30 Years of Khuda Gawah: Did you know Sanjay Dutt & Ajay Devgn were earlier cast for the role played by Nagarjuna?

Epic drama film Khuda Gawah (1992) completed 30 years of release yesterday on May 8. Written and directed by Mukul S. Anand and produced by Manoj Desai, the film featured Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi, Nagarjuna, Shilpa Shirodkar, Danny Denzongpa and Kiran Kumar in pivotal roles.

In the film, Badshah Khan (Amitabh Bachchan) travels from Afghanistan to India to find the killer of Benazir's (Sridevi) father so that he can impress her. He succeeds but soon finds himself framed for a murder and trapped in an Indian prison.

On release, the film had opened to critical and commercial success. It was praised for its direction, screenplay, performances, soundtrack, and production values, and grossed ₹17.05 crore worldwide, becoming the third highest grossing Indian film of 1992.

It entered Limca Book of Records as the first Indian film to use surround sound technique. Khuda Gawah is also one of the most watched Indian films in Afghanistan's history.

Interestingly, an anecdote about the film was recently shared by the film's producer Manoj Desai, who revealed that Nagarjuna was not the first choice of the role of Inspector Raza Mirza. Before he bagged the film, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn were cast but they left the project after shooting for a brief while.

"Yes, Sanjay Dutt was signed initially. We even shot 7 reels with him. Even Farah Naaz had come on board. Woh 7 ki 7 reel doob gayi. This is because the late Mukul Anand ji, the director of the film, wanted to shoot his Pepsi and other ads free of cost in Nagarjuna’s studio in Hyderabad. Hence, Nagarjuna bagged the role. As a result, we had no choice but to remove the scenes of Sanjay Dutt and Farah from the film, including a song. Then Shilpa Shirodkar replaced Farah,” Desai said.

He further added, "I had to pass Ajay Devgn as well. He had shown me the reel of Phool Aur Kaante (1991). He was very nice. Lekin baat ghoom fir ke wahin aa gayi. Nagarjuna ko leke Mukul Anand apna kaam free mein karna chahte the. Yeh bahut purani aadat thi unki. Hence, we couldn’t cast Ajay Devgn.”

Noteworthy, Khuda Gawah received critical acclaim for all its actors and especially the lead pair Sridevi and Amitabh Bachchan. With Khuda Gawah, Sridevi became the only actress in the history of Indian cinema to play a double role opposite Amitabh Bachchan till date. The film won four Filmfare awards, including Best Director. It still remains popular in Afghanistan.