‘I could’ve made Welcome to the Jungle for Rs 75 cr, was a hit before release’: Ahmed Khan

Yes, the script was already there. When we went out to make an ensemble, you had to divide and designate people. So, we had a bunch of filmmaking crew (Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor), a bunch of dons (Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Lara Dutta, Jackie Shroff), and another bunch of villagers (Raveena Tandon, Farida Jalal, Kiran Kumar). So, we knew there would be some 17-18 primary actors, and knew who to give which lines and who’s going to have how much screentime. If they were all doing one thing, then it’d have been a nightmare.

I love some of the names you picked for the characters — Rajpal-Paresh as ‘Dev-Das’ and Shreyas as partially blind cinematographer ‘Nainsukh’. What went behind the character sketching?

We knew we wanted the timing of Paresh-Rajpal as the dumb directors Dev-Das. They form a tigdi with Johnny Lever. If you noticed, the elder brother should’ve been named Dev, but we named Rajpal Dev and Paresh Das. Then there’s Johnny, an Executive Producer who’s supposed to talk a lot, but he goes mute. At the same time, the cameraperson can’t see properly. So, if you insert irony, it becomes comedy of errors. At the same time, we played up the stereotypes too, like casting Jacqueline as a dumb, blonde heroine.

Jacqueline Fernandez and Akshay Kumar in Welcome to the Jungle.

But to have as many actors, along with having 900 people on set including their entourage and 50 vanity vans on set some days, did you really manage to finish the film in just Rs 125 crore?

Yes, Rs 125 crore with the P&A (Prints & Advertising). I finished the film in Rs 110 crore. What happens is if I’d have increased the number of days of shoot, the cost would’ve gone higher. I finished the film in 75 days. If your shoot increases by even a day, it just doesn’t increase the number of days, but also the catering cost, per diem, processing fees, and edit and background score expenses. You don’t realize it, but it goes up to right till the end.

So, you’re saying that budgets go overboard not as much because of the entourage casts as because of the number of days of production. Is that correct?

Yes. And we knew that we had so many actors. Had there not been as many actors, I’d have finished the film within 75 days and within Rs 75 crore. I heard at some places that the film’s budget is Rs 200-250 crore. How can anybody say that? If I had spent that much, what’s the point of me being in the industry for 36 years? I’m not making a superhero film, where I don’t even know how to do the VFX, and I’m just sitting while some boys work on the knobs at a VFX studio. My film is a straight cut. It’s just that unnecessary myth that if there are so many actors, the budget would be that high. But there’s no truth to that.

Welcome To The Jungle boasts of an ensemble of 34 actors.

As Welcome to the Jungle has earned over Rs 160 crore, so that suggests you’ve already recovered the budget?

We recovered the budget even before the film released through satellite, digital, and music rights. It was a hit on paper already (laughs). Now, the box office of the film is out there for everybody to see. My producers are laughing all the way to the bank. It’s a proper, authentic success.

While Welcome to the Jungle recovered its budget on paper, there’s also a film like Imtiaz Ali’s romantic drama Main Vaapas Aaunga, which slowly and surely makes its way into the audience. Do you think now the audience is ready to embrace even smaller films?

Of course. The idea is to not follow the herd. When a small film like Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) released, it won the audience over. So many filmmakers tried to recreate it, but couldn’t. But what they don’t realize is that they don’t like that phase, but only that film.

Kiran Kumar, Akshay Kumar, and Farida Jalal in Welcome to the Jungle.

Neeraj Vora wrote this script before his death in 2017. At what point did it become the third instalment in the Welcome franchise?

Neeraj Vora wrote it a decade ago, around the same time as Welcome Back (2015) released. Welcome had a separate identity — there are black-and-white suits and Dubai. So, when Feroz Nadiadwala (producer) gave me this script, I told him this is the next Welcome. Nobody wants to see that Welcome again. We’ve seen enough of those already.

Welcome to the Jungle is being compared to another Akshay Kumar film, Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan (2010). Did the delayed cult success of that film among the Gen-Z give you the confidence that another brainrot film like that would work?

See, we use the term ‘brainrot’, but the brain is actually not rotting. Because you’ve kept your brain aside and are not using it at all. Something else is driving you, so let it drive you? Just sit back and enjoy. As far as similarities are concerned, my film is as similar to Tees Maar Khan as Sultan was to Dangal 10 years ago. But they both did well. There are so many cops films in a year. So, the ideas are the same, but once you enter the world, the journey is completely different.

Akshay Kumar-starrer Welcome to the Jungle was reportedly made in Rs 120 crore.

Why did you bring back Suniel Shetty’s character Yeda Anna from Vikram Bhatt’s 2002 action comedy Awara Paagal Deewana?

We wanted to get it back because that was the sweetest character of Suniel Shetty. He’s an action hero, but when he threatens the other person, only to forget what he’s trying to say, that was the cutest moment of Suniel Shetty. He was completely gung-ho about it too.

Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, and Suniel Shetty in Welcome to the Jungle.

Suniel Shetty also had a cameo in the first Welcome (2007) as himself. Why did you think of introducing him and Arshad Warsi as the brothers of Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) and Majnu (Anil Kapoor) in this film?

When we had two iconic characters like them, and we’re making the third instalment, you can forget about everything else, but you tend to keep certain things that the audience would enjoy too. We could’ve avoided it. Nobody would’ve complained about it, but if you can bring a smile to the public’s face with these minor touches, then nothing else matters.

Was that also the idea behind including the “20 saal se intezaar” scene between Akshay and Raveena?

Yes, but that’s not the reason behind her casting. They both are my friends. When there was the role of a powerful lady in a village, I thought Raveena would be perfect. When I approached her, I told her I’d play on some scenes between her and Akshay. But we all have grown up now. We have kids now. So, the meta reference of “20 saal baad aaye ho tum” caught up so well with the audience that everybody in theatres was going mad (laughs).

How did you convince veteran actors like Farida Jalal and Kiran Kumar to reinvent themselves from their respective images of a hapless mother and a menacing villain in the 1990s?

I’ve never seen them do comedy. We wanted two serious actors. In this, they’re also not doing comedy. If you mute Farida ji, you’ll see that she’s crying. If you dial up the volume, she’s blabbering. The way I made it funny was Jackie saying, “Ye kya bol rahi hai budhiya?” and Vindu Dara Singh saying, “Budhiya, ya toh bol le ya ro le.” Farida ji is being very serious. Similarly, Kiran ji understands her emotion and starts in Rekhta Urdu. Farida ji asked me, “What are you making me do?” Akshay played a major part. He convinced her that she’s a part of the Welcome world. Then she probably understood and went with my conviction. When you see a comedian, who makes you laugh throughout the film, die at the end, you feel connected. Similarly, with Kiran ji, you see an evil actor turn positive. That also connects.

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Finally, do you have a response to the criticism that there’s dearth of logic in comedies like Welcome to the Jungle?

I’ll tell you a story. When I was choreographing “Dhan Te Nan” in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009), Vishal ji told me to not make it so stylized, even though Shahid Kapoor is such a good dancer. He said his character Guddu wouldn’t dance like that. I said if you have to approach everything by logic, then you should question Gulzar sahab also. Because Shahid’s character turns the ‘s’ sound into ‘f’ sound, and there are so many ‘s’ sounds in the song! People don’t go into such deep details. Unless they see a man who’d been shot in the previous scene.