The Making Of Welcome: How Anees Bazmee's "Accidental Comedy" Became India's Greatest Meme Factory And A Cult Classic

Do you find it weird that numerous Indian millennials can blank on birthdays or passwords but instantly recall "Aloo le lo, kaanda le lo," "Meri ek taang nakli hai," or "Control Uday, control"? Much like RDX's iconic "Abhi hum zinda hain," these lines and crazy characters refuse to fade, just like the film they came from.

Anees Bazmee's Welcome swaggered into cinemas in December 2007. A pure Bollywood masala film with no agenda, no moral compass, and absolutely no shame about its own madness. It should've been forgettable, but it became a cult classic instead.

Nearly 20 years later, its delirious energy and unhinged characters have kept it alive as a meme machine, ensuring its steady presence in millennial pop culture. Over the years, I've seen serious film snobs admitting, in hushed tones, that they're Welcome fans.

Welcome wasn't even meant to be a comedy.

Loosely inspired by Hugh Grant's Mickey Blue Eyes, Anees Bazmee took the concept and dialled it up to pure madcap chaos. Welcome felt like hopping into a speeding car and hoping it lands on all four wheels. But here's the twist, Welcome wasn't even meant to be a comedy.

Akshay Kumar had seen Bazmee's romantic hit Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) and approached him to plan another love story. As Bazmee began developing the romantic plot, he introduced a twist: the heroine's brother would turn out to be a don. From there, the story gradually expanded, giving rise to larger-than-life characters like Uday Bhai, Majnu Bhai, and their formidable boss, RDX. By the time Bazmee finished the script, it wasn't an Akshay-Katrina romantic film but an outrageous, multistarrer comedy.

The Casting Of Mad Names And Maddest Characters

The core idea was simple. Akshay and Katrina fall in love and want to get married. Enter the hero's uncle, the perpetually anxious Dr Ghungroo (Paresh Rawal), determined to marry Akshay into a picture-perfect, trouble-free family. Only snag? Katrina's household is a full-blown playground of gangsters, crime, and utter chaos. Akshay loved the idea and agreed to headline a multistarrer, sharing the screen with an ensemble of larger-than-life characters.

A self-confessed Nana Patekar fan, Bazmee knew there was no one else for Uday Shetty. But convincing Nana wasn't going to be easy. Known for his intense, no-nonsense roles, Nana baulked at the idea of a madcap Bazmee comedy and reportedly told him, "Swear on your mother you really think I should do this?" Undeterred, Bazmee narrated the entire script, and Nana was completely blown away.

Anil Kapoor didn't exist in the original script, but having worked with him on his previous blockbuster, No Entry (2005), Bazmee was determined to include him. Thus was born Don Majnu Bhai, Uday's loyal sidekick and comic partner-in-crime. Then came the fabulous casting of veteran Feroz Khan as their imposing gangster boss, RDX. Paresh Rawal was the hero's perpetually frazzled uncle, Ghungroo. What makes these characters unforgettable isn't just the performances; their absurd names take the madness up a notch.

Majnu, Ghungroo, RDX, each name was meticulously chosen, debating hundreds of options. There was even a backstory for Majnu Bhai. He got his name because his first crime was literally a crime of love, and the underworld never let him forget it.

Chaos In Action

Welcome kicks off with sweet, sensitive Rajiv (Akshay Kumar) falling for the gorgeous Sanjana (Katrina Kaif). Rajiv's family has only one mission in life: to find him the most sanskaari bride alive. But Sanjana's family is a 'criminal family'led by her older brother, don Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) and his bumbling sidekick Majnu (Anil Kapoor).

Uday Bhai rants, "Bhagwan ka diya sab kuch hai - daulat, shohrat, izzat..." except a "shareef" groom for his sister.

When one groom rejects the proposal, a sidekick with a plastered leg dramatically says, "Meri ek taang nakli hai, main hockey ka famous player tha," confessing that Uday once scared the sport out of him.

Majnu tries to fix the match by threatening Ghungroo (Paresh Rawal) over the phone, only to be roasted mercilessly. Uday's chai-time laugh at Majnu's humiliation later becomes a viral meme template.

And when a random character gets beaten up for no reason, he delivers cinema's most innocent protest, "Mujhe kyun toda?"

The first half is a nonstop fever dream of misunderstandings, near-death escapes, and funny gags. Majnu's loyal sidekick proudly declares, "Humare bhai ko koi choo bhi nahi sakta." Akshay touches him once and deadpans, "Lo, choo diya," leaving everyone madly amused.

