When Arshad Warsi forgot how 'Circuit' was

By: Moses Navgire, IndiaFM

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Munnabhai and Circuit are coming back and this time, with a whole new adventure. The film Lage Raho Munnabhai which will be the next episode of Munna and Circuit's quest is releasing this September. Though director Rajkumar Hirani is extremely happy with how the film has turned out, he definitely had a roller coaster ride while working with the dynamic duo Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi. Apparently, Arshad goofed things up a couple of times, which left the director standing on the edge of a mountain cliff.

On the very first day of the shoot, they were shooting a scene at the dhobi ghat. This was same dhobi ghat where Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt sat in Munnabhai MBBS, chatting about their problems. This scene too was very much the similar.

So everything was set. The crew was ready to start rolling the second episode of Munnabhai. Director Rajkumar Hirani was also excited about working again on the concept that won millions of hearts. He shouted 'ACTION!' and Sanjay Dutt started saying his lines. Sanjay did it exceedingly well and then lines came to Arshad. Now, when Arshad said his first line, he didn't sound like 'Circuit' at all. He was not even close to the character of 'Circuit'. He sounded like 'Arshad Warsi', speaking with an accent. He continued 4-5 lines like that. Raju Hirani then called for a retake but still Arshad couldn't do it. They did some five retakes but he was still the same. Hirani then went to Arshad and had a chat with him. He informed Arshad about how he was not sounding like Circuit. Arshad then turned to Hirani and asked "How was Circuit?" To Hirani's shock, Arshad had completely forgotten how he had played 'Circuit' in Munnabhai MBBS. The Munnabhai team tried to remind Arshad but the attempts were fruitless. Arshad said that he plays a character and then forgets about it. The crew then had to stop the shooting. Rajkumar Hirani cancelled the shoot that night and gave Arshad Warsi a DVD of Munnabhai MBBS. Next day he saw the film about three times, and then he came on the sets. The director was still nervous thinking whether Arshad will pull it of or not. But he did. Arshad finally got it right and 'Circuit' came back. Sanjay Dutt then later told Hirani that he had also seen the film about 8-9 times before coming for shoot, just to get into the skin of the character.

But this was not all. Arshad Warsi was unaware that there was one more hurdle coming his way. And this time, that whole team knew had conspired it and Arshad didn't know.

As we know by now that Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt have sung a song in the film. Though for Sanjay Dutt who has sung for quite a few films, it was not a big task, for Arshad it definitely was. The moment Arshad learnt he had to sing a song, he panicked big time. In fact his wife, Maria called up Rajkumar Hirani and asked him 'Are you sure you want to make him sing?' She added 'He is the most besura guy I've ever heard in my life. Don't make him sing. You'll ruin his career.' Hirani who was caught up in this tricky situation consoled Arshad's wife saying 'Let him give it a shot, Shantanu (music director) is here and we'll see how it goes.' Finally Arshad gathered some courage and came for the recording. Looking at his condition, Sanjay Dutt kind of pacified him saying 'Don't worry, hum log gaayenge yaar, saath mein gaayenge. karenge hum, I'm here with you.' So after some words of confidence coming from Sanjay Dutt, Arshad got all charged up for the song. They started the recording. Now, to Arshad's horror Sanjay Dutt finished the parts in half an hour and he left, leaving Arshad Warsi all alone in the studio wearing a headphone. He then panicked even more. But music director Shantanu Moitra helped him a lot. He made Arshad feel comfortable and do the singing. And surprisingly, Arshad was good. Contrary to all the claims he made earlier saying he was the worst singer, Arshad Warsi did an impressive job and the song has turned out very well. Even director Rajkumar Hirani was very impressed by the way Arshad sang. The track is a tapori number where two friends who are drunk are walking on a lonely street in the middle of the night and narrating a story each other.

Thus, with so many of an adventure happening during the making of the film, we can surely imagine what Munnabhai and Circuit are going to take us through this time in Lage Raho Munnabhai.