I requested Rajkumar Hirani to give me Anand Banerjee’s role in Munnabhai M.B.B.S – Yatin Karyekar

Yatin Karyekar, who plays the role of Kumud’s (Jennifer Winget) father in Star Plus’ Saraswatichandra is the same actor who played the famous comatose patient Anand Banerjee in Munnabhai M.B.B.S.

“In fact, I had been called for some doctor’s role in the above 2003 Sanjay Dutt super hit film, but I requested director Rajkumar Hirani for Anand Banerjee’s role for I had full faith in it.”

He did not think it was really tough to give that dead look expression. “I had practiced yoga which helped me not to flutter my eyes. Above all it was Raju who made it easier by not dragging a scene for more than five or ten minutes. The biggest villain in the piece was Circuit (Arshad Warsi) who would keep everybody in splits. He tried his level best to make me smile, but I held my expression (smiles)”

Here Yatin informs us that, “originally his role was not meant to sum up the story in the end.”

“Rajkumar added that it was needed to give my character proper closure. After we finished shooting I thought that I will do the dubbing of my character, but then we all persuaded Rajkumar to do the honours which he gracefully agreed. So finally it was not my voice, but that of Rajkumar Hirani’s that closed the film.”

Yatin also accepts that it was this role which got him lots of popularity and other film offers. “I got Nagesh Kukunoor‘s Iqbaal. This was followed by Bombay To Bangkok, Soundtrack and Lanka. Some of these films did not work is a different matter. ”

In TV space, Yatin’s first major work was playing the main villain in Shanti (1994). Post which he waited for many years to get back to the small screen space as he did not have faith in the saas-bahu brigade.

In closing, we ask him about Sanjay Dutt’s five year jail term and he says, “He is a gentle giant. But at the end of the day, he made a mistake. I just hope that the government pardons his sentence or reduces the period of confinement.”