Choreographer turned director Ahmed Khan entered the film industry as a child actor in 1986 with Mr India. The next year will mark his four decades in cinema, a time that saw his evolution from actor to directing action movies (Baaghi 2, Baaghi 3, Heropanti 2) and now comedy with Welcome To The Jungle (WTTJ), the franchise’s third instalment. In a candid chat with BT, Ahmed revealed why commercial cinema is here to stay, Welcome sequel’s casting changes and why he has no intention of sticking to making sequels only.

Sanjay Dutt’s last-minute exit from WTTJ sparked curiosity. The director revealed, “When I started the film, everyone had this fear, kaisay hoga. Casting changes happen in all films whether big or small. It can happen just 15 days prior to shooting. Sanjay Dutt had a good role but dates sabke manage karnay mein issue ho gaya tha. We are like a close-knit family, so we understood each other. He just shot for a day before exiting the project. I can’t tell you if he was replaced or we created a new character because it will trigger this whole talk about isko liya tha pehle, usko liya tha pehle. Aap dekhogay toh aapko yeh pata nahi chalega that who was cast as whom before.”

It was speculated the film was delayed due to its casting and financial hiccups. “I would not like to comment much but we started the film in March last year 2024. Itni badi film will need a year so there’s no delay as such. Half the industry was working with me. The film has Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Disha Patani, Raveena Tandon, Aftab Shivdasani, Lara Dutta and Shreyas Talpade. I cancelled other actors' dates for Shreyas, when he faced an untimely health scare. We waited and shot with him. Every actor stood by Shreyas and said they will change their dates for him. He is a strong guy.”

Nana Patekar and Anil Kapoor as Uday and Majnu were iconic characters of Welcome and their omission too felt strange. Ahmed clarified, “I tried to change the vibe of the third instalment. We wanted a totally new look because the audience has changed, humour has changed. They may be back in welcome 4 but it wasn’t necessary for us to recreate the same casting now.”

The filmmaker feels that while commercial films are looked upon as run-of-the-mill, it’s a challenge to make them.

He explains, "Commercial films are toughest to make because everything needs to look good. Be it the hero, heroine, costumes, songs, high octane action or location. The reach is more so the backlash is more as well. You must do it unapologetically. You have to meet expectations of people who want it to be larger than life and yet believable. Bimari pay ek film banalo. Serious hai, background music kam hai, action nahi hai, gaane nahi hai, hospital hai, ghar hai, bimari hai, pareshani hai, dawai hai. People don’t care if it’s not looking good visually. Content driven film may have 50 people on set, we have 500. A lot of effort goes into managing that sort of crew. Commercial Hindi films will never go out of style. Women want a man to give them flowers, be gentle, shower attention, lock eyes with. SRK gives you that."

Looking back at his four decades in cinema, he says, “I started off as a child actor in 1986. I was a choreographer for 25 years of my life! Imagine jumping from choreography to directing action movies and action to directing comedy. I have seen the evolution of cinema. Today’s actors are so well trained. Pehle dhundna padta tha actors ki body hai ki nahi, dance aata kay ahi, now look at today’s boys. They can be compared to international actors and models. The competition is now Timothee Chalamet when it comes to talent and Chris Hemsworth when it comes to physique. Alia Bhatt worked with Gal Gadot and they don’t even make noise about it. 90’s mein main bhi battameez tha. I used to feel it’s okay to be arrogant if you are in the film industry. Today, the youngsters address makeup dada as sir, Tiger Shroff addresses a spot boy as sir.”

The director we hear will launch his son Azaan as an actor soon. Ahmed revealed, “He is a charming 23-year-old. He wants me to launch him like Rakesh ji did for Hrithik. I am very objective that way. I will never say, mera beta superstar banega and he will never say my daddy is the strongest. He knows I am not tall, and I tell him he’s not light-eyed like Hrithik. We are very honest that way, we roast each other. My son knows I am quite critical. He knows he will only succeed if he has it in him.”

As a choreographer-turned-director who has now branched out as a producer, Ahmed Khan has come a long way in his journey in showbiz. After curating some slick maar-dhaad projects in Hindi cinema, his first film as a producer, Rashtra Kavach OM, further demonstrates his love for the action genre. Debutant director Kapil Verma, who comes from a family of action directors, sat down with Ahmed to take us through their journey with this film. Excerpts from a chat with them:

KAPIL: Our film’s copies have been delivered over the weekend. It’s my first film as a director and I am a bundle of nerves right now.

AHMED: It’s a big production for me. Today, we can’t talk about business anticipation, ki picture itni chalni chahiye and so on. I am simply hoping that people like it because it has been made well. The team has put together a good product. It was envisioned as a full-blown emotion-led action thriller, weaving in all the elements of an entertainer while staying within the boundaries of the story we had on hand. We should take this moment to just be proud of what we have made. We had a brilliant journey together. And irrespective of how the film fares, I am working with Kapil again on another action entertainer.

