Sonu Sood, in a recent interview, has spoken about how initially he was offered the role of Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg (2010), which was ultimately played by Salman Khan, and how the latter also “stole” the item song ‘Munni Badnaam’ from him, which also featured Malaika Arora.

Sonu also said that when he was offered the antagonist Chhedi Singh’s role, he had initially turned down the offer but ultimately did it with certain conditions related to character and scenes.

In a conversation with Shubhankar Mishra on his YouTube channel, Sonu said, “Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg’s director) was an assistant with Mani Ratnam earlier. He was a very good friend of mine. He told me that I am writing a cop story with the name Chulbul, we will do it together. I was also excited and told him that we will do it.”

“When it happened, Arbaaz (Khan, Dabangg director with Kashyap) said that Salman wants to do the film. He narrated the film to him in Filmistan and Salman really liked the word Chulbul Pandey. So one fine day, Abhinav got a message saying ‘Yes’. Then got to know that it was Salman’s number and he has said yes to the role,” the actor added.

Eventually, Sonu was offered the villain Chhedi Singh’s role, “Abhinav asked me if I wanted to do Chhedi Singh’s role, it is a good one. I turned him down. Many people tried to convince me, including Arbaaz bhai, but I refused because I wasn’t able to understand that character. They kept searching, but weren’t getting the conviction from the inside that anyone else would be able to pull it off except me,” he said.

The actor further shared that he agreed to do the role but with certain conditions like alterations in the character and giving him an item song. “They asked me, ‘What is the problem with the role, why aren’t you doing it?’ I asked Abhinav to twist the role a bit. Let’s write it more for the next 2-3 days, if I understand it, then I’ll do it. And, I need a song in the film. I asked them to include an item number. When Farah (Khan, choreographer-filmmaker) was making the song, I was conversing with her about including certain steps and how it should be a hit.”

Sonu then went on to tell how Salman toom over the item song. “Abhinav came with one good and one bad news. Good news about one of the scenes and bad one about Salman taking the song. I said, ‘It is my song, how will he come in between like that’. He said that he will do it through a raid scene. I told them that it’s wrong, I only had one song. But finally, whatever happened, happened or the good. People still remember the song,” he added.

Sonu’s latest Fateh released in theatres last week to an average performance. Salman will be next seen in AR Murugadoss’s Sikandar.