Buffoonery is easy, comedy is not: Filmmaker Anees Bazmee

Anees Bazmee said: “Comedy is a very serious business, and I may say that all the comedy films that I have made till date, I’ve written them when I was not in good mood or very angry.”

He has tickled the audience’s funny bone with entertainers like “Welcome” and “Singh Is Kinng”. Now back with “Welcome Back”, filmmaker Anees Bazmee says that while “buffoonery” with nudity and double entendre dialogues is easy, scoring a hit with “comedy” is “serious” business.

“Comedy is a very serious business, and I may say that all the comedy films that I have made till date, I’ve written them when I was not in good mood or very angry,” Bazmee, who has been in the film industry for over 35 years, told IANS on phone from Mumbai.

“Writing comedy is a very difficult job, but buffoonery is very easy! One can write it whenever…I don’t like to make the buffoonery kind of films. I don’t believe in shortcuts like putting lines that have a double meaning or to show nudity,” he said.

The filmmaker, who has also written movies like “Raju Chacha”, “King Uncle” and “Pyar To Hona Hi Tha”, in fact, prefers to make movies which calls for a family audience.

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“I don’t believe in that (buffoonery), I only believe in making films which I can see with my wife and daughter… I just want my films to be more family-oriented, which families can watch together,” he added.

Bazmee’s “Welcome Back” is a sequel to his 2008 super hit Akshay Kumar starrer “Welcome”. It features an ensemble cast, including John Abraham, Shruti Haasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal and Dimple Kapadia.

A sequel was a challenge.

Bazmee says he was aware that “making a sequel of ‘Welcome’ will not be easy”. And he says this was “the only reason” it took him to so long to make it.

“If I made a film completely on the lines of ‘Welcome’ again, then people would think that they have seen something like that before… But if I made a very different movie, then people would be disappointed and think that we did not come to see this, we came to see ‘Welcome Back’…. So I had to make a new ‘Welcome’, which had to have that uncanny resemblance to the first part.

“As a director, I thought it was a very challening part.”

He also clarified that John is “not a replacement” for Akshay in the new film, and war roped in because the sequel just needed a new character. Nevertheless, Bazmee is sure he will team up with the Bollywood ‘khiladi’ again some day.

“Askhay is a complete actor and a big star… his comedy timing (is great). He does amazing action… What Akshay can do no one else can do. We have thought of doing films in the future, and even I want that we do more work together,” Bazmee said.