Movie World
Shah Rukh Khan had refused to do Munnabhai MBBS, Sanjay Dutt benefitted
Munnabhai MBBS became a big hit
By Dinesh Kamath
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan had
refused to do hit movie Munnabhai MBBS. The role than went to Sanjay Dutt. The
rest is history. Here are some interesting information about the movie
Munnabhai MBBS.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is a 2003
Indian comedy-drama film directed by Rajkumar Hirani (in his directorial debut)
and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The story involves protagonist Munna Bhai
(Sanjay Dutt), a goon, going to medical school. He is helped by his sidekick,
Circuit (Arshad Warsi). It stars Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Jimmy Sheirgill,
Gracy Singh, Boman Irani and Sunil Dutt and was later followed by a second film
Lage Raho Munna Bhai, and became the first instalment of the Munna Bhai film
series. Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced on 29 September 2016 that production on
the third Munna Bhai film starring Dutt in the title role will begin in 2017.
It went on to win the 2004 National
Film Award for Best Popular Film, and several Filmfare awards, including the
Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Screenplay. At the box office, it
achieved a silver jubilee status (25-week run) being one of only eight films to
have achieved this status since the year 2000. In its 26th week of release, the
film could still be found playing on 257 screens throughout India.
In an interview, Hirani discussed
how the idea for the film emerged from his interactions with some friends who
were medical students. Later, he also had the opportunity to interact with a
lot of medical professionals when some members of his family became sick. These
experiences gave birth to the idea for the film.
During the scripting stage, Hirani
wanted Anil Kapoor to play the lead role. However, Shah Rukh Khan was later
cast as Munna along with Sanjay Dutt as Zaheer but due to his back problems
Khan was forced to turn down the film. Nevertheless, the end credits of the
film thank Khan for his inputs into the script. Hirani also narrated the script
to Aishwarya Rai during the time he was in talks with Shahrukh Khan. Khan and
Rai were working together on Devdas at the time. Vivek Oberoi was considered
for the role but in the end Sanjay Dutt took the role as Munna, which
ultimately gave him an image make over and helped change the public perception
of the controversial superstar; his real-life father Sunil Dutt returned to
film after 10 years to play Munna's father. This is the first and only film in
which real-life father and son Sunil and Sanjay appear together, although they
both appeared in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), Rocky (1981) and Kshatriya (1993) but
not in any scenes together.
The original choice for Circuit's
role was Makrand Deshpande. Arshad Warsi took over the role which proved to be
a turning point for his career. The scenes of the Medical College were shot at
the Agriculture College of Pune and Grant Medical College Mumbai.
The film has a similar premise to
the 1998 American film Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. The director
Rajkumar Hirani, however, denies there being a resemblance, and says that he
had not watched the film before the release of Munna Bhai.
Hirani did not have a big budget to
shoot the film. As a result, he had to change the way certain scenes were shot.
For example, the film ends with stills of Munna Bhai's wedding. Hirani was told
that setting up a wedding stage and making a wedding outfit for Gracie Singh
would cost him several thousand rupees. To save on some of that money, Hirani
arranged to have the stills shot on an actual wedding stage set up for a real
wedding near the sets. The production team reached an agreement with the
wedding hall management and used their stage after a wedding ended.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was the
recipient of a number of awards. At the 2004 Filmfare awards, it received the
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award, the
Filmfare Best Dialogue Award, and the Filmfare Best Comedian Award in addition
to four other nominations. It won a number of awards at the 2004 Zee Cine
Awards including Best Debuting Director, Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a
Comic Role, Best Cinematography, and Best Dialogue.
Other ceremonies include the 2004
National Film Awards where it won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film
and the 2004 International Indian Film Academy Awards where it won the IIFA
Best Comedian Award.
Here are some fun, facts &
triva about the film:
Sunil Dutt made his box office
appearance after 10 years and it turned out to be his last film.
The role of Munna was first offered
to Shahrukh Khan but he rejected it because of his neck injury. Later, Vivek
Oberoi and Jimmy Shergill were offered the role but things didn't suit with
them and at last, it was done by Sanjay Dutt.
The dissection room scene was shot
in real dissection room because it was the first directorial debut of Rajkumar
Hirani and he wanted to make it look authentic.
Initially, the film was not planned
to be made with comedy genre and instead the makers wanted to go for a hard
satire comedy on the medical profession.
Originally, Makrand Deshpande was
selected for the role of Circuit but later Arshad Warsi played it.
Shahrukh was approached by the
makers to play the role but he refused to play the main lead due to health
problems.
This film gave a boost to Arshad
Warsi, the Bollywood actor who was struggling to make himself count in the
Indian cinema.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the famous
Bollywood actor was not a popular celebrity and played the role of a pocket
picker in this movie.
Rani Mukerji was scheduled to play
the role of Chinki but could not make it due to date problems.
Sanjay Dutt underwent a
transformation in his body for the role of Munna in the movie.
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