This is inarguably one of the biggest action comedies of the year. With a franchise factor helping it further, it is also much awaited at the Box Office. Moreover, with a new hero coming in for Part 2, the need of the hour was to get a new leading lady as well. Though a couple of huge names with decades of experience behind them were running the film on their shoulders and were assured of some powerful characterization in the sequel as well, it was pretty much a given to have a heroine who could exude oomph and bring on the glamour quotient.
This is where Shruti Haasan came in and as you must have guessed it by now, the film in question is Welcome Back which has Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar reprising their parts of Majnu bhai and Uday Shetty with John Abraham stepping in for Akshay Kumar.
“Katrina Kaif played a sweet-n-simple girl in Welcome and now for Welcome Back, the idea was to have someone who looked great with John Abraham. This is where Asin and later Sonakshi Sinha were considered. Since none of the two has ever worked with John, it seemed like a fresh pairing in the making,” informs our source.
Since Asin had earlier worked with Anees Bazmee in superhit Ready, it seemed like she would be a good bet instantly. However, due to certain reasons she couldn’t do the film. Post this, producer Firoz Nadiadwala approached Sonakshi Sinha.
“That couldn’t work out either since there were genuine date problems,” the source adds, “Since the entire cast and crew of Welcome Back was all set to travel abroad for the shooting, Sonakshi couldn’t adjust her schedule.”
Shruti Haasan came into the picture soon after.
Confirms Anees Bazmee, “That’s correct. We were talking with other heroines but then sometimes you want something but what happens is something else. That said, even then it never became too big a problem for us. Aisa nahi tha ki main atak gaya tha. Koyi bahaut bada nuksaan nahi hua tha. Sonakshi and Asin are very nice girls. Now that Shruti has stepped in, she has played her part quite well.”
We would like to see how it all plays on screen now.