'Welcome to the Jungle' Director Ahmed Khan on 'Tropic Thunder' Parallels, and Honouring Neeraj Vora’s 10-Year-Old Script

If you watch the trailer of Welcome to the Jungle on mute, director Ahmed Khan notes, it could look like an intense combat film, with a massive ensemble standing in full army gear, strapped into bulletproof jackets, and wielding AK-47s and M16s. "But the moment you turn the sound up, you realise these ridiculous people are talking complete nonsense," the filmmaker laughs.

This stark contrast was the genesis of how the high-octane meta-comedy led by Akshay Kumar came alive. The film is built upon an original script penned over a decade ago by the late writer-director Neeraj Vora — a chief architect of the modern Hindi comedy wave who shaped foundational classics like Hera Pheri, Baadshah, Awara Paagal Deewana, Garam Masala, Golmaal, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa before his passing in 2017.

The film’s central "guerrilla-shoot" premise closely mirrors the blueprint of Ben Stiller’s 2008 Hollywood satire Tropic Thunder. In a candid conversation with THR India, Khan unpacks how Vora's decade-old manuscript finally materialised on screen (with dialogues by Farhad Samji), the mechanics of directing an incompetent film crew trapped in a live border dispute, and how he views the inevitable comparisons to the Hollywood cult classic.

Edited excerpts from a conversation:

How much of the film derives from Tropic Thunder?

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. We grew up on a specific diet of cinema—whether it is Rambo, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down or Tropic Thunder. The idea here was essentially a Jumanji-esque approach: pull all those distinct worlds together into one cohesive narrative.

Now, 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. 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.

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.

Neeraj Vora was truly the backbone of the comedy wave, and when he passed away, that specific style of humour vanished from Hindi cinema. How did this script finally come together?

As many in the industry know, during the final years of Neeraj Vora's life, producer Feroz Nadiadwala took absolute care of him. Feroz Bhai practically set up a fully functioning ICU room right below his own bungalow to ensure he had the best care possible; they were incredibly close.

Before Neeraj fell ill, he had completely written this film. He was a master of ensemble writing. If you look at his filmography, his screenplays always built toward a massive, chaotic climax where every single actor is stuck together in a bizarre situation — whether they are dangling from a rope, trapped in a bus, or scrambling across a location. He knew exactly how to juggle a massive cast and keep the momentum going with rapid-fire dialogue. It’s like a game of passing the parcel — tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck — one line seamlessly leading into the next. He developed this entire story and screenplay with Feroz Bhai, and back then, I used to sit in on their sessions just listening to them brainstorm.

When Neeraj passed away, Feroz Bhai was left holding what I can only describe as Neeraj’s beautiful, golden words. Feroz Bhai himself is an incredibly witty man, so when he began polishing the material, he strictly followed Neeraj’s creative bloodline. When we finally sat down to hear the revised draft, it sounded brilliant; it carried that classic Neeraj Vora trademark of poker-faced, serious, yet deeply dark humour.

Once Akshay Kumar heard it and said, "Let's get going," the question became: who do we bring on for the final dialogues? We approached Farhad Samji and told him he needed to completely get into the skin of Neeraj’s writing style. Neeraj had already laid down a foundational layer of dialogue while drafting the screenplay, so Farhad jumped in, took the reins, and penned the final lines under Feroz Bhai’s bird’s-eye guidance to ensure it strictly mirrored how Neeraj would have written it.

Neeraj Vora passed away in 2017, that means this script was originally conceptualised and written over a decade ago...

Yes, it was written well before that. But you know, 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.