It was going to be a long night for the stars of Bollywood comedy Welcome Back, and actors John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Shruti Haasan were stocking up on some coffee — you would too, if you had to pull off a 9pm-to-9am shift. tabloid! was spending the night with the cast and crew of Welcome Back as they filmed crucial scenes at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray hotel on Palm Jumeirah this weekend. Ok, we exaggerate. Those hours are too much for even this Bollywood-event-hardened journalist.
The sequence to be captured sounded relatively simple, Kapoor tells us. “You are at my house. John’s character Ajay comes to meet me and Uday [Nana Patekar]. He’s acting like this simple, sweet guy but we have realised that there’s more to him than what meets the eye,” the actor said, as his shot was being set up. In the sequel, Kapoor plays gangster-turned-hotelier Majnu Bhai. Abraham, meanwhile, cut a cool figure, unperturbed by the idea of foregoing sleep.
“As actors, our schedules are erratic and today’s scene is going to be hilarious. Shruti has told me that I need to behave myself in front of Majnu and Uday Shetty. I have to pretend to be this decent guy, which I am totally not,” Abraham said.
Does acting get easier with time?
“I may not look nervous but I am human and have the same fears and worries that any actor would have,” Abraham said. As we spoke, the lobby of the palatial hotel was being transformed into the meeting point for the three characters.
“When you have signed up actors who enjoy what they do, there is no need to worry because they will give it their all to this film,” producer Firoz Nadiadwala said. “We are progressing at a good speed and everything is going on as planned. Dubai Film & TV Commission and everybody on ground have been helpful in getting the visa and shooting permits sorted for us.”
John Abraham: “There’s more to me than my looks”
Looking dapper in a white shirt, brown pants and a purple slim tie, Abraham marks his attendance at 10pm.
The night ahead of him includes meeting his prospective in-laws, presenting a wholesome package and covering up his gangster trails — onscreen, of course.
Abraham doesn’t do pretentious. He remembers the time when he was watching the comedy Phir Hera Pheri in a theatre with a noted Indian critic.
“I heard the critic laughing aloud all through the film. But when the film ended, it was all about just picking faults. I don’t get those kind of people. Weren’t they just enjoying themselves a minute ago? So why pretend?” Abraham said, scratching his chin. He may have to swat off many such “pretentious folks” when his comedy Welcome Back hits the screen. The original raked in the money but reviews were mixed, with some calling it a “leave-the-brains-at-door” film. But actor-producer Abraham isn’t worried.
“Welcome Back is one of those movies which is unapologetically funny and unpretentious,” he said. The 2007 original saw Akshay Kumar in the lead, while the sequel has a different storyline.
So what attracted Abraham to the script?
“I was shooting in Malaysia overnight. I had a terrible migraine and my haemoglobin was at an all-time low. After that I was on a red-eye flight and I wasn’t getting any sleep. So there I was feeling unwell and terribly sick and I started reading the script of Welcome Back. And I was laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes,” Abraham said, flashing his dimples.
“The passengers sitting next to me thought I had gone crazy and it didn’t help matters that I didn’t look my best. But my only thought then was: ‘if it made me so happy, then I am sure it make others happy.’” However, he says that comedy isn’t an easy genre to pull off, claiming that he can make people cry easily but getting them to smile requires hard work.
“But here the credit has to go to director Anees Bazmee. He has written such funny lines and I find myself smiling whenever I think about our scenes. I would have done this film no matter what.”
Abraham, who made his debut with thriller Jism, was looked upon as Bollywood’s top eye-candy but over the years has reinvented himself as a producer and an actor, producing the sperm donation comedy Vicky Donor, a surprise hit, and starring in Shoojit Sircar’s war drama Madras Café.
“I want Indian cinema to be known the world over by not just Bollywood or song and dance. I want to make films that are realistic.”
While he sounded grave, there’s a fun side to him that he’s waiting to unleash.
“I love motorcycles and I will be back in Dubai this February. And I will make sure that I ride on these amazing roads. Dubai is one city that’s liberal but doesn’t allow you to cross the line. I have discovered Dubai on this trip.”
Abraham, who has amassed a business empire with his production deals, fitness range and fashion label, adds that this city excites the businessman in him. He’s been reading up on Expo 2020, its history and its future implications.
“I am not going to buy a holiday home here. I think business first, so I have to find a revenue model and it has to be sustainable. Perhaps a FZE [Free Zone Enterprise] would work,” Abraham said launching into business-speak. Ask him if he gathered all that knowledge from his investment banker fiancee Priya Runchal, he responds: “I am an MBA graduate, remember.”
And marriage? “Sooner than later. So go figure,” Abraham said with a wink.
Anil Kapoor: “Zabeel Saray brings back some wonderful memories from Mission Impossible.”
The actor shows up on set sharp at 8pm (the time that the actors were called), in a white and black silk shirt that would make a Dalmation proud, rings and gold chains with animal motifs.
His crook-gone-straight character Majnu is itching to go back to his gun-wielding gangster days. Plus he’s not a fan of Abraham’s character Ajay and wants to teach him a lesson.
Bollywood is notoriously tardy. But Anil Kapoor is an aberration of sorts. He was asked to report to the Welcome Back sets at 8pm and he was there on time. The problem? He was the only one who seems to have gotten that memo.
“It doesn’t p*** me off, I just had a catnap,” Kapoor said, with a resigned smile. “I always stick to time and I tell everybody that if you give me a time, I will be there.”
It seemed nothing could dampen his spirit that night, as the filming location brought back memories from his Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol days. The hotel played his home in the 2011 Hollywood blockbuster, in which he played a business tycoon.
“It’s such a coincidence that we are shooting here. It’s like homecoming and I am feeling very nostalgic thinking about [director] Brad Bird and Tom Cruise. I had a great time shooting for Mission: Impossible and I hope I get to take back good memories with Welcome Back too.”
Shruti Haasan: “I chose Welcome Back because it’s a clean, fun film.”
In a black sleeveless top and stretch grey leggings from Zara, the south Indian actress plays Abraham’s on-screen lover.
If Shruti Haasan had her way, she would be going incognito to a theatre and catching up on films at the Dubai International Film Festival. But her passion for world cinema had to wait on Friday night.
“I enjoy comedy. I have always believed that as an actor, if you can make people cry and laugh with the same ease, then you are good at what you do,” Haasan, who plays “fun, young girl” in Welcome Back, said.
A self-titled world cinema buff, the daughter of legendary south Indian matinee idol Kamal Haasan, has managed to see quite a few films at the festival, which concluded on Saturday.
“I loved 12 Years A Slave and Fruitvale Station. I watch around 30 movies that are not necessarily released on Fridays [when blockbusters open in Indian cinemas]. I am such a film buff and I have friends who love world cinema,” Haasan said.
