Sanju Director Raju Hirani's Version Of Why Aamir Khan Rejected Role Is A Bit Different From Actor's

New Delhi: Just a couple of days before, Aamir Khan had revealed why he refused to play Sunil Dutt's role in the upcoming film Sanju. Now, at the trailer launch event of the film, director Rajkumar Hirani opened up about what Aamir Khan said when he was offered the role of Sanjay Dutt's father. Sanju director told IANS that when he narrated the story to Aamir, he had asked him if he would play the role of Sunil Dutt but the actor refused to take up the role since he didn't want to play an older man post Dangal. "Aamir showed me Dangal and said, 'look I'm already playing an older man's role. And after Dangal, my next film has me play an older man again, then people will stop giving me a young man's role!' That was a valid argument. Finally, we had Pareshji (Rawal) playing Dutt saab," Mr Hirani told IANS.

Aamir Khan played the role of an aged Haryanvi wrestler - Mahavir Singh Phogat - in Dangal. Actresses Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra were cast as his onscreen daughters.

Mr Hirani said that he read out the script of Sanju to Aamir not with the intention of asking him to play any character. But the director ended up offering him the role of Sunil Dutt in the film out of "greed". "Not with the intention of asking him to play any role. He reacted interestingly to the script and liked it. Then just out of greed, I asked Aamir if he would play Dutt saab's role? He took it seriously and gave it a thought," Mr Hirani added.

Aamir Khan had said in a statement earlier that it was Sanjay Dutt's role that had "won his heart" and he was not willing to take up any other role. "In this film I can't do any other role apart from Sanjay Dutt's, which I can't do because Ranbir is doing," Aamir Khan said at a previous media interaction.

Rajkumar Hirani has a tinge of humour added to every film that he directs and on being asked if Sanju will have the trait, the director said: "It is not that we haven't added element of laughter in it. There is definitely fun in the film but that percentage can be more and less."

"I will never say my films like PK and Lage Raho Munnbhai were a comedy film because that film had strong message to tell. In that film, also there was humour but there was lot of drama and other emotions as well so, in this film there is lot of emotion but audience will not get feeling that it is less in humour, " IANS quoted Sanju director saying.

Sanju stars Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt, Anushka Sharma as a biographer, Vicky Kaushal as Sanjay Dutt's childhood friend, Sonam Kapoor as one of his love interests, Manisha Koirala as Nargis Dutt, Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt and Dia Mirza as wife Maanyata. The cast of the film was present at the trailer launch of the film which took place in Mumbai on Wednesday.

In case you have missed, here's the trailer of one of the most anticipated films of this year Sanju:



The film is set to be released on June 29.