The cat, errrr, tiger is out of the bag. Recently there were speculations galore about Sajid Khan lifting a scene from ‘The Hangover’ in ‘Housefull’. The sequence involved a tiger sitting pretty in a house, something which was last seen in ‘The Hangover’ where the protagonists stole a tiger from the mansion of none other than Mike Tyson! Though Sajid outrightly denied copying the scene, he is happy enough to reveal his inspiration.

“Let me surprise you here by openly acknowledging the source of this scene in ‘Housefull’ “, Sajid is candid enough to reveal the truth, “There was a film called ‘Nishana’ (1980) [Jeetendra, Poonam Dhillon] which has stayed with me for three decades now. In the film, it was Asrani’s character which brought home a tiger. Believe me; the scene was so funny that I still fall down laughing while thinking about it. At the back of my mind, I remembered this scene and while writing ‘Housefull’, there was a situation where I could recreate something similar.”

Well, it is really surprising to see that he is remembering a scene from a film which is hardly remembered today. While there have been countless Bollywood films in the past where tigers have been shown roaming around in a jungle, performing in a circus or feasting on flesh in a villain’s den, one can’t remember an instance where a tiger roamed around merrily in a house and seat itself comfortably in the living room of the lead protagonist.

“And that’s because I love my Bollywood more than Hollywood”, continues Sajid, “If there is any similarity or inspiration that you ever see in a film of mine, that would be because I loved that scene so much that I wanted wider audience to have a dekko at it. No, I am not short of ideas but if there is something worth bringing to the audience, I won’t hesitate doing so, though in my own nice and little way. Please, let me state once for and all that my name is Sajid Khan. I don’t copy, I create.”

Well, with Sajid being extremely confident of the film, now one looks forward to the audience response to ‘Housefull’. The film promises to be the biggest entertainer in the offering soon after the conclusion of IPL and one can well expect Bollywood starved audience to hop into theaters and watch this Sajid Nadiadwala production that stars Akshay Kumar in lead along with Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan, Boman Irani, Chunky Pandey and Randhir Kapoor. With music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, ‘Housefull’ releases all over on 30th April.

- Rudhir Burman / Sampurn Wire