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Sanjay Dutt’s Munna Bhai MBBS opened to empty theaters leaving Rajkumar Hirani upset, recalls Vidhu Vinod Chopra: ‘I lost a lot of money’
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. might have become a landmark movie in the history of Indian cinema, but the film had a very slow opening at the box office. Eventually, it became a massive success.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is one of those movies that is often watched by cinema lovers on their lowest of days for some motivation. The satirical comedy-drama film directed by Rajkumar Hirani in his debut ended up receiving a national award and eventually became an evergreen film. It was also playing across scores of screens in the country, achieving silver jubilee status. But did you know it initially opened to empty theatres?
During an interview with Bollywood Hungama, producer of the 2003 film, Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled how Munna Bhai MBBS’s opening on the big screen wasn’t as expected. He stated that Rajkumar Hirani was very upset, thinking, “I lost a lot of money.”
This is when he offered Rs 11,000 to Hirani, but he refused to take anything. Chopra then told him that it was for his next movie and asked him to make another one as he thought this was a “great film.” He also offered Rs 4 crore and told Raju to work on his next, as he didn’t care if Munna Bhai worked or not.
But the film started to pick up pace after Monday, but the seats were empty during the weekends. “I didn’t really wait for the film to become a success for me to make another film,” Chopra divulged. After watching the movie, one of the distributors from Tamil Nadu, who had first agreed to distribute the film, later refused to go ahead with it.
This is when Chopra intervened, called his distributor friend Shyam Shroff, and got a show added to Satyam, a popular cinema hall in Tamil Nadu. The team managed to get one single show for the 11:45 am show for Munna Bhai. And from that solo show, they were able to make Rs 1.67 crore, Chopra revealed in the same interview.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is considered to be a landmark movie in the history of Indian cinema, soon after which a sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, was released in 2006. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Dutt, Gracy Singh, Jimmy Sheirgill, Arshad Warsi, Rohini Hattangadi, and Boman Irani in key roles.
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