Govinda was once offered the role of Chunnilal in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas, which featured Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in titular roles. The film, which was released in theatres in 2002, was an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel that had been published around 1917. Bhansali’s adaptation on screen is remembered to date for many things including the stellar acting performances and also for the grand production scale that the film had. Every minute of the film was crafted with perfection, so fans were obviously always speculating on why Govinda would not want to be a part of something as big as Devdas.
In a recent conversation with Hindi Rush, Govinda’s wife Sunita Ahuja directly threw a question at the audience asking why the actor would take a second lead role in a film when he himself was a big name.
She said, “Why would he take on a second lead role as the leading star of the ’90s?” Sunita stressed on the fact that the role in the film would never do justice to the kind of stature that Govinda had back then rather it would not have looked good because Govinda himself was a really big star at that point.
She said that it came as a matter of surprise to her that Govinda was being offered such a role and also mentioned that the actor handled the matter very calmly and did not get enraged when he was offered the role for a second lead in the movie.
Sunita emphasised, “It’s his choice. You can’t offer Chunnilal’s role to Govinda. He didn’t do it, it’s his choice. I am glad he didn’t do it. Why would be accept such a role being a top star? He was a top star during the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. Why would you offer a role like that to him. He handled it very well; I wouldn’t have been as kind.”
Eventually, it was Jackie Shroff who played the role of Chunnilal and the actor was appreciated not just by fans but also by critics for breathing life into the character in the most amazing way possible. In fact, Chunnilal remains one of Shroff’s most iconic characters. When the video went viral many have also stated that Jackie Shroff too was a big star back in the day and even then took up the role and played it well.