Raju Hirani is one of the most talented directors around and it may have seemed strange how no other production house has grabbed him.

The director of the Munnabhai series is believed to have been offered fabulous sums of money by the biggest of production houses but he has not signed up with them because he is not allowed to do films outside the Vidhu Vinod Chopra's production house. Hirani is believed to be under a contract which bars him from directing film for outside banners. It is believed that Chopra is very protective about him and does not even like him interacting with outside producers. The contract apparently states that any producer, who approached Hirani, will have to go through Chopra first. A recent example of how interfering Chopra is can be gauged by the fact that Shah Rukh Khan walked out of Hirani's film. SRK was believed to be quite keen to work with Hirani. He has always loved his work and has praised him very often too. But matters are believed to have got out of hand once Chopra came into the picture. There is no love lost between Chopra and SRK. So, for the time being, Hirani is quite unreachable for outsiders.