I'm not doing Munnabhai now

[Priyank]

Raj Kumar Hirani is delighted by the impact of his Munnabhai film. "This one really surprised me. A couple were in dispute about buying a flat because according to the expert it wasn't the correct location by the rules of vastu shastra.

After seeing the film the couple decided to give the vastu angle the slip. They've decided to go ahead and buy the flat. I don't think the first film had this kind of impact. People are saying Lage Raho has gone far beyond MBBS."

Hirani says he was petrified of writing this script. "I wasn't scared of writing Munnabhai MBBS. But writing Lage Raho where I had to bring in Mahatma Gandhi was scary.

What saved Ganadhiji and my film from getting stressed was the humour. You know Gandhiji was a very humorous man…But still I took a big risk in doing a film where Gandhi was a character."

Several actors including Naseeruddin Shah were auditioned for Gandhi's role. "We had spoken to Naseer. He was interested. But he got busy with Krissh. Then there was his own directorial venture. Then we thought of Surendra Rajan who had played Gandhiji in Raj Santoshi's Legend Of Bhagat Singh.

Surendra had played the sweeper in Munnabhai MBBS. We finally zeroed in on this wonderful theatre and television actor Dilip Prabhavalkar for Gandhiji's role. We sent Dilip's pictures to the guy who had done Ben Kingsley's makeup and he approved.

Though Dilip had done his home work fully he couldn't get it right on the first day. We then let him be. We told him to stop aping Gandhiji, just be himself because the attire was enough to suggest whom he was playing."

Mahatma Gandhi plays a a major part in the film. "I wasn't a huge Gandhian before making this film. But I started reading up on him for this film. It required a helluva lot research.

That's when I discovered this amazing man. His simple honest principles are eminently applicable today. Why do we wait for others to change the world. Why can't you or I do it? I don't claim to be anywhere near perfect. But I've strongly started believing in Ganadhiji's ideology.

Take that scene where my the man keeps repeatedly spitting outside the neighbour's door and the neighbour decides to clean the spit repeatedly until the other man is shamed into stopping…that actually happened to my mother-in-law.

A neighbour used to throw eggshells in her garden. I'm not offering Gandhism as a full and final solution. But it's better than the complete erosion of ideology in today's society."

While Lage Raho Munnabhai was rage, the series' architect and creator Raj Kumar Hirani has decided to steer clear of the Munnabhai series.

"I really need to prove myself beyond the series. Otherwise my well-wishers will turn around and ask, 'Can he do anything else?' But of course Sanju, Arshad and I have a responsibility to carry forward the series. But Lage Raho … wasn't a sequel.

It's an independent film. Thank God critics saw this to be an original script. But I need to get away from these two guys. I must say Sanju and Arshad worked very hard. In MBBS they had a readymade script to rely on.

Here the script went through changes right till the end. Sanju's contribution was immense. He was really charged by the role."

But would he be working with these actors in his next "I do have a comfort level with Sanju and Arshad. And it would be stupid to let go. But at the same time it would be stupid to hold on to them for the sake of the comfort."

Lage Raho Munnabhai is on the way to becoming a cult rage. "I'm glad people like Rakeysh Mehra have guts to do films like Rang De Basanti. On paper it must have looked as scary as Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Any regular producer would've said, 'Yeh kya hai, Gandhi aa jata hai?…. From the reactions I've got so far I'd say this film has gone much further than the earlier Munnabhai film. People are talking in absolute superlatives. The response is overwhelming.

It's getting a standing ovation in theatres in the US. I'm screwed up all over again," Hirani laughs. "Seriously I'm doing a non- Munnabhai film next. It's a serious take on the education system and how it's screwing up the kids."

The film will star three young actors, therefore no Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi in the next. "But let me tell you I'm not scared of doing another sequel. When I did Munnabhai MBBS they said comedies don't run.

When I did a sequel to MBBS they said sequels don't run. Now they'll say sequel kar sakta hai, par serious film nahin kar sakta hai. What to do? I'm really not worried about the next Munnabhai film. I already see it in my mind."

The next one too will be written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vinod Chopra. "At least let me be in my comfort zone in these areas," Hirani laughs.