2007 · Film
Welcome
Anees Bazmee's comedy in which a gentle auctioneer falls for the sister of a Mumbai don, and his uncle refuses to let him marry into a crime family.
Reviewed by Movie Mandala, Sun, 18 Oct, 2026
Where to watch
IndiaAs of 18 October 2026, Welcome is free to watch in India on Prime Video.
- Checked Sun, 18 Oct, 2026Open ↗
The story
Rajiv is a mild-mannered auctioneer raised by his uncle, Dr. Dayal Ghungroo, who will only let him marry into a family with no criminal past. Rajiv falls for Sanjana after a chance meeting, without knowing that she is the half-sister of the don Uday Shetty, whose attempts to find her a husband keep failing because of his reputation. Uday and his best friend Majnu Bhai are determined to see the match through, and when Ghungroo learns who they are, he takes his family to South Africa to escape them.
Spoiler-free: only the set-up.
Who it suits
A big, broad comedy for groups and families who enjoy Nana Patekar and Anil Kapoor playing bumbling gangsters, with comic gunplay and threats rather than graphic violence. It runs well over two and a half hours, including several song numbers.
Curation to help you choose, not a review.
Background
Welcome is a loose remake of the 1999 Hollywood comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, co-written and directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by Firoz Nadiadwala. It was Feroz Khan's final film role, as the don RDX, and Suniel Shetty makes a guest appearance.
UTV Motion Pictures released it worldwide on 21 December 2007, over Christmas. It opened against Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par and still grossed ₹97.43 crore in India and about ₹117.91 crore worldwide, according to Wikipedia, making it the second-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2007 after Om Shanti Om. Bollywood Hungama rated it 4 out of 5, Rediff and the BBC gave it 3 out of 5, and The Hindu reviewed it negatively. Wikipedia notes that Feroz Khan's character and dialogues stayed popular after his death.
It is the first film in the Welcome series. Welcome Back (2015) brought back Patekar, Kapoor and Paresh Rawal, and a third, unrelated film, Welcome to the Jungle, was released in 2026.
The facts
- Language
- Hindi
- Hindi
- Hindi original
- Genre
- Gangster comedy
- Runtime
- 158 min
- Director
- Anees Bazmee
- Cast
- Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal
Questions people ask
- Where can I watch Welcome in India?
- As of 18 October 2026, Welcome is free to watch in India on Prime Video.
- Is Welcome in Hindi?
- Yes. Welcome is a Hindi-language film.
- How long is Welcome?
- Welcome runs for 2 hours 38 minutes (158 minutes).