Rajkumar Hirani Recalls Shooting With Arshad Warsi During Munna Bhai: 'He Has A Unique Process'

Rajkumar Hirani is all set to make his streaming debut with Pritam and Pedro, a crime-comedy series that also marks the acting debut of his son, Vir Hirani, and stars Vikrant Massey along with Arshad Warsi. This project reunites Hirani with Warsi almost two decades after their collaboration on the iconic Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

Ahead of Pritam and Pedro’s release, Rajkumar Hirani got candid about collaborating with Arshad and turned nostalgic. Recalling their very first day of shooting together, Rajkumar Hirani shared, “We were doing the first scene, and I realised Arshad was not speaking from the script.” The actor was delivering his lines in a different order, adding his own touches and improvising throughout the scene. Initially taken aback, Hirani asked

him to stick to the script. “He complied, but the second take was not as good as the first one. I discovered then that Arshad has a unique process.”

Now, over 20 years later, the duo has reunited for Pritam and Pedro. Reflecting on their long-standing friendship and working together again, Arshad Warsi said, “There are some people who leave a big impact on your life, and Mr. Hirani has done that for me big time. Our friendship was always there, and we kept in touch. I strongly believe that for any collaboration, a project should come together organically. So when he called me for this, I was really delighted.”

Looking back at the Munna Bhai films, Arshad Warsi recalled how he almost won a National Award for Lage Raho Munna Bhai. “During Lage Raho (2006), word got out that the Best Supporting Actor award would go to someone from this film. So everybody assumed it’s me. I started getting congratulatory messages from the industry. It later transpired that the award went to Dilip Prabhavalkar, who played Mahatma Gandhi in the film. I said to myself, ‘Fair enough, I can’t beat Gandhiji!'”

Arshad had improvised quite a bit while playing the iconic role of Circuit. Recalling the famous Chinese tourist scene from the film, the filmmaker shared, “We had mapped out much of the scene, with Circuit spotting the tourist, knocking him out cold, and taking his body to Munna for his dissection class. But I remember Arshad added a line, calling the tourist, ‘Aey, hakka noodles’. From there on, we decided that every time he meets a new character, he will give them a nickname. That’s why when he meets a trainee doctor, he calls him ‘dispensary’, and so forth.”

About Pritam and Pedro

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Avinash Arun,the series is created and produced by Rajkumar Hirani, marking his first step into the streaming space. Pritam and Pedro will stream from July 3, only on JioHotstar.