JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
The Past Blast: When Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan were considered for Welcome Back but…
Before John Abraham coming on board, director Anees Bazmee and producer, Firoz Nadiadwala were planning to revamp the Welcome Franchise with a young actor for long term prospects.
In 2007, the Anees Bazme directed comedy, Welcome, featuring Akshay Kumar, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal and Katrina Kaif attained a cult status in the comic space. The success motivated one and all to spin a franchise of this comic caper. When things were not on the right track between producer Firoz Nadiadwala and his leading man, Akshay Kumar, the team was on the look out for a fresh casting in Welcome Back.
At first, efforts were taken to resolve all differences, however, when Akshay decided to part ways, the team of Welcome Back started conversations with multiple actors. In early 2013, a team suggested Firoz to make Welcome Back with either of the two rising stars – Ranveer Singh or Varun Dhawan - for long term prospects of the franchise. The producer gave it a thought and agreed on meeting Ranveer. However, things didn’t take a positive turn due to multiple differences, including the skepticism of Anees Bazmee and the entire team of working with a newcomer.
Back then, Ranveer was a rank newcomer and had not tasted the humongous success in Ram Leela. After dropping out on Ranveer, the second option was one film old Varun Dhawan. Yet again, it was the case of the team having a doubt on his ability to pull off an out and out comedy film (Main Tera Hero was yet to release). While a couple of meetings did take place, the team finally parted ways, just to be proved wrong about Varun’s knack in comedy upon the release of Main Tera Hero. From a boy next door, the script then underwent a change with the protagonist getting a larger than life turn to fit in John Abraham’s image.
The actor immediately agreed to come on board the film and it finally took off with John joining the gang of Anil, Nana and Paresh. The film finally released in 2015 raking in nearly 90 crore at the domestic box-office. Stay tuned for more such trivia’s only on Pinkvilla.
ALSO READ: The Past Blast: When a crossover of Hera Pheri with Welcome was planned… And soon shelved
Latest Articles
