‘Munna Bhai MBBS Flopped On Day 1 Of Release, Rajkumar Hirani Refused To Take Money’; Vidhu Vinod Chopra Recalls The Film’s Initial Struggle At Box Office Before It Became A Hit

Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled how Munnabhai MBBS initially struggled to attract the audience into cinema halls.

Talk about acclaimed filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani and you simply cannot miss his directorial debut, Munna Bhai MBBS. Be it Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi’s iconic camaraderie as Munna-Circuit or Boman Irani’s fantastic comic timing as Dr Asthana, the satirical comedy film with its entertaining characters, remains one of Hirani’s most celebrated works till date.

Initially, Munna Bhai MBBS opened to empty theatres upon its release. Recently while speaking at IFP Season 14, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the producer of the film, shared how the Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi starrer struggled to find its audience in theatres.

Vidhu recalled, “When Munna Bhai MBBS released, it flopped on day one, no one went to see it.” Revealing how he was determined not to give up, the producer said that he approached distributors in the South, one of whom initially offered him Rs 11 lakh. However, after watching the film, the distributor retracted his offer as he believed that the Sanjay Dutt film wouldn’t succeed beyond Mumbai’s Borivali area.

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Chopra remained unfazed by the distributor’s feedback and managed to secure a morning screening for Munna Bhai MBBS at a Tamil Nadu theater where the film did a business of over Rs 1 crore.

Vidhu revealed that when he tried to give Rs 11, 000 to Munna Bhai MBBS director Rajkumar Hirani, the latter refused to take money as he assumed that his directorial debut flopped. The producer told him that he was paying him money for his next film.

“Eventually, he got Rs 11 lakhs, Rs 51 lakhs, Rs 1 crore and God knows how many crores…(as the movie did well),” Chopra said at the event. Munna Bhai MBBS emerged as a huge commercial hit and even bagged a National Award.

Further, Chopra also advised aspiring filmmakers not to lose their belief system and said, “The industry will try to corrupt your soul, telling you to make certain types of films because ‘this is what sells’. I believed in this film.”

Munna Bhai MBBS also featured Gracy Singh as the leading lady and Jimmy Sheirgill in an extended cameo.