Kickstarting director Rajkumar Hirani’s career and resurrecting Sanjay Dutt’s status as a leading man, the Munna Bhai franchise has provided some of Bollywood’s funniest and most heartwarming comedies. If you wish to go on a Munna Bhai binge, we’ve got you covered with a complete streaming guide of the movies in order along with a handy guide on where to stream them all.
How to watch the Munna Bhai movies in order?
The Munna Bhai franchise’s entries can be streamed in the same order as their release date. While Munna Bhai MBBS establishes the recurring characters Munna Bhai and Circuit, the sophomore film Lage Raho Munna Bhai is a spiritual sequel building upon a different premise.
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Munna Bhai MBBS (2003)
- Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)
The first movie followed the goon Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) as he aims to change his ways and become a medical student instead. Thrown in the mix are fan favourite characters like his loyal sidekick Circuit (Arshad Warsi) and the strict medical college dean Dr Asthana (Boman Irani). The movie was a breakaway hit, offering Warsi his breakout acting role and establishing Hirani’s bankability as a filmmaker. As for the leading man, Sanjay Dutt witnessed a resurgence in popularity after a string of flops and publicized controversies.
Three years later, the trio of Dutt, Warsi, and Hirani returned with another blockbuster sequel Lage Raho Munna Bhai. This time around, Munna Bhai has a change of heart yet again when he crosses paths with the ghost of Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi. Boman Irani returns to the franchise in an antagonistic role (but playing a different character). There’s hardly any continuity to Munna Bhai MBBS’s medical comedy but the lovable tomfoolery of Munna and Circuit still endures in this social drama.
Will there be a third Munna Bhai movie?
Lage Raho Munna Bhai was supposed to lead up to a third movie titled Munna Bhai Chale America. But plans were canceled with Sanjay Dutt’s prison sentence in an illegal arms scandal. Even after Dutt served his time, he collaborated with Hirani on his religious satire PK and even became the subject of the biopic Sanju. However, no future developments for Munna Bhai Chale America have been revealed yet. Judging from the title, it is possible that the third movie might find Munna and Circuit flying to the US for some international misadventures.
Does the Munna Bhai franchise have any remakes?
The first Munna Bhai movie spawned several multi-lingual remakes. In Tamil, the auteur Kamal Haasan took on Dutt’s role in the Vasool Raja MBBS while Telugu superstar Chiranjeevei essayed the same role in Shankar Dada MBBS. Elsewhere in Kannada cinema, Upendra starred in Uppi Dada MBBS. Lage Raho Munna Bhai also led to one Telugu remake Shankar Dada Zindabad with Chiranjeevi reprising his role as the goon-turned-Gandhian.
The correct order of viewing the Telugu remakes is the same as the Hindi versions (i.e. in order of release date).
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Shankar Dada MBBS (2004)
- Shankar Dada Zindabad (2007)
All remakes aside, Munna Bhai MBBS itself bears some vague resemblances to the medical drama Patch Adams (available to rent on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play).
Where can you stream the Munna Bhai movies?
Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munna Bhai are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and to rent on YouTube Movies, Google Play store, and Apple. As for the remakes, you can watch both the Shankar Dada movies on Sun NXT. The Tamil remake Vasool Raja MBBS can similarly be streamed on Sun NXT.
