Anees Bazmee Says Welcome's Feroz Khan Didn't Tell Anyone About Cancer: 'He Kept His Illness To Himself'

Anees Bazmee’s Welcome is a cult comedy film, appreciated by fans and critics alike to date. The film was headlined by Akshay Kumar along with Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar and Katrina Kaif. It also starred late veteran actor Feroz Khan in a special role. Feroz played don RDX, one of the most memorable characters in the film. Soon after the release, Feroz Khan passed away due to lung cancer. Director Anees Bazmee recently revealed that the late actor must have been aware of his illness but kept it a secret during Welcome shoot.

In a chat with Lehren Retro, Anees shared that Feroz had invited him for dinner after watching No Entry. The Salman Khan film also starred Feroz’s son Fardeen Khan. “I was always his fan. I had seen all his films. I remembered so many of his dialogues and he was shocked. He said ‘Anees, you remember all of this?’ I told him that you have done such great work and we are such big fans. So it was a great friendly atmosphere,” Anees recalled.

Anees added, “I thought who could be the boss of Uday Shetty and Majnu Shetty but Feroz Khan? But he wasn’t working at that time. I believe he had some hint about his illness then. He was just saying he doesn’t want to do it, making excuses but I was adamant that you have to do it. And somehow he agreed. That role wasn’t too big. Those were just four scenes and climax. The role got big because of his persona.”

Anees shared, “He didn’t make me realise that he isn’t well. It’s not like he wasn’t in pain but he kept his illness to himself and he did not let anyone know about it on the set.” Anees said that he has great memories of working with Feroz. Feroz Khan passed away in 2009 at the age of 69. He was suffering from lung cancer.

Meanwhile, Anees Bazmee is currently busy with the third instalment of the Welcome franchise, Welcome To The Jungle. With Sanjay Dutt out of the picture, the cast now includes Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Disha Patani, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Jacqueline Fernandez, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Daler Mehndi, Mika Singh, Mukesh Tiwari, Zakir Hussain, Yashpal Sharma, and Sayaji Shinde, with the recent additions of Jackie Shroff and Aftab Shivdasani.