DYK Sanjay Leela Bhansali Worked As An Assistant For Vidhu Vinod Chopra?

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have delivered several great movies in their directorial career to date. But not many are aware of the fact that Sanjay Leela Bhansali used to assist the 12th Fail director years ago. Recently, Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed that SLB used to work for him and made some terrible mistakes around the release of the film 1942: A Love Story.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra talks about his working experience with SLB

Addressing the crowd at Kellogg School of Management, ace director Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed that Sanjay Bhansali was his assistant, who is now well known as "Sanjay Leela Bhansali." The 12th Fail director further mentioned an incident from the sets of the film 1942: A Love Story. He said, "He was cutting a trailer for 1942: A Love Story. Sanjay cut a terrible trailer, and I told him it wasn’t going to work. He then cut another trailer, which was also terrible."

When the filmmaker asked SLB who was responsible for the terrible trailer cut, the Heeramandi director admitted that it wasn't his area of expertise due to which he asked someone else to do it. He continued, "They called me back the next day, to watch another version of the trailer. It was an amazing trailer. I said, ‘See, Sanjay? I kept telling you that you could do it’." Later, Chopra revealed that Sanjay Leela Bhansali was quick to admit that he didn't make the cut, but the skinny boy, Rajkumar Hirani, did.

What inspired Vidhu Vinod Chopra to be the director of 12th Fail?

It was after his conversation with Raju Hirani that he started reading the book and "slowly got involved". While he was writing the script of the film, he fell in love. He told Raju Hirani about the actors and he suggested Vikrant. "I had seen his A Death in the Gunj and I really liked him. I stay three hours away from Mumbai, and he came there for two-three days," he added. 12th Fail opened to widespread response from the critics, audience, and celebs, especially for Vikrant's performance. Despite clashing with Tejas, the film turned out to be a sleeper hit.