Aamir Khan was offered this film made in Rs 15 crore, it earned Rs 125 crore, won 4 National Awards, is first Indian movie to…
Headlined by Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi, Rajkumar Hirani had first written Lage Raho Munna Bhai for Aamir Khan. It became the first Indian film to be screened at the United Nations.
Dia Mirza in Lage Raho Munna Bhai
The 2006 satirical comedy Lage Raho Munna Bhai, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, featured Sanjay Dutt as a Mumbai gangster Munna Bhai and Arshad Warsi as his loyal sidekick Circuit. Both actors reprised their roles from the 2003 film Munna Bhai MBBS, the first installment in the Munna Bhai series.
The film captivated both audiences and critics as it sought to revive Mahatma Gandhi’s principles through the concept of Gandhigiri. Dutt’s character, Munna, begins to hallucinate Mahatma Gandhi, portrayed by Dilip Prabhavalkar, and promotes the practices and philosophies that the Father of the Nation lived by.
At a recent event in Mumbai, Aamir Khan revealed that Rajkumar Hirani had first written Lage Raho Munna Bhai script for him. He said, “Originally, Raju had written a script where he wanted me to play that part. The day he came to narrate the script to me, he said that the script he was going to tell me about had changed and was called Munna Bhai 2 (Lage Raho Munna Bhai) and that he had nothing to narrate to me.”
The Dangal star further added, “So I asked him what the original story was about, and he said it was about a young guy who is a freedom fighter in India before independence. He has been fighting during the Gandhian era, and during a lathi charge, he gets hit on the head and slips into a coma. He wakes up 40-45 years later. By then, India has gotten independence, but he still feels stuck in that era, which is why he talks to Gandhi and all. He doesn’t know that Gandhi has been killed; that was Raju’s original concept.” Aamir and Hirani later collaborated on blockbusters 3 Idiots and PK, released in 2009 and 2014.
Made in just Rs 15 crore, Lage Raho Munna Bhai became a massive hit, earned Rs 85 crore net in India and Rs 125 crore worldwide. The film also won four National Film Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Dilip Prabhavalkar, Best Screenplay for Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Best Lyricist for Swanand Kirkire for the song Bande Mein Tha Dum, and Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
Apart from Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Dilip Prabhavalkar, the Rajkumar Hirani film also starred Vidya Balan, Boman Irani, Dia Mirza, Jimmy Shergill, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Saurabh Shukla in pivotal roles. Abhishek Bachchan was also seen in a cameo appearance in the film’s climax.
In November 2006, Lage Raho Munna Bhai became the first full-length Indian film to be showcased at the United Nations. The screening was part of the centennial commemoration of the first Satyagraha, initiated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1906 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to protest an ordinance that imposed restrictions on Asians.
