Sanju: Not Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh was producer's first choice to essay Sanjay Dutt's role

Everyone seems to be excited about watching Sanjay Dutt's unbelievable life story on celluloid through Rajkumar Hirani's 'Sanju' today but turns out that producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra wasn't very thrilled when Hirani first proposed the idea of the film to him. 

While speaking to Telegraph, Chopra revealed, “When he told me, I was like, ‘What’s there in Sanjay Dutt’s life that merits being made into a film?! It’s better you make a film on my life… how I left Kashmir as a young boy and struggled when I came to Bombay.’ (Laughs) I thought Raju and Abhijat (Joshi, Sanju’s co-writer) had lost their minds!"

However, he eventually gave into the script after getting a detailed narration from Hirani. More than anything it was the sheer edginess of the actor's life that made Chopra give up on 'Munna Bhai Chale Jail' (third installment of the popular Munna Bhai series starring Sanjay Dutt) for 'Sanju'. 

“When he (Hirani) sat me down and started narrating all that had happened in Sanju’s life, I was stunned! At first, I thought it was hogwash… that Sanju was somehow not telling Raju the truth, but when we started researching all that he’s said — from the 308 girlfriends he had to how he begged on the streets of US for the money to buy a bus ticket — we realised that everything he had told us was true!"

It was during the narration when Vidhu Vinod Chopra realised that the much-loved 'Jaadu ki Jhappi' scene from Munna Bhai MBBS where Sanjay asks for his father Sunil Dutt's forgiveness was for real. “I was standing there on the set of Munna Bhai and I had no idea they were actually living that scene,” he told the newspaper.

The producer futher revealed that he was not at all happy with Ranbir Kapoor's casting initially. He was of the opinion that Ranveer Singh would do a better job of the role.But it was Hirani's convinction that made him kneel down to his vision. 
 
“When he told me about Ranbir, I wasn’t happy at all. I thought someone else, like Ranveer Singh, could play this role much better. I thought Ranveer had the flamboyance, the emotional depth as well as the ability to change himself completely to play Sanjay Dutt. But Raju was adamant that Ranbir would be perfect. And when we started shooting and Ranbir became Sanjay Dutt, I had to kind of eat my words.”