How Nagarjuna replaced Sanjay Dutt in Amitabh Bachchan-Sridevi’s Khuda Gawah

Film Khuda Gawah which starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi and Nagarjuna among others, completed 30 years on May 8. There were reports that Nagarjuna was not the first choice and Sanjay Dutt was first signed for the film. After 30 years, Manoj Desai, the producer of the film has revealed that the reports were true and also said that he had to even pass Ajay Devgan. 
In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Manoj said, “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.”

He then put an end to rumours surrounding that Dutt had problems with him. The producer also revealed that Dutt was rejected as he was a part of the song Tamma Tamma and it sounded similar to Jhumma Chumma. He said, “Sanjay Dutt was harassed so much over this topic that he landed in Amitabh Bachchan’s vanity van.” He explained that Anand was the reason he was leaving the film.
Manoj recalled that Devgn had also been passed over for the part. He claimed that Mukul Anand chose Nagarjuna over Devgn because he wanted the work to be done for free.