Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who recently directed the sleeper hit 12th Fail, looked back on his career, and his partnerships with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rajkumar Hirani. Both of them are now considered among the most celebrated directors in the Hindi film industry, but years ago, they worked as assistants to Vinod Chopra. In a chat at the Kellogg School of Management, the filmmaker opened up about the story of how he met Hirani, who’d go on to direct the blockbuster hits 3 Idiots and Munna Bhai, produced by Chopra.
Asked to speak about his partnership with Hirani, the director said, “Sanjay Bhansali was my assistant. Now he’s called Sanjay Leela Bhansali.” The crowd erupted in laughter, and Chopra continued, “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.”
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Chopra continued, “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.” The crowd oohed and aahed.
Hirani went on to edit Mission Kashmir for Chopra and some time later, told him the basic concept of Munna Bhai. He said that he wanted Om Puri for the lead role. Chopra, in his signature brash manner, 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.” Chopra told Hirani if he’s going to do some imaginary casting, he might as well aim for Shah Rukh Khan.
Munna Bhai was initially going to star SRK in the lead role, but he dropped out because of an illness. He was replaced by Sanjay Dutt, who has since become synonymous with the role. Bhansali, on the other hand, recently released his debut streaming series, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.
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