Munna Bhai (film series)

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Munna Bhai film series
Munna Bhai Franchise.jpg
Created by Rajkumar Hirani
Original work Munna Bhai MBBS (2003)
Owner Vinod Chopra Films
Films and television
Film(s)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)
Miscellaneous
Portrayers

Munna Bhai is an Indian Hindi-language film series created, written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the Vinod Chopra Productions banner. It consists of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. , released in 2003, and its sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai , in 2006. The films share the same characters of Sanjay Dutt as Munna Bhai and Arshad Warsi as Circuit, with different plot elements and settings. Boman Irani features in each film as different characters. Both of the films received widespread critical acclaim and became huge commercial successes of their time. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Films

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003)

Murli Prasad Sharma, nicknamed "Munna Bhai," is a good-hearted local gangster who engages in criminal activities. Munna Bhai pretends to be a doctor in order to impress his father, but after being revealed as a gangster to his father, who feels insulted, he decides to go to a medical college to obtain an M.B.B.S. degree to prove he can become a real doctor. The film follows Munna's extremely well-played struggle as he learns about the medical system and makes his way through the renowned medical college run by dean Dr. Asthana, the very man who insulted his father. He continues to cheat his way through college but changes over time while also instilling a more heartfelt and sensitive approach to patient care in the hospital.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)

In the second installment of the series, Munna Bhai poses as a professor of history in order to meet with a radio jockey whose voice he has fallen in love with. She asks him to give a lecture and questions on Mahatma Gandhi, and as a result, he becomes a proponent of Gandhism and uses it to solve modern-life problems of the people.

Further films

On 25 February 2016, Sanjay Dutt was released from Yerwada Central Jail after completing his sentence (2013–2016) for illegal possession of firearms in 1993. Vidhu Vinod Chopra announced on 29 September 2016 that production on the third Munna Bhai film starring Dutt in the title role may begin in 2017. [5] A few years later in 2023, The Times of India reported that a third film "may never happen." [6]

Cast and characters

ActorFilm
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
(2003)		 Lage Raho Munna Bhai
(2006)
Sanjay Dutt Murliprasad Sharma aka Munna Bhai
Arshad Warsi Sarkeshwar Sharma aka Circuit
Boman Irani Dr. J. C. AsthanaLakhbir Singh aka Lucky
Sunil Dutt Hariprasad Sharma
Rohini Hattangadi Parvati Sharma
Gracy Singh Dr. Suman Asthana
Vidya Balan Janvi Sahni
Dilip Prabhavalkar Mahatma Gandhi
Dia Mirza Simran Singh
Jimmy Shergill Zaheer AliVictor D'Souza

Release and revenue

FilmRelease dateBudgetBox office revenue
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.19 December 2003₹100 million (US$1.3 million) [7] ₹346 million (US$4.3 million) [8]
Lage Raho Munna Bhai1 September 2006₹120 million (US$1.5 million) [9] ₹1.27 billion (US$16 million) [10]

Awards

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

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.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai

Lage Raho Munna Bhai is the recipient of four National Film Awards in addition to other awards. Some speculated that it would represent India as an entry for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. [11] Although ultimately losing to Rang De Basanti as India's official submission, the producers submitted it as an independent entry. However, neither film received an Oscar nomination. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunil Dutt</span> Indian film actor, producer, director and politician (1929–2005)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vidhu Vinod Chopra</span> Indian film director and producer

Vidhu Vinod Chopra is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards, ten Filmfare Awards and an Academy Award nomination. He is known for directing films such as the crime drama Parinda (1989), the patriotic romantic drama 1942: A Love Story (1994), the action drama Mission Kashmir (2000) and the biographical drama 12th Fail (2023). He is also known for producing the Munna Bhai film series, 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014), and Sanju (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.

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Sanjay Balraj Dutt is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi and Telugu films. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 135 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though usually in action genres, thus proving himself one of the most popular Hindi film actors since the 1980s.

