Writer Farhad Samji on Akshay-Raveena's reaction to 'Welcome' jokes about their past
Farhad Samji opens on the Akshay Kumar-Raveena Tandon reunion in Welcome to the Jungle. He reveals that it was written for humour, not nostalgia and adds how self-aware references landed because both actors were willing to laugh at themselves.
One of the loudest cheers in Welcome to the Jungle comes when actors Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon share the screen again. More than two decades after Mohra, the film doesn't shy away from their shared history - both personal and professional. Instead, it embraces it with a string of self-aware jokes. Tip Tip Barsa Paani plays in the background as the two reunite, Raveena asks Akshay where he has been for 20 years, and the film sprinkles in references that audiences instantly recognise.
For Farhad Samji, who wrote the film, those moments weren't designed to infuse nostalgia. They were simply too funny to ignore. The callbacks weren't about reminding audiences of the past as much as they were about trusting them to get the joke. In an era when Bollywood increasingly leans on nostalgia, Samji says the references found their way into the script organically rather than as crowd-pleasing gimmicks. Before he begins talking about them in an exclusive interview with India Today, he politely makes one request.
"Who is sir? Who even is sir?" he laughs when addressed formally over the phone, adding, "I am literally folding my hands to you please don't call me sir."
The conversation, much like his films, immediately sheds all formality. There is no attempt at sounding profound or promotional. Samji laughs easily, interrupts himself with memories from film sets, and answers almost every question with an anecdote. It is the same easygoing humour that has shaped much of his writing over the years. Speaking about the Akshay-Raveena reunion, Samji says there was never a conscious effort to recreate an iconic pairing.
"It wasn't like we had to get their reunion done or that we needed the old magic, we just did it like that. And in their very first scene together, when Raveena sees Akshay for the first time, the Tip Tip Barsa Paani song is playing. I find that really funny because this is happening in the middle of such a serious situation," he explains.
The result is one of the film's most talked-about scenes, not because it tries to recreate Mohra, but because it playfully acknowledges the audience's own memories of the two actors. The humour comes from recognition rather than nostalgia.
He says writing those moments became one of the most enjoyable parts of the screenplay. "I had so much fun. And there were a lot of movie references to Akshay and Raveena too - like Mohra and all," he says.
Akshay-Raveena and self-aware humour of Welcome to The Jungle
Of course, self-aware humour only works if the people at the centre of it are willing to become part of the joke. According to Samji, that was never an issue with either Akshay or Raveena.
Those jokes, however, could only work if the actors were willing to laugh at themselves. Samji believes Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon were the perfect collaborators because neither approached the references with hesitation.
"I feel like for me there is no actor more sporting than Akshay and Raveena in the whole industry. They just get it. And both of them absolutely don't care, they're just here to work," he says with confidence. He points to Akshay's own introduction in the film as an example.
"Akshay had so much fun in the movie, he made fun of himself so much. No one else has done that. Like just see his introduction in the movie - Suniel says that dialogue 'Meet him, 14 films of his have flopped'. So he did it like that, he didn't have any problem at all," Samji recalls.
For Samji, that's what separates Akshay from many of his contemporaries. He says the actor has never been precious about his image, especially if making fun of himself makes the joke land better.
The same ease, he says, extends to Raveena.
"Raveena is a tomboy"
"I've never felt like 'oh a girl has come, now she'll sit and all'. She's like a total tomboy. She comes and meets everyone like a friend, like one of the guys. For me, in the industry, there are only two girls like that - Tabu and Raveena. It feels like brotherhood with them. I had so much fun," he says.
He speaks about her less like a superstar and more like an old collaborator whose comfort around people makes ensemble filmmaking easier. That sense of camaraderie, he suggests, is difficult to manufacture and invaluable on a comedy set.
With more than 35 actors sharing screen space, Welcome to the Jungle could easily have become unwieldy on paper. A film of that scale demands more than simply finding space for every actor; it requires juggling multiple comic tracks while ensuring no character feels entirely ornamental. Samji, however, says experience made the process surprisingly manageable.
"It wasn't difficult, because I had written Housefull and Golmaal too. It wasn't that difficult, and I have experience as well." The film's box-office success, though, still surprised him. "I have been doing this for so long so I did get that 'yes, it would work'. But I had no idea it would do this well."
