Farhad Samji He recently talked about the massive scale of ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. He shared that the story needed a big cast and producer Firoz Nadiadwala wanted it to be even bigger. He also talked about how hard it was to manage 35 actors at once, praised Akshay Kumar for maintaining a positive attitude despite some recent box office failures, and gave his take on the debate over inflated box office and budget figures.
Why Firoz Nadiadwala kept pushing for more actors
Speaking to Siddharth Kanan, Samji spoke about the film’s unusually massive cast, explaining that the script itself calls for a large ensemble. He recalled, “The film is about a group of actors who come to a village. Even today, Firoz bhai (producer) is not satisfied with just 34 actors. He always said, ‘Get more people. Make it bigger. We need scale’. And the scale comes from the faces you see on screen. He was so passionate about it. He went on to say, “The audience will enjoy it,” and that’s exactly what happened. In every frame, you have seven actors here, eight actors there, four more somewhere else. It became one of the biggest USPs behind the success of Welcome.”
The script itself demanded a large ensemble
He added that the script itself called for a large cast, noting, “The script called for 20 to 25 actors, along with the hero and heroine, all to come to this town. That’s how we approached the casting.”
Samji on Akshay Kumar’s mindset
Samji also spoke about Akshay Kumar’s mindset after some of his recent films didn’t do well. He said, “Akshay’s philosophy is simple: keep moving forward. I’ve never seen him sit and evaluate failures in the sense of getting depressed or letting them affect him deeply. Everyone wants every film to be a big hit, but that doesn’t always happen. I’ve never seen Akshay Kumar sitting there saying, ‘Oh, what happened?’ He always says, “Go forward in life.”That’s something I’m learning from him as well. He’s a star, and he’ll always be a star.”
About ‘Welcome to the Jungle’
‘Welcome to the Jungle’ is the third film in the ‘Welcome’ series and features one of the biggest casts seen in Bollywood in recent times. Directed by Akshay Kumar, the film also stars Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar KapoorShreyas Talpade, Rajpal Yadav, Jacqueline Fernandez, Disha PataniRaveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff and many others. Directed by Ahmed Khan, the comedy opened in theaters on June 26.