Ahmed Khan’s adventure comedy Welcome to the Jungle is on the verge of crossing the Rs 100 crore mark at the worldwide box office. The film, starring Akshay Kumar, is the third instalment in the popular Welcome franchise, but isn’t a direct sequel like Anees Bazmee’s Welcome Back (2015) was to the first instalment, Welcome (2007). The story, in fact, goes in an entirely new direction, with several new cast members, a new setting, and even a new style.Welcome to the Jungle revolves around a bunch of people trying to make a film inside a forest. Given Akshay Kumar is fronting it, that immediately invited comparisons with his 2010 heist comedy, Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan. That movie, also starring Katrina Kaif and Akshaye Khanna, bombed at the box office, but has emerged as a cult film over the years, particularly among Gen-Z.However, Ahmed Khan has dismissed any comparisons. “Some people have looked at the ‘film-within-a-film concept and compared it to Tees Maar Khan as well! But Akshay was the hero of Tees Maar Khan— he has the creative foresight to know if he is repeating himself,” Ahmed told The Hollywood Reporter India. He admitted that while both films are about the same subject, they have a distinct identity of their own.“Every film arrives with its own distinct flavour. Look at Dangal and Sultan; they released in the exact same year and both revolved around wrestling, yet they were completely different films. It entirely depends on the filmmaker’s execution,” argued Ahmed. “My vision was to create a movie about characters making a movie, who then get trapped in a real-world conflict and must find a way out, in the process becoming real-life heroes,” he added.Welcome 3 comparisons with Tropic ThunderThat logline by Ahmed Khan may remind many of Ben Stiller’s 2008 Hollywood hit action comedy Tropic Thunder. Co-written by Stiller, Ethan Cohen, and Justin Theroux, it revolves around the characters of Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, and others making a Vietnam War film. But Ahmed has rubbished those comparisons too.“We all live with a sense of nostalgia, and almost every film today draws inspiration from something that came before it. When I set out to make a war film, I asked myself, ‘What direction should we take?’ I decided we should lean entirely into fun,” said Ahmed. He decided to go the Jumanji way — the popular adventure fantasy franchise — and combine the influences of all the memorable Hollywood war films he’s grown up with. A still from Tropic Thunder.These included Sylvester Stallone-starrer Rambo, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 epic Saving Private Ryan, Ridley Scott’s 2001 epic Black Hawk Down, as well as Tropic Thunder. “The idea here was essentially a Jumanji-esque approach: pull all those distinct worlds together into one cohesive narrative,” added the filmmaker.Story continues below this adWelcome 3 a tribute to Neeraj VoraWelcome to the Jungle was written a long time ago by late screenwriter Neeraj Vora, who died in 2017. “Before Neeraj fell ill, he had completely written this film. He was a master of ensemble writing,” said Ahmed Khan, confirming that he used to watch Neeraj brainstorm the film with producer and close friend Feroz Nadiadwala.“Feroz bhai himself is an incredibly witty man, so when he began polishing the material, he strictly followed Neeraj’s creative bloodline,” said Ahmed, adding, “We approached Farhad Samji and told him he needed to completely get into the skin of Neeraj’s writing style.” Ahmed said that he’s in fact glad that Welcome to the Jungle was written around a decade ago. “Having a script from that era is actually its biggest strength. It stands in direct contrast to today’s ‘fast-food’ writing mindset. It was structured properly, with patience and depth… written like real cinema,” he added.Ahmed on Welcome to the Jungle castWelcome to the Jungle boasts of an ensemble of 34 known actors — Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arshad Warsi, Urvashi Rautela, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma, Kiran Kumar, Farida Jalal, Daler Mehendi, and Mika Singh, among others.“I have great relations with Akshay, Suniel, and Paresh. I can’t believe they’re working in my film after Hera Pheri. They have the timing. If Akshay says something, then Paresh Rawal takes it from there, and then Suniel jumps in. There’s an unknown attachment that Baburao, Shyam, and Raju somewhere pop up in them. I’m taking advantage of that banter,” Ahmed Khan said on Screen Spotlight last year.Story continues below this adAlso Read — Welcome to the Jungle Box Office Collection Day 3 Live Updates: Akshay Kumar’s film eyes Rs 100 cr worldwide collection“I know that I don’t have to interfere too much. They know what they have to do. All I have to do is to see there’s not too much Hera Pheri happening. I then tell them to snap out of it and come back to the zone of the film,” added Ahmed.The trio famously worked together in Priyadarshan’s 2000 cult comedy Hera Pheri, also written by Neeraj Vora, who directed them in the film’s sequel, Phir Hera Pheri, in 2006.