani, but had to step back due to a conflicting filming schedule with another title which got delayed.

Both of these cult hits by Hirani are among some of the most-loved films of Indian cinema and witnessed major critical and commercial success upon release.