You cannot ignore this familiar presence in the wood-panelled office. A small, yet significant statuette of 'Bapu' - in his distinctive posture at the charkha - is, in fact, the first thing that catches my eye, when I walk into the room, taking the attention away from the many film awards that are lined up on the mantelpiece a few feet above…. And naturally so, for the office belongs to Rajkumar Hirani, the director who made Lage Raho Munna Bhai - the film that catapulted the 'Gandhigiri' mantra back into the vocabulary of a populace which had put the leader's principles on a back-burner and right into the dictionary of a young generation which has discovered his relevance.

Hirani walks in a few minutes after the appointed hour and admits with a smile, "After Lage Raho… everyone has started giving me gifts connected with Gandhiji"! Not that he minds though, for the award-winning film editor-director says that he has been influenced by 'the Father of the Nation' right from his youth. "Like all students I studied about Gandhiji in my history books," he states. "And when I watched Richard Attenborough's film, I was all the more impressed by what he stood for. His philosophy, much more than turning your other cheek, embraces a whole way of thinking...."

A way of thinking that propelled a nation to fight for independence…yet, a surprising choice for a masala movie in the high-tech state age…. "When I spoke about my subject," he states, "many film-makers told me that I had lost my mind. There were no stunts, no item numbers, no semi-clad women. But luckily, I did not have to make a movie only for pots of money. I wanted to make a film that was unique and fascinating."

Continuing in the same vein, the 40-plus director - who has already won awards for Lage Raho…- confesses to a penchant for "human stories that are treated in a light-hearted manner", something like his first offering on celluloid, Munna Bhai MBBS. Having grown up on a diet of emotional movies made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and Basu Chatterjee, Hirani would love to create "human, slice of life stories. I cannot do a thriller," he confesses. "To me content is more important than form. I must evoke some emotion - either tears or laughter. There are two ways of making a film - take a DVD and copy it. Or explore your life and put inputs from there into your film. Ultimately, I would like to make the cinema that I want to see. My benchmark is: 'Am I laughing or crying?' If it works for me, I assume it will work for everyone."

The director points out that Lage Raho… was derived from another story that he had written. "This narrative had been with me for quite some time," he says. "In it, the Father of the Nation influences a 16-year-old boy when when he visits his village. Later, due to an accident, the boy slips into a coma. Fifty years later he comes out of it. The country is independent but his hero, Gandhiji, is dead. He starts hallucinating."

Feeling that the plot was unique but the story was not going anywhere, Hirani began to work around it. And with Munna Bhai… already in his cinematic repertoire, it was but natural to think of transposing the central character of that film into this narrative in some way or the other. "I thought that I would forget the boy," he reveals. "What if Munnabhai were to meet Gandhiji? The idea would be entertaining."

What reinforced his conviction in his 'original' idea was when he discovered how little the masses remembered a leader who had helped humble an empire. "We had begun work on the film and were recording the first song in a studio," he flashbacks. "At that time the working title was Munna Bhai Meets Gandhiji. A chaiwallah came up and asked someone in my unit, 'I know who Munnabhai is, but who is Gandhiji?' I was stunned. When I reached home and asked the same question to my bai (domestic help), she too was blank. And then I realised that the freedom struggle was just a part of history now. Anyone who was born much after independence and had not gone to school, may not be aware of Bapu...."

And so Munnabhai 'met' Gandhiji and revitalised the word, 'Gandhigiri'. The impact was so huge that newspapers began to report of incidents where individuals had begun to apply this philosophy to their day-to-day problems. Like the couple in Ahmedabad, who were trying to buy a flat through estate agents but were completely undecided about which one to choose. After seeing the film, they sacked the agents and bought a flat on their own. Like jadoo ki jhappi from the first edition of the Munna Bhai... series, 'Gandhigiri' was the new catchword. "I am touched, for though it is nice to hear that I have made a good film, it is more heartening to learn that people have taken something from the movie and adapted it to their lives."

