Soon the screenplay version of Lage Raho Munna bhai will be out, three years after the movie released

IT took three years coming, but Munna bhai is at it again, mamu. This time, readers all over the world can read about Munna bhai and Circuit's exploits and their tryst with Gandhigiri destiny, as Lage Raho Munna Bhai's screenplay gets published for the first time.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Om Books International is releasing the 350-page screenplay (priced at Rs 395) on December 7, at a function that is expected to have Lage Raho Munna Bhai's producer-writer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director Rajkumar Hirani, actor Sanjay Dutt and 3 Idiots star Aamir Khan in attendance.

The book will be in Roman script, with the Hindi dialogues as they appeared in the film. Says Om Books International head, Ajay Mago, "When I met Vinod (Chopra), we thought it would be a great idea to publish all his films in screenplay form, starting with Lage Raho Munna Bhai. In August 2009, we began it all."

Starting with Anand

Director Rajkumar Hirani, who also co-wrote Lage Rahou2026, is thrilled at the idea of its screenplay in published form. Smack in the middle of editing 3 Idiots, Raju confesses he's done little work on this effort, yet he's looking forward to his copy. He picks the scene when Munna bhai goes on radio with his Gandhigiri, telling the man how to tackle the person who spits on the walls, as his favourite one. "We don't catalogue anything in India. I enjoy books on the thought process behind a film, or like the (Francois) Truffaut book of interviews with (Alfred) Hitchcock."

Hirani owns more biographies (Chaplin and Guru Dutt ones are his big picks) than screenplays, but he remembers picking up Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand. "It was during my college days and had just come in the market. It was a little pocket book of dialogues in Hindi with very little description.

I still have that copy somewhere."
There haven't been many screenplays published of Hindi films, other than perhaps one of Sholay and Nasreen Munni Kabir's The Immortal Dialogues of K Asif's Mughal-e-Azam. It's the compelling reason why Chopra has decided to have his films in screenplay book form.

Says Mago, "It's a book for students and collectors. We're releasing it worldwide; there's a huge demand outside India. It's one of the films that has recall value. We've printed the screenplay exactly how Lage Rahou2026 the movie is, how it's been shot."