Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals that the marriage shot in Munna Bhai MBBS was shot in a REAL wedding to cut costs!

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By Fenil Seta -

February 25, 2021 - 10:00 AM IST

Bollywood Hungama had reported a few weeks ago how Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed in his book, ‘Unscripted, written by Abhijat Joshi, how he smartly cuts costs in his films. He had to do it in the initial period of his career because he was genuinely short of money. But even when his films started to make money, he didn’t abandon this practice. In the book, Vidhu narrated some interesting anecdotes in this regard like how he shot at Gateway Of India for Parinda’s (1989) climax illegally to avoid securing permissions and thereby paying for the shoot, how he refused chartered flight and an expensive room to Amitabh Bachchan during Eklavya‘s (2007) shoot and how he told Wazir (2016) director Bejoy Nambiar to shoot with Rajkumar Hirani's pet as it's a 'free dog'!

Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals that the marriage shot in Munna Bhai MBBS was shot in a REAL wedding to cut costs!

In 'Unscripted', Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals one more interesting trivia that's worth a read. Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) was his first production which he didn't direct. Helmed by debutant Rajkumar Hirani, the film had a wedding scene in the finale. However, it was not really a typical scene. A series of wedding photographs, of the protagonists (Sanjay Dutt and Gracy Singh) were supposed to be displayed on screen, with a voiceover in the background by Yatin Karyekar (who played the role of Anand).

As expected, Vidhu Vinod Chopra was not in favour of erecting a marriage set. Hence, the unit of the film went to a real wedding! They congratulated the newly wedded couple and then sat and waited until the reception was over. Once the bride and bridegroom left the stage, Sanjay Dutt and Gracy Singh sat on the throne-like chairs. Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani and others too joined them. The photographer, too, was present and he quickly took the snaps needed.

Not just that, instead of getting expensive wedding clothes stitched, Rajkumar Hirani decided to rent them instead. Gracy Singh was not happy with this arrangement and she complained about it to Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay was angry and said that rather than wearing rented costumes, he'll instead buy the wedding clothes for himself and Gracy. To which Rajkumar Hirani told him to do so if he wished because budget was genuinely a problem for them.

I am sure after reading this trivia, many readers would like to go back and revisit the said scene. Interestingly, now that we see the wedding snaps in the film, one realizes that these look very real and straight out of life. And that's understandable as it was indeed shot in a real wedding venue and in a real setup.