This film was rejected by Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, lead actor said yes without reading the script, became blockbuster, earned Rs…

Shah Rukh Khan was offered lead role in this blockbuster, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Scroll down to know the film’s name!

Many Bollywood films struggle to secure distributors or open to empty theatres, even with star power. However, some of these films go on to become unexpected hits. One such film, initially rejected by distributors and superstars, eventually found success. The film is none other than Munna Bhai MBBS. Despite opening to empty theatres, it eventually became a massive commercial success at the box office.

Munna Bhai MBBS is a satirical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banner Vinod Chopra films. The film stars Sunil Dutt in his final role as the father to his real-life son, Sanjay Dutt, who plays the titular character. The cast also includes, Vidya Balan, Gracy Singh, Jimmy Shergill, Arshad Warsi, Rohini Hattangadi, and Boman Irani.

Sanjay Dutt wasn’t the first choice for Munna Bhai MBBS

Although Sanjay Dutt played the lead role of Munna Bhai and received widespread praise for his performance, he wasn’t the first choice for the role. Initially, Shah Rukh Khan was offered the part, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Similarly, Aishwarya Rai wasn’t the first choice for Gracy Singh’s role, but reportedly decline the offer because of Sanjay Dutt’s turbulent personal phase at the time.

Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra also shared an interesting anecdote regarding the film. He mentioned that Sanjay did not even read the script of Munna Bhai MBBS, even after he was finalised for 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.” Vidu said.

He also revealed that the film was opened to empty theatres and told Bollywood Hungama, “Munna Bhai MBBS opened to empty theatres. Raju was very upset thinking I lost a lot of money. At that time, I told Raju, here is a little money about Rs 11,000. He said, ‘I will take nothing.’ I was like ‘This is for the next film, make one more. It’s a great film.’ At that time, we had about Rs 4 crore. I was like make another film. I didn’t care if Munna Bhai worked or not. Although the film started to pick up pace after Monday, the seats were empty during the weekends. I didn’t really wait for the film to become a success for me to make another film.”

However, despite all this, the film emerged to be a commercial success. Made in Rs 10 crore, Munna Bhai MBBS managed to earn Rs 56 crore worldwide.