Recently, social media was taken by storm when it was reported that Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar are not a part of Weclome 3 and have been replaced by Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi. While Anil and Nana have made the character of Majnu and Uday iconic, Sanjay and Arshad will be playing a similar character in Welcome To The Jungle, but with a new set of names.
Bollywood Hungama has exclusively got to know from our highly placed sources that Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar were indeed offered Welcome 3 but the things could not materialize due to monetary factors. “There can’t be Welcome without Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar. They were first offered the film, but the conversation soon fell through. Producer Firoz Nadiadwala got the shock of his life when Anil Kapoor demanded Rs. 18 crores to act in the film,” a trade source told Bollywood Hungama.
Firoz tried to negotiate with Anil Kapoor, but the latter was adamant about the amount that was demanded. “Anil felt that Welcome is Welcome because of Majnu and the film will just get wider in the third part with the addition of Akshay Kumar. He felt that he deserved the money as the third part is a potential Rs. 300 crore film at India Box Office and even he deserved the amount he asked for. He tried to put forth his point, but when Firoz refused, he willingly backed out of the film. Akshay Kumar also tried to intervene and get Anil on board, but Anil was stuck on getting Rs. 18 crores,” the trade source further told us.
With Anil’s exit, Nana also decided to back out of the film as he didn’t want to play Uday Bhai without his fellow Majnu. “Uday and Majnu are like Pav and Bhaji. There is no fun to eat either Pav or Bhaji and it makes sense only to have both components together. Once Anil backed out, Nana also took a backseat. Akshay and Firoz then decided to bring in Munna and Circuit in Welcome 3,” the trade source added.
Welcome 3 is all gearing up for a big Christmas 2024 release. It stars Akshay Kumar, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Suniel Shetty, Krushna Abhishek, Kikoo Sharda, Mika Singh and Daler Mehendi in lead roles.
