Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie (2003) Interesting Facts, Mistakes
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie Story Summary
A gangster sets out to fulfill his father's dream of becoming a doctor.
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie Stars
Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Gracy Singh
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie Storyline
In India gangsters are called Bhai (brothers). One such Bhai is Munna, who is feared by everyone in Mumbai, a big city in India. He cons his village-based parents into believing that he is a doctor. He gets a shock when he finds out that they are coming to verify for themselves. So he transforms a rooming shanty house into a makeshift hospital, populated by patients, people he beats up. His parents arrive, are pleased, and happy that their son is well settled. They would like him to get married to a doctor's daughter. The marriage is arranged, but before the engagement, the bride's father finds out the truth about Munna, and cancels the marriage. Munna's humiliated parents see the truth for themselves, and hurt, they return home, leaving Munna with a strong desire to hurt the doctor - and force him to let his daughter get married to him - even if it means getting admitted in the medical college - with forged documents!!!
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie Interesting Facts
- Casting for the lead role went through several process. First it was given to Shah Rukh Khan, but he declined due to his neck injury, then it was offered to Vivek Oberoi. Finally the producers casted Jimmy Sheirgill for the part, but they later interchanged his role with Sanjay Dutt who was cast as the patient 'Zaheer'.
- Rajkumar Hirani was afraid on how doctors would treat him after watching the film since he made so many jabs and jokes at Indian doctors.
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui who was a struggling actor back then plays the role of a pickpocket who robs Sunil Dutt's purse at the station.
- This being Rajkumar Hirani's directorial debut, he wanted everything to be authentic. For the dissection room scenes, he considered shooting in a real dissection room, using real dead bodies. With due respect for everyone's feelings, the scene was shot on a set with a real person doubling up as a cadaver.
- Sunil Dutt played father to Sanjay Dutt in Rocky 1981 and Kshatriya 1993 but this was the first and last time they both shared screen space together
- This was Sunil Dutt's first film appearance in 10 years.
- Rani Mukerji was very keen on this film and had signed on for the role of Chinky, but she couldn't do the film due to date problems. Then Tabu was brought in, but she soon dropped out. Finally, the role went to Gracy Singh.
- There are several pigeons in the film. This is a reference to the classic gangster film Parinda (1989), which was directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
- The Jadu Ki Jhappi scene between Sanajy Dutt and Sunil Dutt was the most memorable scene of their career's. They both were emotional while shooting it and were crying holding each other and didn't even realize that director Rajkumar Hirani had told cut.
- Last film of Sunil Dutt.
- Considered the turning point for Arshad Warsi who had been rejected by Bollywood and failing to secure many offers prior to this film.
- The semicircular hall had 15-feet windows, which had to be broken open for the lighting to be right.
- The original choice for Circuit was Makrand Deshpande.
- Arshad Warsi won the Filmfare and Zee cine best comedian award in 2004.
- Dr. Asthana is a professor of anatomy but also performs surgeries in the movie. In reality it's only surgeons who perform surgeries. Anatomy Professors perform dissections of cadavers.
- Loosely based on the 1998 movie Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams.
- The evil background music used in the scene with Prem Chopra in Khiladi was recreated for the main background music of Munnabhai MBBS.
- In the ragging scene, the two songs songs in the background are "Dola Re Dola" and "Ishq Samundar" also written and composed by S. Bhattacharya.
- Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi's pairing worked and they both were paired together in many films.
- Sanjay Dutt reduced his weight for the role.
- Amrish Puri was considered to play Dr Asthana who declined it.After few auditions Boman Irani was selected which gave a boost to his career.
- Boman Irani in real life is same age as Sanjay Dutt.
- Rohini Hattangadi who plays Sanjay Dutt's mother is older to him by a few years.
- According to the director, One of the toughest scenes from the movie is Carrom Board scene from the hospital. It needed to multiple shots multiple actors, a shot at carom table and merged all to make that scene.
- Sajid Khan was the first choice for the role of Circuit before Arshad Warsi got it. Also Vivek Oberoi,Anil Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan were all approached to play Munnabhai which was eventually played by Sanjay Dutt.
- Some of the background scores used were already used in earlier Vidhu Vinod Chopra movies like Kareeb and Mission Kashmir. In one such scene where there is an emotional confrontation between Sanjay Dutt and rohini hattangadi (who played his mother), the background music is taken from the song "So Ja Chanda" from Mission Kashmir. Both (the scene and the song) depicted strong emotional bonding between mother and son
- The movie pays tribute to the movie Anand in a couple of ways. The paralyzed patient is named Anand Benerjee which is a combination of the names of Khanna's character Anand Sehegal and Amitabh' character Bhaskar Benerjee.
- Film was a turning point for Arshad Warsi who career was going no where.After the film he started getting many offers in comic roles.Before signing this film he said he had no work for three years.
