But it would be a comedy on the same lines as the much-beloved Munnabhai series which has come to standstill as the film's director Raj Kumar Hirani got busy with his screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's 5 Point Someone...What Not To Do At IIT.
Says a source close to Dutt, "Having resolved to give up playing the gangster ad nauseum Sanju Baba wants to explore the goofy tragic-comic aspect of his personality that Munnabhai tapped so effectively.
In fact Saurav Kabra's EMI carries the same image forward but into a different territory. Producer Suniel Shetty and Ekta Kapoor are huge Sanju fans. They designed the character of Sattarbhai in EMI as a homage to Sanju's Munnabhai."
And now it's Johnny Johnny Yes Papa where Sanjay Dutt and Arashad Warsi will reprise their Munnabhai-Circuit camaraderie.
Interestingly Johnny Johnny will be directed by Rohit Shetty who has done the two Gol Maal films and Sunday with Ajay Devgan and has now shifted the hero-giri's gear to Sanjay Dutt.But Shetty's comic bent is far from spent.
Dutt's company's CEO Dharam Oberoi says, "Johnny Johnny Yes Papa is a funny idea.The idea of bringing Baba and Arshad together is definitely a dhamaka. As for the next Munnabhai film (Munnabhai Chale Amrika) it's been shifted to the end of 2008 because Raju Hirani is busy with Idiots"
Sanjay Dutt's wife Maanyata joins him in New Zealand this week.
Incidentally Sanjay Dutt had done a film with the name Johnny in it 30 years ago. It was called Johnny I Love You and it featured him opposite Rati Agnihotri. The two were linked together.
Dutt will have no leading lady in Johnny Johhny Yes Papa.