This was one of Katrina's early outings, and she seemed to wander into Welcome blissfully clueless about the full-throttle Bollywood masala going on around her. That poker-faced, "what even is happening?" innocence worked perfectly in the mad, nonsensical proceedings.

In the second half, the lovers flip the script. Instead of fighting the dons, they plan to reform them with nothing but their own vanity. Uday secretly dreams of becoming a movie star. Majnu uncovers his inner artiste, and suddenly ego-stroking becomes comedy gold.

Cue the chaos of a film-within-the-film, directed by the brilliant Vijay Raaz, also titled, hilariously, 'Welcome.' Enter Ishika (Mallika Sherawat), a scene-stealing firecracker who flirts, flatters, and manipulates her way through Uday and Majnu.

The Donkey-On-Horse Masterpiece

The crown jewel of Welcome memes is, of course, Majnu Bhai's crude "masterpiece" - a donkey riding a horse, painted with full confidence and zero artistic skill. And when Ishika is forced to defend this visual catastrophe, she delivers the philosophical nonsense: "Jab ek jaanwar doosre jaanwar ka bojh utha sakta hai, itna pyaar kar sakta hai... toh hum insaanon ke dilon se zindagi ka pyaar kahan kho gaya?"

The legendary painting was never meant to be a masterpiece. It was meant to be a disaster. And ironically, it became both.

Before the shoot, the art team brought several sample paintings. The problem was they were 'good' and Majnu Bhai was many things, except a 'good' painter. Then fate handed Bazmee an unexpected one-hour break on set. So he grabbed a brush and thought, 'Fine, I'll paint it myself.'

Bazmee began confidently with a horse... and then tried adding another horse on top. But something went horribly wrong. The top creature slowly morphed into an unidentifiable animal, partially donkey, partially goat.

By the end, even Bazmee didn't know what he'd created. But the moment the crew saw it, they knew that this was Majnu Bhai's energy.

This donkey-horse hybrid went on to become a national meme and even made an appearance in Bazmee's 2024 blockbuster Bhool Bhulaiya 3. The painting has become such a legend that every terrible artwork is instantly measured against it. Remember when Virat Kohli tried drawing a puma cat last year? The sketch was so off that fans instantly linked it to Majnu Bhai's famous donkey-on-horse masterpiece.

Majnu Bhai has officially become the gold standard for terrible art.

The Comedy That Conquered The Internet

Watching these strutting, violent dons turn into slack-jawed, cooing fools is absolute joy. Nana and Anil threw themselves into the madness, improvising beyond anything Bazmee had imagined and turned silliness into an art form far more iconic than that donkey-on-horse painting. Akshay was plenty funny too, but the louder cheers went to Anil and Nana, since he played it subtly while they went gloriously over the top.

Then enters Ranvir Dhanraj Xaka aka RDX (Feroz Khan), the ultimate godfather. RDX wasn't there to make sense; he was here to look incredibly cool while blowing things up. In the hilariously absurd funeral scene, he probes his son's mysterious demise, only to get, "Yeh raaz bhi usi ke saath chala gaya."

The climax, inspired by a Charlie Chaplin film, with RDX 'Passing the deadly parcel' in a falling house, is a grand, nonsensical explosion of confusion, and chaos. Feroz Khan's signature line, "Abhi hum zinda hain," is now bittersweet as the film was Feroz Khan's last, a final wink before his passing in 2009.

No one expected this gloriously lowbrow, bubblegum comedy to outlive its own release. Yet "Control Uday, Control" has become a popular digital response to minor frustrations, "Seh lenge thodasa" a GIF for awkward resignation, and "Bolne de, takleef hua hai bechare ko" the perfect troll reply.

The irony is delicious. Welcome landed on December 21st, 2007, sharing the spotlight with Aamir Khan's critically adored, emotionally nuanced hit, Taare Zameen Par. While TZP earned standing ovations, critical acclaim, and cultural respect, Welcome was deemed cinematic junk food, a brainless blockbuster. Though it went on to become the second highest grossing film of the year, after "Om Shanti Om", nobody, not the producers, not the actors, and certainly not the bewildered audience could have predicted that this chaotic, over-the-top comedy wouldn't just earn money, it would also earn the currency of the 21st century: memes, reaction GIFs, and silly quoted lines.

The serious film won the awards, but the silly one won the internet.
 

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