Ever since I started choreographing songs, I’ve worked on one principle. It’s no big deal to make Govinda dance. It’s an achievement if you make Sunny Deol and Suniel Shetty groove to a song. I’ve done it quite a few times. I’ve enjoyed doing this. When something is tough to imagine or manage and you do it, don’t you feel like an achiever? I’ve believed that working with a legit action hero is fine, like I’ve worked with Tiger Shroff who can spoil you for life. He can pull off anything you imagine. But when we had a chance here, I felt we should bring in someone who has not done it before, but has the makings of a perfect action star. Adi has the height, the personality and the build of a macho action star.

When he performs those scenes in the film, some of which you see in the trailer, you realise that he looks believable and great while doing it. He was so comfortable in the space that it never felt like it was his first brush with a full-blown action film. Also, for this film, I didn’t want an action director friend or an assistant. I have known Kapil and his work with the steady cam and his ability to control a set while shooting action. So, when Adi met him and they connected, I took a few steps back and let them be. I was there to hold them if they ever tripped, but they just went all out.

KAPIL: It’s a phase! Even the audience is trying to figure out what they could watch in a theatre and what they really should wait for at home. The audience has many options and so much to watch at home. They’ve come around the idea of waiting for most theatrical films to come on OTT platforms. So, honestly, we don’t know where we are standing today and what genre works. Gangubai Kathiawadi and Bhool Bhulaiyya 2 weren’t of the same genre. So, maybe a few more months to analyse, and we should be able to understand what’s bringing people into theatres.

AHMED: We’re Indians aur hum kitna OTT pe international content dekh lenge? In the last two years, I must have watched at least 50 dubbed films from the South; safe to say, the audience saw at least 200 such movies. That exposure, especially for the theatre-crazy audience, has mentally prepared them to watch that kind of stuff in cinemas. Bollywood, on the contrary, chose to believe that the audience has become that much slicker in its choices with all the OTT exposure, which we have tried doing with some of our films. We didn’t study what the theatre-going audience wants too clearly. The South Indian films are good. They juice all the emotions to the fullest. They don’t leave things half-baked. Toh hamari audience ne unke content ko zyada pasand kiya. By the time we wake up to this, the trend will have changed. So, it is tough to analyse what will work and it is foolish to keep thinking too hard. Make whatever you decide to with all your heart, pulling out all stops. Whether you have Tiger, Salman Khan or Aditya Roy Kapur, do justice to the material you have on hand. Don’t downsize its scale. If it doesn’t work at the theatre, you apologise and move on. Dil se apna karo, aur baaki public pe chhod do.

KAPIL: Two years is a long waiting period, especially at a time when the audience’s taste is changing every few months. If you have a script that you’re perfectly in sync with, you shouldn’t sit on it. Chances are that it gets dated by the time you make the film. So, even though we had our plans in place, we waited for the first wave to subside. We shot the film with all the precautionary measures in place. Barring one Armenian schedule, we didn’t have any COVID cases on our sets. What kept us going was a strong pre-production set-up and the enthusiasm of the entire team. Everyone was so passionately driven that we could hit the finish line well within our deadline.

My dad was always there for me. Since I have so many gifted action directors right at home, I had a thought about them assessing what I’m doing with my film, especially since it belongs to their pet genre. Eventually, when they saw it, they loved it. Dad was overwhelmed with the scale and the intensity of the action. A lot of people had asked me why he wasn’t part of my first film. I would have loved that, but he believed that his presence would stress me out. So, he supported me in every way a parent does.

Ahmed Khan, 40, won his first Filmfare award at the age of 21 for choreographing Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela. He may have a temper and may be fickle-minded, but is genuine and a family man. Ahead of his first co-production with Bhushan Kumar on Ek Paheli Leela, he talks about his best friend and wife Shaira, his love for Shahid Kapoor and why he calls Ranbir Kapoor 'Chingla'. Excerpts:

How did you become a choreographer?
I was born and brought up in Mumbai. My father is a fourth generation person who owned, trained and rode horses. We lived in Poonam Chambers in Worli. My father was a top jockey and for horse riding, he would travel across India. I went to a school in Pune. I was dancing on stage at the age of 11 when Shekhar Kapur spotted me and chose me for a role in his Mr India. I met my guru Saroj Khan (who he calls Saroj aunty) for the first time on the set and got greatly influenced by dancing. I joined her as an apprentice and worked with her for three years. I also assisted Ashok Mehta as I wanted to learn the camera and assisted Mukul Anand, as I wanted to learn direction. Saroj aunty was supposed to do Rangeela, but she did not like the music and nor did Ramu understand her. Ramu saw me on set and said, 'Ahmed, why don't you choregraph the songs?' I asked Saroj aunty and she was fine. I anyways was fascinated with A R Rahman's music and Ramu had told me that if I didn't do it, he would take Prabhu Dheva, so I decided to do it. I was just 21 and won my first Filmfare award as the best choreographer of the year for it.

