Not without Sanjay Dutt: Rajkumar Hirani reveals why Munna Bhai 3 is on hold

While it was known that he will direct Ranbir Kapoor in a biopic on Sanjay Dutt, filmmaker Hirani now reveals that he will also fulfil his "commitment" to Sanjay Dutt by making the third instalment of Munna Bhai with him.

He has just tasted success with his latest Aamir Khan-starrer (the film has made more than Rs 300 crores in India till now) , but Rajkumar Hirani has already planned his next few projects.

Sanjay-Dutt-arrives-at-his-Bandra-resident-after-taking-fourteen-days-parole-in-Mumbai--Photo-by-Prodip-Guha-Hindustan-Times

While it was known that he will direct Ranbir Kapoor in a biopic on Sanjay Dutt, the filmmaker now reveals that he will also fulfil his "commitment" to Sanjay by making the third instalment of Munna Bhai with him.

"We are working on that (the next part of Munna Bhai) too. We have a commitment towards Sanju (Sanjay Dutt) that it will be done. A lot of work (on the script) has gone into it. Still, a lot of work is left. (I will make it) maybe after the biopic, whenever Sanju is back for good (after having served his jail term)," says Hirani, who has helmed hits like Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) with Sanjay in the past.

Hirani usually doesn’t churn out one film after the other. In fact, his recently released movie took him almost five years to make. So, will Munna Bhai 3 take a long time before it hits the screens too? The film-maker says that he, too, wants to make films quickly. "But it takes time because, for a year or so, you write a script and then make the film in about one to one-and-a-half years. If I get ready scripts, I would be happy to execute them. I prefer to be a director and a narrator rather than a writer," he says.

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani

And even as Hirani admits that work on the next script has started off "mentally", he wants to take a break before he immerses himself in the project. "I will take a break because I haven’t actually taken one in five years now. The longest break I have taken in my life was 14 days. On the 15th day, I started getting impatient to start work again. Abhijat (Joshi; co-writer) just told me, ‘Let’s start now’. But I was like, ‘No, don’t talk about it yet’," he says.