While Dubai International Film Festival celebrates films from across the globe, there’s movie action of a different kind happening at a villa in Barsha.
Bollywood stars John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Shruti Hassan, Paresh Rawal and Nana Patekar have begun filming their comedy Welcome Back.
tabloid! dropped by the set on Monday afternoon and discovered two things: John Abraham looks even better in person, and Welcome Back will be sinfully decadent.
The living room of the villa that they were filming in had gold panelling everywhere. Even the giant television screens that were mounted on the wall had thick gold piping; the chandliers had gold motifs and the taps in the powder room were shaped like golden swans. But the film’s producer Firoz Nadiadwala doesn’t bat an eyelid at all the bling around him.
“The villa that you see is Dr Ghungroo’s [played by Rawal] house and today we are shooting the scene where John meets Nana and Anil for the first time. Today is our second day and as you can see everybody is seriously working. And from a cinema of point of view, all those gold detailings will look magnificent in a movie,” said Nadiadwala. Prior to our chat, he was enquiring about the status of a Rolls Royce Phantom that director Anees Bazmee had asked for.
“It’s a larger-than-life film. We want every scene to be perfect and amazing. You will see John [Abraham] step out of the Rolls Royce; he closes the door with a flick of his leg. I am also planning a scene with a fleet of luxury cars including the latest Lamborghini,” said Nadiadwala. Welcome Back is a sequel to the 2007 blockbuster Welcome, about the comic antics of a gangster who’s trying to marry his sister to a respectable groom. While the main leadhas changed from Akshay Kumar to Abraham, other characters such as Uday (Patekar) and Majnu (Kapoor) have been retained.
“Welcome Back is a family entertainer. There won’t be any crude scene or dance that makes somebody in the room uncomfortable. The idea is to make a clean entertainer,” said Nadiadwala.
Inside the villa, Kapoor and Abraham were in deep discussion on how to play the scene. The “24” star had his game face on. He may cut a colourful figure with his blue polka shirt and red-rimmed glasses, but once the cameras are switched on, he doesn’t let anything distract him.
The Welcome back crew will be in Dubai until the end of this month.
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