Experience, he says, may help him trust his instincts, but audience response continues to surprise him. For all the calculations that go into writing a commercial entertainer, comedy remains one of cinema's least predictable genres. Having worked with Akshay Kumar on 11 films, Samji says he understands exactly how the actor functions as a collaborator.
How to extract comedy from Akshay Kumar?
The partnership has now stretched across multiple franchises and genres, giving Samji a close look at what the actor brings to a script beyond his comic timing. "The thing with him is, if you go to him with a blank page, you'll get nothing. But if there's even something in it, then yes, he will understand it," he says.
Asked which collaboration remains his favourite, he doesn't take long to answer: "I think Housefull 4, because Akshay's character Bala was so mischievous, so it was a lot of fun." Bala, with his exaggerated swagger and relentless mischief, remains one of Samji's favourite comic creations, a character he still recalls with visible affection.
Despite comedy often being described as one of Bollywood's toughest genres today, Samji has no plans to leave it behind. At a time when action spectacles dominate the box office, he remains convinced there is still room for unabashed commercial comedy, something reflected in the number of scripts currently occupying his writing table.
He tells us, "I'll be honest with you, four to five comedies are going on right now." And another collaboration with Akshay? His answer arrives instantly.
"Whether Akshay leaves me or not, I will never leave him," he says with a laugh.
The answer comes without hesitation, sounding less like a promotional line and more like the affection of someone who has spent years building one of Hindi cinema's most consistent actor-writer collaborations. As for Golmaal 5, he promises only one thing: "Bahut acha. One of the best."
The optimism is expected, but Samji is careful not to reveal much beyond that. When asked if the franchise could head into action next given two action stars - Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar - are leading the film, he almost sounds amused by the idea.
"No no, Golmaal is pure comedy. Why would we go into action?" he says.
That could also be the simplest way to describe Samji himself too. Throughout the conversation, he returns repeatedly to comedy - not as a formula, but as an instinct. Whether he is recalling old film references, praising collaborators for laughing at themselves, or refusing to be called 'sir', humour seems less like something he writes and more like the way he naturally communicates.
The conversation ends much the way it unfolded - with laughter, quick one-liners and absolutely no "sir."
One of the loudest cheers in Welcome to the Jungle comes when actors Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon share the screen again. More than two decades after Mohra, the film doesn't shy away from their shared history - both personal and professional. Instead, it embraces it with a string of self-aware jokes. Tip Tip Barsa Paani plays in the background as the two reunite, Raveena asks Akshay where he has been for 20 years, and the film sprinkles in references that audiences instantly recognise.
For Farhad Samji, who wrote the film, those moments weren't designed to infuse nostalgia. They were simply too funny to ignore. The callbacks weren't about reminding audiences of the past as much as they were about trusting them to get the joke. In an era when Bollywood increasingly leans on nostalgia, Samji says the references found their way into the script organically rather than as crowd-pleasing gimmicks. Before he begins talking about them in an exclusive interview with India Today, he politely makes one request.
"Who is sir? Who even is sir?" he laughs when addressed formally over the phone, adding, "I am literally folding my hands to you please don't call me sir."
The conversation, much like his films, immediately sheds all formality. There is no attempt at sounding profound or promotional. Samji laughs easily, interrupts himself with memories from film sets, and answers almost every question with an anecdote. It is the same easygoing humour that has shaped much of his writing over the years. Speaking about the Akshay-Raveena reunion, Samji says there was never a conscious effort to recreate an iconic pairing.
"It wasn't like we had to get their reunion done or that we needed the old magic, we just did it like that. And in their very first scene together, when Raveena sees Akshay for the first time, the Tip Tip Barsa Paani song is playing. I find that really funny because this is happening in the middle of such a serious situation," he explains.
The result is one of the film's most talked-about scenes, not because it tries to recreate Mohra, but because it playfully acknowledges the audience's own memories of the two actors. The humour comes from recognition rather than nostalgia.
He says writing those moments became one of the most enjoyable parts of the screenplay. "I had so much fun. And there were a lot of movie references to Akshay and Raveena too - like Mohra and all," he says.
