After two decades of rumours, false starts and hopeful quotes, Munna Bhai 3 has taken its most concrete step forward in years. Here are five things to know about the return of Munna and Circuit.
- A writer is finally on board. Rajkumar Hirani has brought writer-director Farhad Samji in to develop the screenplay, the piece of the puzzle that has held the sequel back the longest. Samji is expected to finish the script soon, and the film is reported to be heading for a 2027 shoot.
- Munna and Circuit are coming back. The plan brings Sanjay Dutt back as Murli Prasad Sharma, the good-hearted gangster audiences first met in 2003, and Arshad Warsi back as Circuit, his loyal right hand and the franchise’s beating comic heart.
- It is a reunion 23 years in the making. Samji contributed to the original film’s music back in 2003, and the new film reunites him with Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra more than two decades after the first film became a phenomenon.
- The wait has been about the script, not the stars. Hirani has said he has had several half-written scripts over the years, and as recently as February he said he had an idea for the film on a larger scale but had not found the right ending. Both Dutt and Warsi have repeatedly said they want to return — the screenplay simply had to meet Hirani’s bar first.
- Nothing is official yet. No shooting date or theatrical release window has been formally announced, and the makers have said the final screenplay must satisfy Hirani before cameras roll. For now, the 2027 shoot is the reported plan, not a confirmed date — but after twenty years of waiting, it is the closest the third film has ever come to happening.
