Before Munna Bhai MBBS became inseparable from Sanjay Dutt’s swagger, one of its most remembered musical moments was, as Farhad Samji recalled, shaped with Shah Rukh Khan in mind. The writer and lyricist has now looked back on the film’s early development and revealed that the catchy M Bole Toh hook was written at a time when Shah Rukh was being considered for the lead.
Speaking during a recent conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Samji revisited his early days as a lyricist and shared how an overnight creative brief turned into one of the most familiar lines from the Munna Bhai universe. His recollection also opened the door to another Shah Rukh Khan memory, this time from the actor’s Chennai Express phase, when SRK stopped his narration mid-flow for a hilariously specific reason.
How M Bole Toh Was Written For Shah Rukh Khan
Samji said, “A situation came up with Anu Malik for Munna Bhai. One night at around 10 p.m., Anu Malik called me and said, ‘Tomorrow Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raju Hirani are coming for a sitting. Make a mukhda (opening refrain) for something, and we’ll jam together and play it for them.’ And that opportunity I could not miss.”
He added, “At that time, I was told that Shah Rukh Khan was the hero. If you know, Munna Bhai was originally supposed to star Shah Rukh, not Sanjay Dutt. They told me, ‘It’s a tapori character. Since you write well, add a few English words to the tapori language so it balances with the image of Shah Rukh.’ So that’s why I wrote, ‘M bole to Master mein Master, B bole to Bindass Doctor, S bole to Shaana Character.’ I gave them that mukhda, played it for them, and they liked it, obviously.”
That memory of Shah Rukh in an early Munna Bhai conversation flowed naturally into Samji’s later experience of writing for the star more directly. Looking back on his first narration of Chennai Express, the 2013 Rohit Shetty film he co-wrote, Samji said, “I went and asked, ‘Sir, shall I begin?’ He said, ‘Yes, go ahead.’ I had barely gone 40 seconds into it when he stopped me. ‘What is this? Why are you mimicking me?’ I said, ‘Sir, this is just how I narrate.’”
In the same conversation, Samji also recalled pitching the Bol Bachchan title track to Amitabh Bachchan and getting a dry but unforgettable reaction. After performing the rap section for the veteran actor, Samji remembered Bachchan saying, “At this age, you’re making me do all this, miyan?”
From Munna Bhai What-If To Shah Rukh Khan’S Next Big Screen Chapter
Samji’s recollection works as a reminder of how closely Shah Rukh’s image was once tied to scripts and songs that later took on a completely different screen identity. Years after that unrealised Munna Bhai possibility, Shah Rukh returned to a dominant big-screen run with Pathaan, Jawan and Dunki in 2023. Pathaan and Jawan emerged as major theatrical blockbusters, while Dunki, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and co-starring Taapsee Pannu, brought him back into a Hirani-led world through a very different film.
As of July 2026, Shah Rukh’s next confirmed release is King, which is in production and is scheduled to reach theatres on December 24, 2026. Directed by Siddharth Anand and backed by Red Chillies Entertainment and Marflix Pictures, the film’s confirmed cast includes Suhana Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Jaideep Ahlawat and Raghav Juyal. That makes King the clearest present-day marker of Shah Rukh’s screen journey, a striking contrast to the alternate Munna Bhai history Samji has now brought back into the spotlight.
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