Given your family background, did horses fascinate you also?
My dad Yusuf Khan is a jockey and my family owned about 200 horses. My father was a great jockey who had won 4 derbys. I was mad about horses, but my dad never allowed us to get into that because firstly, he felt that that line was really tough. It involved getting up at 5am, remaining fit, training and knowing the horses and most importantly, it involved a lot of potential physical injury. One of my older brothers had broken his back and injured his back permanently and my father had lost a member of his family in horse riding. Race horses are very naughty as they need to be kept naughty. If you tame them, they lose races. So you get majorly injured riding them. Also, that line had the risk of the underworld being involved in your life.

Do you have friends in the industry?
Shahid Kapoor is my childhood friend. His mother and my mother were friends. His mother was working, so she would mandatorily drop him to my house and tell my mom to take care of him when she went for shooting. So he would be in my house all the time. My mom would ask me to take care of him, as I was a few years older to him. So I would be dancing and he would be sitting on the bed looking at me. He must have been 15 then. He is like my brother and I love him. He is actually like me, as we both don't party, are quiet, don't drink or smoke. Now he has opened up. While I love him, what I don't like about him is that he does not know how to behave like an actor. He feels like everyone is trying to run behind him. But I also know his reasons for behaving like that. He comes from a broken family where his mother, despite being a talented actor, did not see success and his father, Pankaj Kapur, despite being a brilliant actor, did not get his due as much as he should have and finally they split, so Shahid had a hard life. So from his childhood, he knew one thing that if I make it I want to be the biggest star of the country. He always lives with that feeling and therefore, behaves likes that. What is truly special about him is that Shahid will stand with you even at midnight and that too, without having a hidden agenda. If he is attached with you, he is very badly emotionally attached to you. For instance, if I need to go to my in-laws' place, he will drive with you in the car till there just to be with you. He always says that the only person I feel scared if he shouts at me, is you. If he does something that I don't like, I will shout at him. He has worked very hard to reach where he is and that too, without any support. So I understand that his guard is always up. Ranbir Kapoor and my dad were old friends as they were connected through the races. Ranbir I call 'Chingla' as he chickened out when I was shooting for a song in Bachna Ae Haseeno. I made him climb on a stone that was 70 feet tall and he has vertigo, so he started shivering. From that day, I started calling him first Chicken Legs, then Chingles and now it's Chingla. Ranbir is a treat to be with, fight with, spend time with and work with. He is simply a treat in every way. I am also very close to Akshay Kumar. The best thing about Akshay is that he is just the same as he was in 1992 when he started. He is street-smart, very enterprising and clean and he doesn't waste time at all. He comes straight to the point. While others want to ask you about the money, they will talk about a 1,000 things before they come to the point, but Akshay will ask you straight.

Which was the lowest point of your life emotionally?
Right from my childhood, my parents did not get along with each other. My father remarried, but did not divorce my mother. When they separated, I didn't get his wealth and started working. We sold our house at Poonam Chambers and moved to Andheri. My mother got cancer and brain haemorrhage in 1999. She got paralysed, but came out of it. My lowest time was a few years back when she again was diagnosed with third stage of breast cancer. I am very attached to my mother. In cancer, it's not the disease; the treatment of the disease is killing. I respect my wife Shaira as she looked after her like a daughter at that time.

Who do you love the most in the world?
My wife Shaira. I had first met her at 21, when she had come to my shoot with her friends. I spotted her, asked my assistant at that time, Remo D'Souza, to ask for her number on my behalf. I called her after five days and luckily for me, she said that she had seen me many times below her building where I would go with my swanky car with full music on to the Pioneer showroom there. I told her that I wanted to meet her parents to propose to her. Fortunately, I had won my Filmfare by then and within six months, we got married. After 17 years of marriage, I love her even more today. She is hot, very understanding and is my best friend. She never tries to change me. She looks snobbish, but she is actually very simple. My mother is a very dominating person as also my father was a pathan mind. When I was growing up, things were not great between them. I have never seen my parents holding hands and walking. So, I know what a woman feels when a man does not give her that 2% importance also. I take care and that is why my wife adjusts with me as I know what a woman is looking for in a husband. I tell my wife that whatever time I come, trust me, its because I am working for you and the kids. So when I come home, whatever be the problems, meet me and greet me well and don't talk about any problems for half an hour. And I tell her that I don't want to see you in an old, shattered nighty. I want to see you beautiful every time. And that she maintains and after that, my love for her can never come down. I do with my wife what my father did not do with my mom. My father did not express the love he should have towards a wife, that is my mother, but I make it a point to do that to my wife. It's not that I make it public, but I actually do it.