Did You Know Chunky Pandey Was NOT The First Choice For Aakhri Pasta In Housefull?

Filmmaker Sajid Khan’s film Housefull, the first instalment of the franchise, was a laugh riot not only on-screen, but off the sets too. The film starring actors Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan and Boman Irani, completes seven years today. It might not have garnered great reviews then, but did well at the box-office.

“I was very sure that Housefull will do well, though I was surprised to see that it did this well. People say that my film Humshakals (2014) got bad reviews, but so did Housefull. These movies are fun cinema, where logic takes a back seat,” says Sajid.

As far as Akshay and Riteish are concerned, Sajid shared a good rapport with them since Heyy Baby (2007) days. “Since we had already worked together, so I wasn’t nervous. In fact, I feel lost if it’s not ensemble star cast,” says Sajid, as he goes on to narrate an incident, “I remember Riteish and I would always mimic Akshay and he’d be like ‘meri nakal kyu kar rahe ho!’. I remember, once we were shooting in a small house in London suburbs. We had no make-up rooms or vans and we just used one room of the house to sit. Deepika, Lara, Akshay and Riteish told me that they wanted to discuss something, so when they called me, they made me sit on a stool. Now this stool was broken and I fell off, and they all immediately clicked me and posted the pictures on Twitter, which was fairly new at that time.”

The 46-year-old filmmaker says that the best part of the film was the exotic locations, where it was shot. “The film was like a travelogue for us. It was a paid holiday. We travelled from London to Italy and there was a sudden change of weather. We just didn’t want to come back home and even asked Sajid Nadiadwala [producer] to let us stay for a few more days. He, of course, was like ‘are you mad! This has cost me a lot’,” says Sajid.

Housefull was also the last film that [late] actor Jiah Khan acted in, before she allegedly committed suicide in 2013. Stating that he shared a great equation with her, Sajid recalls, “She was like a kid sister. I was very fond of her. But I remember that she was a little lost.”

Trivia about the film

* Actor Chunky Pandey’s role was actually written keeping comedian Rajendra Nath in mind. However, the comedian died before the shoot started. Chunky’s wife Bhavna Pandey, who was Sajid’s rakhi sister, convinced him to take him on board.

* Sajid has a day-by-day documentation from the shoot of the film and this is available on Youtube