MUMBAI : Salman Khan won several hearts when he appeared as the Robinhood cop Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg. His style and performance were much loved by the audience and the movie also went on to be a super hit. However, do you know that he was not the first choice of the director?

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Yes, Dabangg director Abhinav Kashyap, had other two actors in mind to play the role of Chulbul Pandey in the movie. However, when Arbaaz Khan was approached by the director to play the role of Makkhi in the movie, it was he who suggested Salman’s name for the antagonist. 

Arbaaz Khan revealed in an interview, that Abhinav Kashyap’s first choice was Irrfan Khan or Randeep Hooda to play the role of Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg. Can you imagine Irrfan Khan as a fun-loving, Robin Hood cop that Salman Khan plays in Dabangg? Or Randeep Hooda saying ‘swagat nahi karoge humara’? 

Well, Arbaaz said in an interview with Mumbai Mirror, “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.”

Dabangg also starred Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna and Dimple Kapadia in key roles in the movie. The movie collected Rs 215.00 crore worldwide at the box office and many dialogues from the movie like , “swagat nahi karoge humara”, “thapad se darr nahi laagta sahab, pyaar se laagta” and more became audiences’ favorite. 

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Meanwhile, Salman Khan is currently awaiting the release of his upcoming movie Tiger 3, helmed by Maneesh Sharma, the movie also stars Katrina Kaif and Emraan Hashmi and is scheduled to hit the theatres this Diwali (November 12). The film will also see Shah Rukh Khan as Pathaan and Hrithik Roshan as Kabir making a cameo.

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Credits - DNA