So, while he stirred his audiences to emotion and action, he savoured the sweet taste of success. For the Nagpur lad who had moved to Mumbai's world of movies, it was a dream come true. After school, he completed his graduation and then joined the Film and Television Institute of India, (FTII), Pune, for a specialisation in editing. "I tried to do engineering but I was unable to get into it," he admits. "Though my father wanted me to pursue medicine, I was not keen about it. Films fascinated me. Right through school and college, I had done a lot of theatre."

Hirani has an interesting tale to narrate about his journey from Pune to Mumbai. Today, he can look back and smile but at that time, it was a night filled with anxiety. "I was the first to finish my projects at FTII - I went home for a few weeks to meet my family and returned to the institute to find all my batchmates missing. They had come to Mumbai. My room had been emptied out. I had no place to stay. I was worried as I was not mentally prepared to come to Mumbai. Finally, I took the midnight bus and reached here early in the morning."

The dream merchant in the making soon discovered that the roads were not paved with gold. "When I had left Nagpur for FTII, I felt it would be easy. I thought that I would reach Mumbai and make a film. My dream shattered when I came here and saw so many ex-students struggling to gain a foothold in the industry. On the first day, I saw my friends queue up at the telephone booths to make calls for work. On the second day, I too was at the PCO...."

Hirani too began the grind and started editing. His expertise got him work and a lot of contacts. "Soon, I was busy, editing projects almost every day. I started editing feature films but payments hardly came in. So I began directing advertisements. Later, I started making them under my banner, Canvas Films."

Writing, editing, directing, producing...he almost turned into a one-man show…. Perhaps, the only thing he has not tried his hand at, I quip, is acting…. Only to discover that the man has also moved in front of the camera for ads. "It happened entirely by chance," he replies sheepishly, switching on his television to show me the ads he had appeared in. "Since I had done theatre, I had acted in my friends' projects at FTII. Once, in Mumbai, when a model did not turn up, I was asked to step into his shoes. It soon became a package deal. I used to act and edit."

And yet, there was a lacuna in his life…a sense of restlessness that drew him back to his first love - the movie of his dream. "In films, you can do exactly what you want to, unlike an ad where you are selling a product to your client's specifications," he states. "After a time, I felt that if I did not make my movie now I would never get around to doing it. I took a conscious break from the ad world and shut down shop…." To begin work on Munna Bhai MBBS. "I had earlier worked with Vinod (Vidhu Vinod Chopra) on Mission Kashmir. He does not produce outsiders' films, yet I took the script of Munna Bhai MBBS to him. He liked it and decided to back it."

With his first offering, he created two feel-good characters who rode successfully into the second edition of the series: Munnabhai and Circuit. "They are Robin Hood type of people," he laughs. "I think they have grown larger than what I created. They do not belong to me any more. They have got a life of their own and are public property. They succeeded because, even though they are taporis, they touched the audiences' emotions. Every good script is about a man for whom you have a reasonable amount of empathy...."

Life for Hirani now revolves round his family - wife, Manjeet, son, Vir - and the new script buzzing in his head. "I carry work home. When I was only editing, life was easier. Now, I carry my films and characters in my mind. It's is a 24/7 occupation…with its own levels of stress. So on the sets, I do naturally end up screaming a lot. When I find I am being pushed against the wall, I yell. I choose my team carefully; I look for good human beings rather than great talents."

The blueprint for his new film is yet to be finalised. It might be a third Munnabhai edition or a movie spotlighting the education system in India…or perhaps a combination of the two. Post success, the pressures and expectations are much higher than when Munna Bhai MBBS saw the light of day. "At that time, I was thrilled that I had made my first film. It had been my dream to make one. Second time around, there were the blues. I was doubtful if Lage Raho… would work. I had stopped laughing at the jokes, crying at the emotional moments. I was too close to it. I was tormented by self-doubt…. A week later, I asked Boman (Irani) if the movie was doing well…. I doubted his answer because I thought he was just saying it was a hit just to make me happy." Third time round now, the stakes are all that much higher!