Exclusive: Raveena Tandon Calls Out 'Logic Talk' After Welcome To The Jungle Crosses Rs 100 Crore

There are more than one reason to be thrilled about the stellar success of Ahmed Khan's Welcome to the Jungle, which has been steadily growing at the box office.

Fans are often divided when sequels dominate headlines and theatres. The result is mostly lukewarm, as they rarely live up to the original. Recent releases such as Housefull 5, Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Race 3 in the last few years left audiences largely disappointed.

Hence one cannot be surprised that Welcome to the Jungle was announced as a 'multi-starrer' on a whole new level, with more than 30 actors on set. It is the third installment in the popular action-comedy franchise, following the original 2007 film Welcome and its sequel Welcome Back (2015). Akshay Kumar's film entered the coveted Rs 100 crore club in just four days since its release on June 26, which is indeed cause for celebration.

Welcome to the Jungle is a 'movie within a movie'. Raveena Tandon plays Zoya. What makes her character distinct compared with the chaotic characters in the film is that Raveena's Zoya anchors the emotional weight of the plot. She plays a realistic, grounded villager in the jungle-themed comic caper and does a stellar job as the film's storyline grows intense (without losing its comedy).

As Raveena Tandon, who reunited with her Mohra co-star Akshay Kumar after 22 years, concurs: in an exclusive conversation with NDTV the actress opens up about box-office acceptance, how every day on set felt like a picnic, and that Akshay Kumar is still the biggest prankster.

Why Audiences Should Take Welcome To The Jungle For What It Is

Raveena Tandon reiterates that Welcome to the Jungle is a comedy spoof - a satire - and that's exactly the spirit with which audiences should head to the theatre.

She says, "If they're looking for realism, justifications and logic in a comedy film, then they haven't seen many Hollywood comedies either. If you look at the greats - Jim Carrey's films, Adam Sandler's films - unless they have an emotional track, it's different. Look at Leslie Nielsen's films, Steve Martin's films, or Dumb and Dumber, which was a super hit - do you expect logic from it? It's like expecting logic from a Mr. Bean episode. So I don't know what people are talking about, but yes, I'm very happy that it's doing well."

"And more than that, I'm very happy that people are returning to the theatres. The industry was going through a tough time and whatever it takes to get people back into theatres - keep them entertained, keep them laughing - is what's most important right now," she adds.

But Is She Still Nervous Before Every Release?

For Raveena Tandon, one of the leading heroines of the 90s who continues to balance commercial cinema with content-driven OTT projects, nervousness might not be what one would expect - yet she admits it persists.

Raveena Tandon explains, "Whatever you do, you do it with respect and earn that respect. That's all that matters in the end. That's the only thing I get nervous about. Okay, if we get banned, if we rightly get banned, I accept it completely."

"It's a lot of hard work for everybody in this and everyone's tried to do their best, and ultimately everyone wants a good thing to happen. So when it happens, it feels great, but before that, you're definitely nervous. And I think those butterflies in the stomach are healthy. One should always have that," she adds.

How Filming Welcome To The Jungle Became A Picnic

Welcome to the Jungle had an ensemble cast including Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Aftab Shivdasani, Lara Dutta, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Daler Mehndi, Farida Jalal, Krishna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Kiran Kumar, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma, Vindu Dara Singh, Nawab Shah, Urvashi Rautela, Puneet Issar, Arjun Firoz Khan, the late Pankaj Dheer, Sudesh Berry, Hemant Pandey, Zakir Hussain and Sayaji Shinde.

Raveena Tandon recalls it was like a big picnic. "It was literally the more the merrier. During the breaks we'd play games and charades. There were so many pranks, cake fights - I don't even want to go there. It was a fun picnic and they all bonded so well."

The actress laughs as she agrees that Akshay Kumar is still the biggest prankster on set.

What makes the vast assemblage of actors even more interesting is how it spans different generations - from the Mohra trio (Raveena Tandon, Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty) to the current crop like Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez, alongside OG comedy veterans such as Paresh Rawal and Johnny Lever. It was an intriguing mix.

Was there an exchange of values and learning between the cast members? The actress has earlier spoken about how during the '90s there was no concept of vanity vans and the cast and crew would simply spend time together. Today, actors often go straight to their vanity vans after a shot. The situation for Welcome to the Jungle was a little different.

Raveena Tandon says, "There were so many of us, we weren't going into the vanity vans. And that was the good thing. Even though there were vanity vans, they were parked a little further away. So we just sat on the set the whole day and jammed. It was a wonderful experience."

"And honestly, there was nothing to impart, because I think today's generation is so with it and they know exactly what they want. I'm living with a Gen Z actor in my house, so I absolutely know how it is. I think it was just a lot of fun," she adds.

It's no easy task for a film to take off this quickly, especially in today's environment where sequels are not always welcomed with open arms. But Welcome to the Jungle flipped the coin, and the box-office figures are a "welcome" respite for the industry.

ALSO READ | Welcome To The Jungle Box Office Collection Day 4: Akshay Kumar's Film Crosses Rs 100 Crore Mark Globally