- Sanjay Dutt was shooting for the first time opposite father Sunil Dutt and was having difficult times as Sunil Dutt was strict and punctual on sets and also made Sanjay Dutt reach the sets on time.
- Sunil Dutt convinced Sanjay Dutt to sign the film as he felt after his jail term he was mostly getting type caste in roles of criminals and goons.
- Rajkumar Hirani got the idea of the film while interacting with some of his friends from medical background.
- After this film, Rajkumar Hirani hired composer-lyricist S. Bhattacharya for 3 Idiots.
- Circuit's original name was supposed to be Farooque Khujli.
- Despite Munna Bhai M.B.B.S was the first movie in the Munna Bhai franchise but in this movie Sanjay Dutt hasn't played the role of Munna Bhai for the first time. Earlier Sanjay Dutt played the role of Munna Bhai in Kroadh (1990) and Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahi (2002) both don't belong to the Munna Bhai Franchise .As of 2018 ,Sanjay Dutt later played the role of Munna Bhai in Lagey Raho Munna Bhai (2006) which also belongs to the Munna Bhai Franchise.
- Makrandh Deshpande was also considered at one point for Arshad Warsi's role.
- Rajkumar Hirani was first not convinced with Boman Irani .But after his look test he was convinced.
- Movie is shot at Marine drive, Mumbai
- Film gave and image makeover to Sanjay Dutt from his typecast roles.
- The story line of the film was inspired from the Three's Company episode "Doctor In The House". This was when Jack Tripper (John Ritter) pretends to be a doctor when his grandfather visits.
- First choice for the film was Aishwariya Rai and Shahrukh Khan.
- Many scenes were improvised like the entire Chinese body scene and also the scene when Sanju says nahi to Boman Irani.
- Sunil Dutt worked with Jimmy Shergill for the first time
- The scene where munna is looking at the x-ray ,he speculates that the patient is suffering from lymphocercoma of the intestine. It is a tribute to the Rajesh Khanna's film Anand as in that movie Khanna suffered from the same disease.
- First 2 choices of Munna Bhai MBBS were Anil Kapoor and Vivek Oberoi.
- Rajkumar Hirani had shot the film on low budget so he had to make certain changes.Rajkumar Hirani wanted to shoot wedding scene of Sanjay Dutt and Gracy Singh on a wedding set.But the wedding gown for Gracy Singh and new set would lift the budget more .Hence he decided to shoot a still scene on a real location located near the sets.The crew members reached the near by wedding hall and requested the management to allow them to shoot the film after the wedding ended.
- Vivek Oberoi was also considered for the role.
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra wanted Sanjay Dutt for in the role of Zaheer and asked him to be part of it.When Shahrukh Khan rejected Sanjay Dutt was approached by Vidhu Vinod Chopra for the film. Sanjay Dutt gave the reasons of date issues and that he will again have to do a gangster based film. Vidhu Vinod Chopra realized he hasn't read the script and given the nod for role of Zaheer. He asked Sanjay Dutt to read the whole script and come to his office after reading the script with father Sunil Dutt he realized how great the film was.
- Richa Bhattacharya was auditioned and signed for the original Munnabhai MBBS, when Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to play the main lead and the setting was supposed to be of a chawl (dhobi ghaat later). Ultimately her role was reduced to that of a Junior Artiste. She started being treated like one on the sets. She confessed to have felt extremely humiliated. Soon she walked out of the film.Richa also told me that to know more about their lives it would be interesting to talk her TV actor friend's driver, because the junior artiste interact mostly with drivers.In the Indo-french film Hawa Aane De, Richa plays a bar dancer. She wonders why on one hand she was very proud to get the opportunity to portray a different kind of role, the junior artiste in the background would hide their faces.
- Sanjay Dutt's character Munna Bhai has become cult classic over the years and considered to be one of the "Twenty Best Fictional Characters in Bollywood"
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Movie Mistakes
- When Dr. Asthana barges angrily in the ward after the song "Seekh Lay", Zaheer, the patient hugs him to cool him down. During these shots Zaheer's head is alternatively towards the left or facing Dr. Asthana.
- In the scene where a surgeon is demonstrating the dissection of a cadaver and Munna tries to look over his shoulder there is a difference in position of actors in the frontal and side-on shots. Swamy who is seen immediately next to the surgeon on the surgeon's right in the frontal shot, is seen trying to pop his head over the crowd directly behind (and at some distance from) the surgeon in the side-on shot alternatively.
- At the beginning of the movie, when car starts driving, camera is visible on the left side of the hood and is seen several times during chase
- During the cadaver dissection scene, the professor notes that the outer layer of skin is the epidermis and asks what the inner layer of skin is, and one student enthusiastically responds, "Hypodermis!" and the professor nods to indicate that he is correct. The hypodermis is not a layer of skin at all; it is by definition that tissue that is underneath the skin. The two layers of skin are the epidermis and the *dermis*. (The prefix "hypo-" means "below," so the "hypodermis" is that layer of tissue that is "below the dermis.")
