EXCLUSIVE: Farhad Samji ECSTATIC with response to Welcome To The Jungle dialogues; reveals Akshay Kumar’s BIG role in shaping Farida Jalal’s hilarious ‘Badi Bi’ character: “He suggested the tone”
Welcome To The Jungle grew well on Saturday, which makes it clear that the film has been accepted. The film’s humour quotient has been appreciated and one person who deserves credit for it is dialogue writer Farhad Samji. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, the writer spoke about the writing process and a lot more.
Farhad Samji seemed content with the reaction to Welcome To The Jungle when this writer spoke to him on the second day of release. He smiled and said, “Har Friday apni kahaani change hoti rehti hai. This Friday was a good one!”
How has been the feedback for Welcome To The Jungle?
I have received a great response. The industry people are the first one to call me and share their feedback. This time, the reaction was ‘Iss baar toh chakkaa laga hai‘ in terms of dialogues! It made me happy. For us, getting appreciation is akin to receiving Filmfare and Oscar.
Who from the industry called you?
Rajkumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Sajid Nadiadwala. When people like them call and appreciate you, toh chhaati chaudi ho jaati hai.
What was the process of writing dialogues for a film like Welcome To The Jungle? Also, were you present on the sets?
I began as a writer in 2006. A lot of people prefer to read the script on paper or send the draft via email. However, Golmaal 3 (2010) was a turning point. Uss film mein Kareena Kapoor Khan ko gaali deni hai, Tusshar Kapoor ko gunga banana tha, Shreyas Talpadr ko haklana tha. Now you can’t explain this on paper. Hence, I started enacting it. I also did the same on the sets of Chennai Express (2013). Ever since, I started being on the sets.
I have completed 80 films as a writer. So, now you have a judgment whether the humour is landing or not. I have learned from my mistakes and also from films for which I got appreciation.
Moreover, the directors insist, ‘Chal Farhad, set pe tu rahega toh accha hoga‘. I have worked maximum in multi-starrers. When you read the script, all the characters might seem same. But when I enact, the actors are able to differentiate.
For instance, in Welcome To The Jungle, both Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav are playing directors. It could have been one character as well. They both are such great actors. Why do you think they must have agreed to do the role? This is because they heard the narration and realized that both independently have something substantial to do and are not added for the heck of it.
Accordingly, I also worked on the characters of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty etc. My specialization is characterization. So we came up with ideas like Suniel Shetty should play Yeda Anna. Then, with Akshay Kumar, we came up with the scenario that where he desires to charge Rs. 50,000, Tusshar assumes he wants to be paid Rs. 50 lakhs but the producer ends up paying him Rs. 50 crores! This sat very well with the story aur usme fir dialogues nikhar ke aa gaye.
The biggest surprise of the film was the character of Badi Bi, played by Farida Jalal. How did you work on her character?
I just spoke to Farida ji two hours before. She said, ‘I have a complaint. Main set pe aayi Farhad Samji ke dialogues bolne lekin malum pada ki dialogue hi nahin hai!’. And that’s what works. Arshad Warsi says in the film, ‘Ya toh yeh bahut acchi actress hai ya isko apne dialogues yaad nahin hai‘.
However, the biggest support was Akshay Kumar. Our basic idea is that there’s a group of buffons who are playing actors. Meanwhile, the villagers are real people, that is, Raveena Tandon, Kiran Kumar and Farida Jalal. They appear in the mid-point when the audience has already got into the mood to laugh. Now you can’t make the film too serious at that point. You have to give them a little dose of laughter.
Hence, it was Akshay sir who implemented the idea. He suggested the tone of Farida ji. Akshay sir, Farida ji and I sat together and fleshed out the character of Badi Bi.
The post EXCLUSIVE: Farhad Samji ECSTATIC with response to Welcome To The Jungle dialogues; reveals Akshay Kumar’s BIG role in shaping Farida Jalal’s hilarious ‘Badi Bi’ character: “He suggested the tone” appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.
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