FEROZ KHAN, THE STYLE ICON MADE THE ROLE OF RDX IMMORTAL IN CULT WELCOME.” -“CHARACTER OF RDX BECAME THE MOST POPULAR ROLE OF THE FILM, BECAUSE OF FEROZ KHAN’S RIZZ AND UNIQUENESS.” -SAID FILMMAKERS ANEES BAZMI

By

RUBY ZAIDI

One of the most popular filmmakers of the Indian Film Industry, Anees Bazmee’s Welcome is a cult comedy film, appreciated by fans and critics alike to date. The film was featured by Akshay Kumar along with Anil S Kapoor, Nana Patekar – and Katrina Kaif. It also starred Feroz khan, the legend. It was a very special role. Feroz Khan played don RDX, the most memorable characters in Welcome. Soon after the release, Feroz Khan passed away due to lung cancer.

Director Anees Bazmee recently revealed that the late actor must have been aware of his illness but kept it a secret during Welcome shoot.

In a chat with me media the ace filmmaker Anees Bazmee shared that Feroz Khan had invited him for dinner after watching No Entry. The Salman Khan film also starred Feroz’s son Fardeen Feroz Khan. “I was his diehard fan. I had seen all his films. I remembered so many of his dialogues and he was shocked. He said ‘Anees, you remember all of this?’ I told him that you have done such great work and we are such big fans. So it was a fan-icon meeting,” Anees recalled.

Anees added, “I thought who could be the boss of Uday Shetty and Majnu Shetty but the style icon Feroz Khan, the legend? But he wasn’t working at that time. I believe he had some hint about his illness then. He was just saying he doesn’t want to do it, making excuses but I was adamant that you have to do it. And somehow he agreed. That role wasn’t too big. He made the character of RDX immortal because of his persona and unique way of playing. I thought to write few more scenes but he didn’t turn up at the shooting, that was because of his illness, but that moment I thought, he isn’t satisfied with his role, that’s why he isn’t taking the project seriously, we were to fly for Dubai shoot and we reached at the Airport, but he didn’t came to catch the flight, he reached much later.”

Anees shared, “He didn’t make me realise that he isn’t well. It’s not like he wasn’t in pain but he kept his illness to himself and he did not let anyone know about it on the set.” Anees said that he has great memories of working with Feroz Khan.

Feroz Khan, the client Eastwood of India passed away in 2009 at the age of 69. He was suffering from lung cancer.

Meanwhile, Anees Bazmee is currently busy with the third instalment of the Welcome franchise, Welcome To The Jungle. With Sanjay Dutt out of the picture, the cast now includes Akshay Kumar, Suniel V Shetty, Disha Patani, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Jacqueline Fernandez, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Daler Mehndi, Mika Singh, Mukesh Tiwari, Zakir Hussain, Yashpal Sharma, and Sayaji Shinde, with the recent additions of Jackie Shroff and Aftab Shivdasani.