Hollywood offers Rs 500 cr to Munnabhai!

Zeenews Bureau

Mumbai: The iconic character of Munnabhai played by Sanjay Dutt is probably the only notorious `goon like` character in the history of Hindi cinema, who is loved by millions across the globe. The Munnabhai bug seems to have smitten Hollywood too. Reportedly, an international production house has pitched in to buy the rights of the Munna Bhai brand. Apparently, the production house has made an unbelievable offer to purchase its rights from producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Chopra has been offered a whopping sum of Rs 500 crore for selling the Munna Bhai brand, as reported by a daily. A source said, "An international film production house offered Vidhu Vinod Chopra Rs 500 crore for the Munna Bhai franchise. This includes the rights to produce Munna Bhai films, Munna Bhai merchandise and also the rights to publish Munna Bhai comics in the future." According to the source, the international corporation conducted a survey in the Indian film industry, where Munna Bhai emerged as the most recalled movie franchise. "In fact, the third part of the film is one of the most eagerly awaited films even though the script has not been finalised yet. Needless to say, the production house wanted to buy the rights to the franchise. However, Vidhu Vinod Chopra refused to part with it," added the source. When contacted Sameer Rao, CEO of Vinod Chopra Films confirmed receiving the offer and added, "We all know that Munna Bhai is something very precious. And thus, we have politely declined the offer. It`s something that belongs to its creators, Rajkumar Hirani and Vinod Chopra Films. We realise that Munna Bhai is a big brand but it wasn`t created for marketing purposes". Refusing to part with the name of the production house that offered to buy the franchise, Rao added, "We have signed a non-disclosure agreement and we are not allowed to reveal the name of the production house."