<i>Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.</i> 2003 film directed by Rajkumar Hirani

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani in his directorial debut and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the production banner of Vinod Chopra Films. The film was released in India on 19 December 2003, and is the first installment of the Munna Bhai film series before its sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). The film stars Sunil Dutt in his final film role as the father to his real-life son, Sanjay Dutt, who stars as the titular character of Munna Bhai, a gangster in the Mumbai underworld. Gracy Singh portrays the female lead, being replaced by Vidya Balan in the sequel, and Arshad Warsi portrays the role of Munna's sidekick, Circuit, while Boman Irani, Rohini Hattangadi, Jimmy Sheirgill and Neha Dubey also appear in the film. Based in Mumbai, the film follows Munna trying to please his father by pretending to be a doctor, but when a doctor, Asthana (Irani), exposes Munna's lies and tarnishes his father's honour, Munna enrolls in an Indian medical college with the help of Circuit. Chaos ensue when Munna, on finding that Asthana is the dean of the college, vows revenge, while also sparking a romance with a house doctor, Suman (Singh), unaware that she is Asthana's daughter and his childhood friend, "Chinki".

The Filmfare Best Comedian Award was given by Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise an actor who had delivered an outstanding performance in a comic role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arshad Warsi</span> Indian actor (born 1970)

Arshad Hussain Warsi is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards including a Filmfare Award from five nominations and is noted for acting in varied film genres.

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<i>Lage Raho Munna Bhai</i> 2006 film directed by Rajkumar Hirani

Lage Raho Munna Bhai is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the production banner of Vinod Chopra Films. The film was released worldwide on 1 September 2006, and is the second installment of the Munna Bhai film series after its prequel, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003). Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi reprised their roles as Munna Bhai, a gangster in the Mumbai underworld, and his sidekick, Circuit, respectively. Vidya Balan portrays the female lead, replacing Gracy Singh from the original, while several other actors from the prequel, notably Jimmy Sheirgill and Boman Irani, appear in new roles, and Dia Mirza also appears in a small role in the film. In this film, the eponymous lead character begins to see the soul of Mahatma Gandhi, which is portrayed by Dilip Prabhavalkar. Through his interactions with Gandhi, he begins to practice what he refers to as "Gandhigiri" to help ordinary people solve their problems.

Gandhigiri is a neologism in India which is used to express the tenets of Gandhism in contemporary terms. The term became popular due to its usage in the 2006 Hindi film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Munna Bhai</span> Fictional character created by Rajkumar Hirani

Murliprasad Sharma, better known as Munna Bhai, is an Indian fictional character who appears in the Munna Bhai film series. The character is created by Rajkumar Hirani and portrayed by Sanjay Dutt.

Abhijat Joshi is an Indian screenwriter, film director, producer and editor who works in Hindi cinema. His is known for collaboration with Vinod Chopra Productions and director Rajkumar Hirani, as the screenwriter for Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014) and Sanju (2018). He is a professor of English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, since 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajkumar Hirani</span> Indian Film director

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<i>3 Idiots</i> 2009 Indian comedy-drama film by Rajkumar Hirani

3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Adapted loosely from Chetan Bhagat's novel Five Point Someone, the film stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the titular roles, marking their reunion three years after Rang De Basanti (2006), while Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani and Omi Vaidya appear in pivotal roles. Narrated through two parallel dramas, one in the present and the other set ten years in the past, the story follows the friendship of three students at an Indian engineering college and is a satire about the social pressures under the Indian education system.

<i>Ferrari Ki Sawaari</i> 2012 Indian film

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanjay Dutt filmography</span>

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Munna Bhai, is a fictional character in Indian films, created by Rajkumar Hirani and portrayed by Sanjay Dutt.

References

  1. ↑ "Munnabhai has come to our rescue". The Economic Times. 27 September 2006.
  2. ↑ "On 15 Years of Munna Bhai MBBS, Sanjay Dutt Shares Old Memories and A 'Big Jadoo Ki Jhappi'".
  3. ↑ "Munna Bhai MBBS turns 15!".
  4. ↑ "Munnabhai MBBS: Sahi hai!".
  5. ↑ Work on Munnabhai 3 to begin next year: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
  6. ↑ Here’s Why Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi’s ‘Munna Bhai 3’ May Never Happen
  7. ↑ "A runaway success". The Hindu . 6 August 2004. Archived from the original on 20 August 2004. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  8. ↑ Hungama, Bollywood. "Munnabhai MBBS Box Office Collection till Now | Box Collection - Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama . Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  9. ↑ "Lage Raho Munnabhai". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
  10. ↑ Hungama, Bollywood. "Lage Raho Munnabhai Box Office Collection till Now | Box Collection - Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama . Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. ↑ Adarsh, Taran (1 November 2006). "Munna's tryst with Oscars begins". Bollywood Hungama . Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  12. ↑ Saxena, Kashika (25 September 2012). "India's Oscar race: Losers weepers?". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
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