Filmmaker Anees Bazmee, who is back to tickle the audience’s funny bone with Welcome Back after Welcome and Singh Is Kinng, says that making a comic film is a very serious job.
“Comedy is a very serious business and I may say that all the comedy films that I have made till date, I’ve written them when I was not in good mood or very angry,” said Bazmee, who has been in the Hindi film industry for over 35 years.
“Writing comedy is a very difficult job, but buffoonery is very easy! One can write it whenever ... I don’t like to make the buffoonery kind of films. I don’t believe in shortcuts like putting lines that have a double meaning or to show nudity.”
The filmmaker, who has also written scripts for Raju Chacha, King Uncle and Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, prefers to make movies which a family can enjoy together. “I don’t believe in that [buffoonery], I only believe in making films which I can see with my wife and daughter ... I just want my films to be more family oriented, which families can watch together.”
Bazmee’s Welcome Back is a sequel to his 2008 hit Welcome, which featured Akshay Kumar in the lead role. It features an ensemble cast, including John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal and Dimple Kapadia.
Bazmee says it took him long to make the film because “making a sequel to Welcome was not easy”.
“If I made a film completely on the lines of Welcome again, then people would think that they have seen something like that before ... But if I made a very different movie, then people would be disappointed and think that we did not come to see this, we came to see Welcome Back ... So I had to make a new Welcome, which had to have that uncanny resemblance to the first part ... As a director, I thought it was a very challenging part.”
Bazmee also clarified that Abraham is “not a replacement” for Kumar in the sequel and was roped in because Welcome Back needed a new character.
“Askhay is a complete actor and a big star ... his comedy timing [is great]. He does amazing action ... What Akshay can do no one else can do. We have thought of doing films in the future, and even I want that we do more work together.”
