From Idea to Film: The Birth of 'Dunki' by Rajkumar Hirani

At one time or the other such thoughts come to every person's mind with which his mind gets attached. A similar thought came to the mind of film director Raj Kumar Hirani, today the film 'Dunki' is hitting the theaters. In a discussion during the promotion of the film, writer-director Hirani tells how 'Dunki' started.

How the thought of Dunki arose

This happened when director Rajkumar Hirani had gone to Jalandhar in Punjab. He saw a cement airplane built on the roof of a house near where he was. He explains - "Then I saw the same thing on the roof of another house, then found the same thing on another house. On investigation, I found out that someone or the other person from those houses had gone abroad. And, the symbolism of this Statues of planes has been built for this."

It seemed a bit surprising. Hirani also laughed but after getting to the bottom of the matter, he came to know that from every house there, one or the other member wants to go abroad and settle down. Due to difficulties in not getting a visa, many people go abroad illegally. They called the illegal route of going abroad a Dunki path and then people started calling it a Dunki maar. "Then a thought came to my mind that a story could be made on this subject and a film could be made."

Hirani's idea has come to theaters in the form of a film

Rajkumar Hirani discussed this with his writers and then everyone got to work. And the story became. Shahrukh Khan agreed to make a film on that story (Red Chillies Production, producer Gauri Khan). Shahrukh Khan already wanted to work with Raj Kumar Hirani. Shahrukh already liked Hirani's films (Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, PK, 3 Idiots, Sanju, etc.) but Hirani did not make films of his style, there was always a hesitation between them. When the matter of making Dunki came up, the hesitation went away, their thought was 'Let's try something different.'

How much the film will be able to earn

Now seeing the initial opening of the film, people are surprised that the film 'Dunki', made for just Rs 85 crore, is going to become Shahrukh Khan's third hit film this year after 'Pathan' and 'Jawaan'. The idea of the subject of Rajkumar Hirani's films PK' and '3 Idiots' was also formed in the same way as the subject of 'Dunki', it was an idea that stuck with him. It is worth noting that Hirani's directorial film '3 Idiots' (with Aamir Khan) had earned Rs 202 crores, and 'PK' (again with Aamir Khan) had earned Rs 340 crores. Apart from this, Sanjay Dutt's biopic film earned Rs 343 crore. Now, how much money can the film 'Dunki' made under the direction of Hirani with 'Dunki Maar Thought' (featuring Shahrukh Khan) be able to earn?

Tags : dunki-film | rajkumar-hirani

-Sharad Rai