Salman Khan is a bona fide actor in Bollywood and there remains no doubt in it. The actor, in his nearly 31 years of career has shelled out several masterpieces and one amongst them is surely the Dabangg series. Started in 2010 by Abhinav Kashyap, the younger brother of director Anurag Kashyap, Dabangg added a new dimension to action thrillers and cop dramas. The film that featured Salman as Chulbul Pandey aka the Robin Hood cop went on to become of the highest grossers of the year. But did you know Salman wasn't the initial choice to play the lead role? Well, it seems so as Arbaaz Khan, the producer of Dabangg franchise, during an interview, revealed Irrfan and Randeep Hooda were the first people in Abhinav's consideration. The actor turned producer revealed that since things with Irrfan and Randeep didn't work out, they roped in Salman and the film went on to break records.
"When Abhinav narrated the script to me, I asked him why he wasn’t offering me the role of the Robin Hood cop. But more than Chulbul, he saw me as Makkhi, which was an extension of my role in Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. He was looking to cast Randeep Hooda or Irrfan Khan as the lead then but neither of them had been finalised. I offered to produce the film for him and asked him what if we got Salman on board as Pandey ji. He was instantly excited and things quickly fell in place," Arbaaz told during the interview.
Salman Khan in a still from Dabangg
The Dabangg franchise is now all set to enter into its third film- Dabangg 3. Delving more into this project, Arbaaz added that 60% of the film has been shot and the filming will be wrapped by September.
Dabangg 3 is a prequel film that traces Chulbul's journey from a kind-hearted goon in his 20s to become a Robin Hood cop in present times. The film, directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Arbaaz, Salman and Nikhil Dwivedi is scheduled to release on December 20, 2019. The principal shoot of the film began in April with the team flying to Indore. The first shot of the film took place in Mandleshwar and Maheshwar. Apart from Salman, Dabangg 3 stars Sonakshi Sinha as Rajjo, Mahesh Manjrekar as Hariya, Kannada star Sudeep, Pramod Khanna and Saiee Manjrekar in important roles.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
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