11 years of Lage Raho Munna Bhai: Did you know Anushka Sharma was in the film?
As Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi starrer Lage Raho Munna Bhai completes 11 years of its release, today, here’s some trivia from the film.
Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of the loveable goon, Munna Bhai, enthralled the audiences twice. In the first instalment Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) tried his luck at becoming a doctor. In the sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) he follows footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and takes to Gandhigiri. The second part was a major blockbuster and went on to win four National Awards including Best Supporting Actor for Dilip Prabhavalkar — who portrayed the role of Gandhi in the film.
Though you must be already aware of this, we tell you seven things that are lesser known about this film:
1. Aamir Khan’s cameo was scrapped
Aamir Khan was originally supposed to play a cameo in the film, as an unknown character, but his role was scrapped when the film was on the floors. Actor Sunil Dutt (Sanjay Dutt;s father) was also invited on board to appear in a cameo, but he passed away (in 2005) even before the shooting of film could begin.
2. Arshad Warsi forgot how to play Circuit
When Arshad started filming for the sequel, just at the time of the first take, it so happened that he tried hard but failed to recollect the mannerisms he had enacted for the character of Circuit, in the original, and delivered dialogues with his original accent. That’s when director Rajkumar Hirani handed him a DVD of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), and asked him to revise his role play!
3. Anushka Sharma’s cameo
A picture of actor Anushka Sharma appears in one of the scenes where Sanju baba is seen walking angrily in a hallway. The interesting bit is that this happened about two years before Anushka debuted in Bollywood with the film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), opposite Shah Rukh Khan. This, of course, is known that how Anushka has entered the league of major stars in the Hindi film industry since then.
4. The sequel was supposed to be on lawyers
The original script, for the second sequel, was supposed to be based on lawyers. The plot was probably supposed to critique the law in India, like the first film, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), was based on the profession of medicine and making of doctors. But, Rajkumar Hirani wasn’t too happy with the script, and continued to work for two years to develop a perfect sequel, which was then based on the life of a goon and his encounter with Gandhi’s ideologies of peace and non-violence.
5. Film’s original title
The film’s original title was supposed to be Munna Bhai MMG — Meets Mahatma Gandhi. Good that Hirani thought otherwise!
6. Sanju couldn’t recognise Bapu; fans couldn’t recognise Boman
When Sanjay Dutt met Dilip Prabhawalkar, the latter wasn’t in the garb and make-up of Mahatma Gandhi, and Sanjay failed to recognise him!
Also, before the shoot began, fans were allowed to visit the sets. But all of them kept searching for Boman Irani (who plays Lucky Singh) and failed to spot that he was sitting right in front of them. The fans couldn’t recognise Boman because most of them had thought that he was playing Dr Asthana (the character he portrayed in Munnabhai M.B.B.S) in this film, too.
7. Picture mein tha dum
The term Gandhigiri became so famous that people started handing over red roses to every corrupt official, so that they could realise that they were wrong in demanding bribe or not delivering their duties on time.
(Trivia Courtesy: IMDb)
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