Why Is Bollywood Going Back To Ensemble Cast? Jaaved Jaaferi Answers | Exclusive

In the recent times, we have seen several Bollywood films with big ensembles. While Welcome To The Jungle starred around 34 actors, the recently released Dhamaal 4 also had Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi among others. So, why is Bollywood going back to big ensembles?

In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 Showsha, Jaaved Jaaferi was asked the same when he explained that it might be because films with ensemble cast appeals to wider audiences. “I suppose we are going back to the circus (laughs). You go to a circus and there’s a trapeze artist and there are people who ride the horses and then their are pretty girls hanging in the air or going around, and then there’s a clown and then there are the animals. So I think

we’re becoming that. (laughs) The whole ensemble theory is put in the variations of characters, people and actors who are liked and loved by audiences. It is like a buffet, you know, rather than ala carte. I suppose it kind of works, appeals to a wider selection of audiences,” he said.

Jaaved Jaaferi’s Dhamaal 4 released on July 10 and stood out as one of Bollywood’s major ensemble-cast comedies of 2026. Directed by Indra Kumar, the fourth instalment features Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi, who return to the franchise, alongside Sanjay Mishra, Ravi Kishan, Esha Gupta, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Anjali Anand, Upendra Limaye and Vijay Patkar.

Dhamaal 4 received mixed reviews from the audience. News18 Showsha gave this film a 2-star rating. “The tragedy of Dhamaal 4 isn’t that it’s silly. Dhamaal was always meant to be silly. It’s that the film confuses this silliness with a stale cacophony of falling bodies and animal attacks. Much like its characters on a treaure hunt, Dhamaal 4 also searches for something equally elusive – humour that’s not tone-deaf,” a part of our review read.