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3 min readMumbaiFeb 21, 2026 11:23 AM IST
Arshad Warsi said he was earning very little before Munna Bhai MBBS released.
Arshad Warsi is best known for his iconic role as Circuit in Munna Bhai MBBS, directed by Rajkumar Hirani. In fact, it was such a memorable character, and such a tongue-in-cheek performance by Arshad, that it garnered far more attention than even Sanjay Dutt did for playing the titular character. The chemistry between the two became the heart of the film, and even today, audiences keep returning to it. The film also proved to be a turning point in Arshad’s career, as he recently revealed that, before it, he wasn’t making much money in the industry.
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Vipul Shah told Arshad Warsi to charge Rs 1 crore after Munna Bhai
Speaking to Pinkvilla, he said, “Before Munna Bhai, I hardly earned any money, very little, almost nothing. I wasn’t making anything; I would take whatever came my way and would be okay, never fighting too much about how much I would get.”
He recalled an incident which happened around the time of Munna Bhai MBBS when he received a call from producer-filmmaker Vipul Shah. “He called me randomly after Munna Bhai got released and said, ‘If you take even a penny less than Rs 1 crore, I will come after you.’” Arshad further recalled what Vipul Shah had told him: “You have no idea how talented you are, why are you doing this?” That was the first time Arshad told his manager that he should ask for Rs 1 crore. “After that, I started getting a little more money.”
‘I thought Circuit would be my last role’
In the same conversation, Arshad reflected on how he initially felt Circuit might be his last role in films, as he was just one of the goons standing behind Sanjay Dutt. “I wasn’t the first choice for the role. Many had rejected it, and I would have rejected it if I was doing better in life. There wasn’t much to it, he was just one of the 4–5 guys following the hero around, with maybe two more lines than them.”
He then described how much of the character emerged from improvisation: “Raju (Rajkumar Hirani) gave me full creative freedom, and it was so much fun. I was enjoying myself, improvising. He also has a great sense of humour, and we were having a blast.”
Arshad added how the role unexpectedly became a major hit with audiences: “Sometimes, things work out right when you don’t expect them to. I thought this would be my last film. I really believed that after this, I’d only get small goon roles behind the hero, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. So, I thought this is my last one. But somehow, it all just worked out and everything turned around.”
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Last year, in an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Arshad also revealed that work on Munna Bhai 3 is underway: “See, with part 3, the thing is that once it was not happening at all, but now Raju is actually working on it. He is seriously working on it, and it seems like it should happen now.”
English (US) ·