Bollywood Wave

Maharashtra government on Friday decided to exempt Sanjay Dutt-starrer “Lage Raho Munnabhai” from entertainment tax for its delineation of relevance of Gandhian values, official sources said here.

The decision to make the screening of the movie entertainment tax-free was taken by the Revenue Ministry, the sources said.

Earlier, Delhi government had given the same concession to the film which also stars Arshad Warsi and Vidhya Balan.

A delegation of state Congress met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and congratulated him on the decision, saying this was essential as the film propagated Gandhian values, a party release said here.

“The younger generation is now waking up to Gandhian values because of the movie,” the release added.

Abhishek Bachchan, whose appearance in Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ takes the audience by surprise, says he was a ‘character’ in the film and ‘not a guest appearance’.'I wouldn’t call it a guest appearance. There are no guests in a film. Either you’re part of a film or you’re not,’ said Abhishek, who also made surprise appearances in Kunal Kohli’s ‘Hum Tum’ and Siddhartha Anand’s ‘Salaam Namaste’.

‘Whether it was the small but significant part of Rani’s husband in ‘Hum Tum’ or the wacky doctor in ‘Salaam Namaste’ or Diya Mirza’s husband in ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, I play a character in the films,’ Abhishek told IANS.

‘I don’t believe in the concept of guest appearances,’ added the actor, who is shooting for Shaad Ali’s ‘Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom’ in London.

‘Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra called and asked me if I’d do a small cameo and I said yes. It’s as simple as that.’

Some years ago Abhishek had done a walk-on part in Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’ that got cut on the editing table.

‘I had to wait for ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ to get a role in Karan’s cinema,’ smiled Abhishek, who stars with Preity Zinta, Lara Dutta and Bobby Deol in ‘Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom’.

‘As kids, Bobby and I attended so many birthday parties together. It’s good to be working with him at last,’ he said.

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Munnabhai MBBS was a dismal flop overseas but ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ has already grossed $1 million in five days in North America and about $600,000 in the United Kingdom.

‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ is the first clear hit for Dutt in North America and movie could end up with a strong $3.5 million on both sides of the Atlantic.