Sanjay Dutt-Arshad Warsi are coming together again. The sparkling chemistry between Munnabhai and his bum-chum Circuit will be seen again, though this time in a non-Munnabhai film entitled Johnny Johnny Yes Papa.
But it would be a comedy on the same lines as the much-beloved Munnabhai series which has come to standstill as the film’s director Raj Kumar Hirani got busy with his screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s 5 Point Someone…What Not To Do At IIT.
Says a source close to Dutt, “Having resolved to give up playing the gangster ad nauseum Sanju Baba wants to explore the goofy tragic-comic aspect of his personality that Munnabhai tapped so effectively. In fact Saurav Kabra’s EMI carries the same image forward but into a different territory. Producer Suniel Shetty and Ekta Kapoor are huge Sanju fans. They designed the character of Sattarbhai in EMI as a homage to Sanju’s Munnabhai.â€
And now it’s Johnny Johnny Yes Papa where Sanjay Dutt and Arashad Warsi will reprise their Munnabhai-Circuit camaraderie .
Interestingly Johnny Johnny will be directed by Rohit Shetty who has done the two Gol Maal films and Sunday with Ajay Devgan and has now shifted the hero-giri’s gear to Sanjay Dutt .But Shetty’s comic bent is far from spent.
Dutt’s company’s CEO Dharam Oberoi says, “Johnny Johnny Yes Papa is a funny idea.The idea of bringing Baba and Arshad together is definitely a dhamaka. As for the next Munnabhai film(Munnabhai Chale Amrika) it’s been shifted to the end of 2008 because Raju Hirani is busy with Idiotsâ€
Sanjay Dutt’s wife Maanyata joins him in New Zealand this week.
Incidentally Sanjay Dutt had done a film with the name Johnny in it 30 years ago. It was called Johnny I Love You and it featured him opposite Rati Agnihotri. The two were linked together.
Dutt will have no leading lady in Johnny Johhny Yes Papa.
By Subhash K Jha
