Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani who is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming film Sanju revealed the reason behind superstar Aamir Khan not playing the character of Sunil Dutt in the film.
The director was at the trailer launch of Sanju along with Ranbir Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sonam Kapoor, Dia Mirza and Vicky Kaushal on Wednesday in Mumbai.
Aamir Khan had recently revealed that he was offered the role of Sunil Dutt in the biopic, but he was more keen to play the lead role, which was already with Ranbir Kapoor.
Hirani was asked what his reaction was when Aamir Khan said no and he said, "Aamir is a friend. Whenever I write a script, I just go to him and narrate it to get a reaction from him. So I narrated this script also.
"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. He said let's meet after a while," he said.
"So I met him the next week again, then he showed me Dangal and said" 'look I'm already playing an older man's role. And if 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," Rajkumar Hirani added.
Sanju is biographical film based on the life of actor Sanjay Dutt, directed and written by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film is set to be released on June 29.