No Visa for Munnabhai

If you ask Raj Kumar Hirani his opinion on Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan chances are he won’t be too enamoured of the much-acclaimed Shah Rukh Khan starrer.
And we can’t blame him for that. My Name Is Khan (MNIK) has slowed down plans for the much delayed and anxiously-awaited Munnabhai Part 3, which was to be called Munnabhai Chale Amrika.
It looks like Munnabhai won’t be heading to America after all, because Shah Rukh Khan’s character in the film Rizwan Khan has already been there and done the things that Munnabhai was supposed to do.
Seeing these similarities between the script for Munnabhai Chale Amrika and MNIK the Munnabhai writer Parijat Joshi has been sent back to the story board stage.
Confirming these developments ‘Munnabhai’ Sanjay Dutt says, “Yes there were similarities between Munnbhai Chale Amrika and My Name Is Khan. Raj Kumar Hirani can’t afford to let the third Munnabhai film suffer in any way. Changes are being made. It’s a huge responsibility to helm the Munnbhai series and Raju (Hirani) knows it. He is the most meticulous and passionate filmmaker we have.”
When reminded that almost three years have passed since the last Munnabhai franchise, Dutt says, “True, but no one has forgotten Munnabhai. No one can. Raju wanted to prove himself in a non-Munnabhai film. So he made 3 Idiots. And look at what he achieved with that. He’s by far the best filmmaker today.”
Adds Dutt, “We’d have gone ahead with the third Munnabhai film by the end of this year. But the script had to be changed. I think we’ll start by April 2011. The second Munnabhai film was better than the first. Now the third has to be better than the second.”
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