'Won't run for even a day...': Made for Rs 10 crore, this film was initially tagged a flop due to..., yet made the makers rich, movie is..

India.com

3 days ago

It is still a mystery what exactly can make a movie a superhit or a super flop. Maybe it's the casting, a scene, a song, or even a dialogue. Something similar happened with the film we're going to discuss today. This movie, made for Rs 10 crore, did not perform well in its initial days. However, as days passed, the film garnered attention and eventually turned out to be a huge hit. It earned the title of a cult classic, and perhaps in the coming days, we might even witness a franchise based on the movie.
Twenty-three years ago, one of Bollywood's ace directors helmed the movie and cast three of the finest actors in the industry — Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, and Boman Irani. Now, all these characters might ring a bell in your mind, and let us tell you, we are talking about none other than Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. Was Initially a Flop
Would you believe it if we told you that Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. was initially a flop? Yes, the film initially faced challenges, with reports of empty theaters on the first day. No Distributors Wanted to Buy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is counted among Bollywood's top producers. He has produced films like Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta, Rajkumar Hirani's Munna Bhai franchise, 3 Idiots, and PK. But in a recent interview with Screen, he revealed that no distributor from South India wanted to buy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
Despite that, the movie made Vidhu rich. He recalled that the film opened to nearly empty theaters but became his most profitable venture, mainly because it wasn't sold outside Mumbai initially.
Vidhu recalled a discussion with a South Indian distributor who purchased the movie for Rs 11 lakh. The distributor arrived to collect the film just four days before its release but expressed doubts after watching it.
'Sir, this film won't work even for a day. Nobody outside of Mumbai would understand the language of Munna Bhai,' Chopra recalled him saying.
Adding further, the filmmaker revealed that he once offered to refund the Rs 5 lakh advance paid by another South Indian distributor. However, the distributor preferred to keep the money, expressing faith in Chopra and his belief that Chopra's next film might be a hit.
Chopra explained, 'The bottom line is I had no distributor for South India. I had friends — Shyam Shroff and Bala Shroff — who had a company.'
He shared that there was a cinema in Chennai where he secured only a single morning show at 11 a.m. He sold his print there for Rs 5 lakh, but the final business from that one centre crossed Rs 1 crore.