Ahmed Khan’s Welcome To The Jungle starring Akshay Kumar is inching towards minting Rs 125 crore at the domestic box office. Globally, it stands at Rs 180 crore. But the director is in mood to rest on
his laurels. At present, he’s busy with the pre-production of three big-ticket films, including a zombie comedy featuring Tiger Shroff and Shanaya Kapoor as leads.
Speaking exclusively to News18, Ahmed finally confirms the project and spills the beans on it. “Yes, that film is in the pipeline. It’s definitely happening. We’ve already done the photoshoot. The only thing remaining is locking the rest of the cast. It’s also going to be a multi-starrer ensemble film. The production will begin very soon,” he tells us.
Apart from this film, he reveals that he’s also dabbling in another multi-starrer of the scale of Welcome To The Jungle. “There’s another multi-starrer film that’s I’m doing. It will have less than 34 actors like we had in Welcome To The Jungle. This time, we’ll have 33 actors (laughs). It will be a big film, not in terms of cost but in terms of its size,” Ahmed remarks.
After a very short break, he’ll also be resuming work on the film, which will mark the debut of his son, Azaan Khan. Ahmed will be directing the film himself and it’s touted to be a romantic revenge drama. Currently, Azaan is undergoing intense phsical training and dance sessions for the same. And in Ahmed’s words, he isn’t treating his son differently any other actor he had launched.
“I’ll be taking a gap of a month. I’ll be launching my elder son, Azaan. He’s 25. I’m not a parent who thinks that my child is going to be a superstar. I’m a very strict teacher as I’ve been a dance guru, who has launched many actors in the past. So, I’m taking the same route and the pace when it comes to Azaan,” says the Baaghi 2 and Heropanti 2 director.
As for Welcome To The Jungle, it may have recovered its Rs 125 crore budget even before its release, but shooting for it was no cakewalk, particularly bringing so many actors under one roof at the same time. Eventually, it took two years to wrap the film. Talking about it, Ahmed had told us, “It was tough to get the dates of Johnny Lever, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi and Akshay Kumar.”
“What Akshay does is give his dates in bulk and finishes a film. But it wasn’t possible in this case. We couldn’t finish the film in the dates Akshay had given us, so we asked him for more time. We took his dates thrice and he gave us that willingly. He told me, ‘Ahmed, tu bina koi tension liye film bana.’ He was a strong pillar of support and a true friend,” Ahmed had added.
