Munnabhai MBBS, Om Shanti Om and Bunty Aur Babli were first offered to me: Vivek Oberoi

By Vandana Srivastawa

on April 12, 2019

Vivek Oberoi is back in the reckoning after quite a few years. However, the actor who was looking forward to the release of his upcoming film PM Narendra Modi suffered a setback when the Election Commission banned the film from releasing during the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Now, in an interview to a portal, Vivek opened up about what went wrong in his promising Bollywood career and confirmed that he let go of some amazing projects like Munna Bhai MBBS, Hum Tum, Om Shanti Om and more that were offered to him first and went on to become huge hits.

After recognized for his stellar performance in Ram Gopal Varma’s Company, Vivek was offered Munna Bhai MBBS and even took workshops for the film. The portal reported that Vivek later backed out of the film within just a few days. Talking about Munnabhai MBBS, Vivek said, “I wanted to do Munna Bhai, I said yes to it, but destiny had it that it was supposed to be a Sanjay Dutt film. I couldn’t adjust my dates.”

In fact, he was offered Arjun Rampal’s role in Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer Om Shanti Om. However, he refused the character because he did not want to play a negative role after Company. Interestingly, Vivek was also offered Farhan Akhtar’s Rock On (2008), Shaad Ali’s Bunty aur Babli (2005) and Kunal Kohli’s Hum Tum(2004), all films that eventually went on to become blockbusters.

Talking about saying no to these films, Vivek told the portal, “For the 10-odd films I let go which succeeded, there were 70 or 80 films that I let go off which failed and bombed at the box office,” Oberoi said, adding, “How do you make sense of it? Well, you take an informed call or life takes it for you.”

Well, life has taken an informed call for Vivek and once again he is at a stalemate situation as his film has been banned by the Election Commission even after the Supreme Court cleared it for release. The EC asserted that the film which is based on the life of the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the potential to disturb the level playing field during the ongoing General Elections 2019.