Akshay-Raveena and self-aware humour of Welcome to The Jungle
Of course, self-aware humour only works if the people at the centre of it are willing to become part of the joke. According to Samji, that was never an issue with either Akshay or Raveena.
Those jokes, however, could only work if the actors were willing to laugh at themselves. Samji believes Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon were the perfect collaborators because neither approached the references with hesitation.
"I feel like for me there is no actor more sporting than Akshay and Raveena in the whole industry. They just get it. And both of them absolutely don't care, they're just here to work," he says with confidence. He points to Akshay's own introduction in the film as an example.
"Akshay had so much fun in the movie, he made fun of himself so much. No one else has done that. Like just see his introduction in the movie - Suniel says that dialogue 'Meet him, 14 films of his have flopped'. So he did it like that, he didn't have any problem at all," Samji recalls.
For Samji, that's what separates Akshay from many of his contemporaries. He says the actor has never been precious about his image, especially if making fun of himself makes the joke land better.
The same ease, he says, extends to Raveena.
"Raveena is a tomboy"
"I've never felt like 'oh a girl has come, now she'll sit and all'. She's like a total tomboy. She comes and meets everyone like a friend, like one of the guys. For me, in the industry, there are only two girls like that - Tabu and Raveena. It feels like brotherhood with them. I had so much fun," he says.
He speaks about her less like a superstar and more like an old collaborator whose comfort around people makes ensemble filmmaking easier. That sense of camaraderie, he suggests, is difficult to manufacture and invaluable on a comedy set.
With more than 35 actors sharing screen space, Welcome to the Jungle could easily have become unwieldy on paper. A film of that scale demands more than simply finding space for every actor; it requires juggling multiple comic tracks while ensuring no character feels entirely ornamental. Samji, however, says experience made the process surprisingly manageable.
"It wasn't difficult, because I had written Housefull and Golmaal too. It wasn't that difficult, and I have experience as well." The film's box-office success, though, still surprised him. "I have been doing this for so long so I did get that 'yes, it would work'. But I had no idea it would do this well."
Experience, he says, may help him trust his instincts, but audience response continues to surprise him. For all the calculations that go into writing a commercial entertainer, comedy remains one of cinema's least predictable genres. Having worked with Akshay Kumar on 11 films, Samji says he understands exactly how the actor functions as a collaborator.
How to extract comedy from Akshay Kumar?
The partnership has now stretched across multiple franchises and genres, giving Samji a close look at what the actor brings to a script beyond his comic timing. "The thing with him is, if you go to him with a blank page, you'll get nothing. But if there's even something in it, then yes, he will understand it," he says.
Asked which collaboration remains his favourite, he doesn't take long to answer: "I think Housefull 4, because Akshay's character Bala was so mischievous, so it was a lot of fun." Bala, with his exaggerated swagger and relentless mischief, remains one of Samji's favourite comic creations, a character he still recalls with visible affection.
Despite comedy often being described as one of Bollywood's toughest genres today, Samji has no plans to leave it behind. At a time when action spectacles dominate the box office, he remains convinced there is still room for unabashed commercial comedy, something reflected in the number of scripts currently occupying his writing table.
He tells us, "I'll be honest with you, four to five comedies are going on right now." And another collaboration with Akshay? His answer arrives instantly.
"Whether Akshay leaves me or not, I will never leave him," he says with a laugh.
The answer comes without hesitation, sounding less like a promotional line and more like the affection of someone who has spent years building one of Hindi cinema's most consistent actor-writer collaborations. As for Golmaal 5, he promises only one thing: "Bahut acha. One of the best."
The optimism is expected, but Samji is careful not to reveal much beyond that. When asked if the franchise could head into action next given two action stars - Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar - are leading the film, he almost sounds amused by the idea.
"No no, Golmaal is pure comedy. Why would we go into action?" he says.
That could also be the simplest way to describe Samji himself too. Throughout the conversation, he returns repeatedly to comedy - not as a formula, but as an instinct. Whether he is recalling old film references, praising collaborators for laughing at themselves, or refusing to be called 'sir', humour seems less like something he writes and more like the way he naturally communicates.
The conversation ends much the way it unfolded - with laughter, quick one-liners and absolutely no "sir."
