Director Subhash Kapoor finally reacts to the controversy around Akshay Kumar replacing Arshad Warsi in the film’s sequel
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; December 20, 2016)

In an earlier interview to hitlist, Arshad Warsi had said, “It is the insecurity of the production house that they decided to go with Akshay [Kumar]. It was a calculated business move by the marketing and PR team; Akshay’s presence is enough to get them publicity.”

Without taking names, the film’s director Subhash Kapoor cleared the air. “When I wrote the first draft of Jolly LLB, Akshay was the first actor I approached. We couldn’t work together because of date issues. The template of my film is that of a courtroom drama. Unlike the Munnabhai series where the character is the same, here, the setting remains unchanged.”

Both lead actors, Arshad and Boman Irani, who played prosecution and defence lawyers, have been changed in the sequel. Annu Kapoor replaces Boman as the sharp-witted lawyer determined to tear into Jolly’s case. Huma Qureshi plays Akshay’s spouse, a role earlier essayed by Amrita Rao.

We ask Subhash if working with a superstar ups the pressure to fall back on formula, and he says, “Not with Akshay. He is a director’s actor. Not once did we have to go to his vanity van for a shot call. Sometimes, he’d sit around on set, and no one would say that a superstar was around. The challenge was, in fact, to find a fitting story for the sequel,” he says.