A dialogue referring to jailed godman Asaram was removed from a just-released John Abraham-starrer 'Welcome Back'
John Abraham and Aslam Khan
Looks like self-styled godman Asaram, who has been lodged in a Jodhpur jail since August 2013, in connection with a sexual assault case, still has his followers keep tabs on any unpleasant references made to him. And the bhakts ensured that a joke made at the expense of the controversial godman was removed from the recent release, 'Welcome Back'.
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John Abraham (left) and Aslam Khan in the scene that had a reference to Asaram
The deleted dialogue had been mouthed by actor Aslam Khan, who plays John Abraham's buddy in the film. The scene has the duo entering a theatre and as it is pitch dark, Aslam tells John, "Andhera bahut hai, Bhai goggle utaar de warna izzat ka Asaram ho jayega." Apparently, as soon as the dialogue was shown in the promos, the makers were flooded with calls to delete the reference from the comedy flick.
Says a source, "Asaram's followers took offence to that dialogue and made calls to the production house and the distributors of the film to get it removed."
Director Anees Bazmee confirms the story saying, "It was done away with before the release of the film. I have heard that there were some calls from his followers who raised objections."
Raj Shandilya, who penned the dialogues of Welcome Back, however, maintains, that the line went missing from the film as it had been written only for the promos.
Aslam, on the other hand, contradicts Shandilya. "It was very much in the film and I even dubbed for it. The entire line strangely went missing. I was told that objections relating to it had been raised. The makers could have replaced his name, but preferred to play it safe and remove the entire dialogue," he adds.
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