Why Did Sanjay Dutt Leave Welcome to the Jungle? Director Ahmed Khan Finally Reveals The Real Reason

Sanjay Dutt Leave Welcome to the Jungle: Ahmed Khan, the director behind Welcome to the Jungle, has finally spoken up regarding the sudden exit of Bollywood superstar Sanjay Dutt from the high-profile movie. Debunking all the conjectures about a clash of ideas or any other issue between the filmmaker and the actor, Khan made clear that the exit was only due to Dutt’s health issues and subsequent schedule clashes.

According to the director, the actor had to travel to the US for some pressing medical reasons.

Why did Sanjay Dutt exit Welcome to the Jungle midway?

Ahmed Khan, who is the director of the movie, confirmed that Sanjay Dutt was very keen on this movie’s script and he even filmed some of the early scenes but due to ill-health he had to go to the US. As Welcome to the Jungle has a massive cast of more than 30 artists including Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, Arshad Warsi and Paresh Rawal, making changes to the shooting schedule was not possible in any way.

The director has vehemently denied any rumors about the ill-feeling between the senior artist and the film unit.

“Sanju Baba loved the script, and he really wanted to be a part of the film. Film mein itne saare friends the unke—Jaggu Dada (Jackie Shroff), Akshay Kumar, etc. He was thrilled. We shot a part of the film with him. But he had date issues. He had to go to the US. He went there for his treatment, and I couldn’t shift the dates of so many actors.”

— Ahmed Khan via News18

How did Sanjay Dutt save Welcome to the Jungle from a casting crisis?

Rather than making the production crew feel deserted, Sanjay Dutt himself came in to help by using his inside knowledge of the film industry to fill in the vacancy that had arisen because of his own absence. According to Khan, “Sanju Baba” himself contacted his good friend Suniel Shetty and convinced him to play the same part that was meant to be played by Dutt.

In order to make the whole puzzle complete, Dutt then contacted Jackie Shroff and convinced him to play the second lead role that was supposed to be played by Suniel Shetty.

This game of casting musical chairs made sure that everything went smoothly in the production process and that no major changes were made in the script. The director thanked Dutt immensely, saying that the production crew would always be indebted to “Baba”.

Which other actors dropped out of Welcome to the Jungle?

Sanjay Dutt was not the only star that left the project, with several more suffering due to production delays that caused scheduling issues:

• Sharib Hashmi: He had to leave since the revised schedule would clash with his shooting dates for The Family Man Season 3.

• Rahul Dev: He had to back out since he booked his dates for Sriram Raghavan’s feature film Ikkis.

• Inaamulhaq: He walked out of the multi-starrer movie due to personal commitments as well as because of his lack of clarity on his role.

• Mika Singh: The renowned singer rapper starred in the film’s teaser, but he was missing from the film in theaters.

What is the box office collection of Welcome to the Jungle so far?

Even when it comes to many hindrances faced by the movie because of the lack of several popular actors in it, due to the busy schedule it went through, Welcome to the Jungle is turning out to be quite the money maker for it.

It is only after four days of its launch that Welcome to the Jungle has managed to make more than Rs 100 crore of money globally, thanks to the nostalgic appeal provided by Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and Johnny Lever.

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