Ahmed Khan is a film director, choreographer, producer and writer. He initially entered showbiz as a child artiste, and acted in the sci-fi cult classic Mr. India (1987). Over his multi-decade career, Khan transitioned from acting to becoming one of the Hindi film industry’s most sought-after commercial dance choreographers before moving behind the camera as a director. His most recent directorial venture Welcome To The Jungle, a massive action-comedy ensemble featuring 34 major stars is a box office hit.Welcome To The Jungle is getting its share of love and laughter from the audience.I’m grateful that the audience are enjoying the film. And right before this conversation, I was sitting in the theatre, watching the film with the audience. They were laughing and clapping. Every joke, looked like, landed.It must have been really tough directing so many actors?While making this film, the difficulty was gathering such a big cast. All of them were busy. So putting them all together, getting their dates, aligning them together was a hurdle which my team had to go through.And when on the set, we used to have at least 900 people because there were actors, their entourage, junior artistes, fighters, dancers, horses and horsemen. So, it was a big setup. But kudos to Firoz bhai (producer Firoz A Nadiadwala) that he gave me the full authority to handle the situations. And that’s when things really fell into place.How so?Controlling of the ensemble cast was not a problem because you see, the actors knew each other so well. So, when they used to walk onto the set, it used to be friends’ meeting. As Arshad told me once, ‘Ahmed, when we come to your set, it feels like a college reunion.’ And they would start joking with each other. There was only problem which used to get me really irritated.What was that?It used to take the actors half an hour to meet and greet one another. Then I had to tell them, “Guys now enough and let’s start shooting.” But once they started, they used to play along so well. And there was no rivalry.Some actors like Lara Dutta and Daler Singh hardly have anything to do.Lara comes on board as a trainer and I think she did a brilliant job. Daler paaji was there throughout the film. And he knew that as an actor, what limitations he had.Do you enjoy directing action or comedy, because you have had success in both genres?Because I’ve been a dance choreographer, everybody keeps asking me, ‘When will you make a musical?’ If I have to make a musical, I’ll make it. I like doing action because I am into martial arts. And shooting action films gives you a rush. Rahi baat comedy ki, I feel I have a flair for it.Final thoughts?I’m so glad and grateful to the Almighty and our audience for making this movie a success. It was a journey I’ll never forget in my lifetime as it taught me a lot.Is it true Akshay Kumar worked for free in Welcome To The Jungle?Akshay is a true friend. He stood by me and Firoz bhai all the way, and he didn’t charge a penny.