A Tamil distributor refused to buy Sanjay Dutt’s Munna Bhai MBBS for Rs 5 lakh, Vidhu Vinod Chopra released it himself and made Rs 1.6 crore

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the producer of Munna Bhai MBBS, revealed how nobody in Tamil Nadu wanted to distribute the film.

Mumbai | Updated: May 19, 2024 07:05 PM IST

3 min read

Sanjay Dutt in a still from Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra recently revealed that nobody wanted to distribute his 2003 superhit, the Sanjay Dutt relaunch vehicle, Munna Bhai MBBS. Citing his experience with a Tamil Nadu-based film distributor, who withdrew his support three days before the film’s release date, Chopra said that he was left with no choice but to distribute the film himself. And the risk paid off handsomely.

Chopra, in a fireside chat with Kellogg School of Management, shared, “It’s exactly what happened to 12th Fail. Nobody wanted to distribute Munna Bhai. Actually, one guy, I’ll never forget his name, Mohammad Bhai, he is from Tamil Nadu, bought my film for 11 lakh. He had given me 5 lakh advance. He came and saw my film and he told my production head that he can’t take this film because ‘yeh toh bilkul koi nahi samjhega (no one would understand it)’. I told (production head) to return (distributor’s) 5 lakh. At that time I was very poor, we had no money. I returned his 5 lakh. This was three days before the release because he had come to take the print.”

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Chopra shared what he did next. He said, “So what to do? I called a friend of mine, Shyam Shroff, who was a distributor and had one show in Satyam, a big theatre in Tamil Nadu, he gave me one single show, 11.45 morning show for Munna Bhai. You know how much money I made from Tamil Nadu? Rs 1.67 crore.” In the same chat, Chopra recalled the circumstances in which Sanjay Dutt was cast in the film. He said that the entire industry had ‘banned’ the actor following his conviction in an arms possession case, and that he’d promised to work with him in an act of solidarity. Shah Rukh Khan was initially supposed to play the lead role, but when he dropped out, it went to Sanjay.

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, Munna Bhai MBBS starred Sanjay Dutt, his father Sunil Dutt, Gracy Singh and Arshad Warsi. The film was a hit and spawned a sequel, titled Lage Raho Munna Bhai in 2006. The sequel starred Vidya Balan opposite Sanjay, and was also directed by Hirani.

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