Ghoomketu: Zee5 Claims Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Comedy is the First ‘Original Film’ With Most Cameos; Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khans Fans Would Beg to Differ!

The long-delayed Hindi film Ghoomketu was finally shown the light of the day last week, when it was given an OTT release on streaming platform, Zee5. Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead along with Anurag Kashyap, Ghoomketu was completed in 2014 but couldn't get any takers. Siddiqui plays a wannabe Bollywood screenwriter from UP who is struggling to pen the perfect first script. The ordeal of his gives the movie an opportunity to insert some interesting celeb cameos. Ghoomketu Movie Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Meta Comedy Is Clunky and Totally Off the Mark!

Actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha and Chitrangada Singh appear in the film at various junctures. Lauren Gottlieb is seen in an item song. And filmmaker Nikkhil Advani plays himself in a scene with Amitabh Bachchan. In totality, there are six cameos in the film.

Recently, Zee5 put out a tweet and an article that claims that Ghoomketu is the first 'Original' film with the most cameos in it.

Check out the tweet below:

Now there are two ways of seeing this claim.

One, on its face value, that it is the first film with maximum cameos.

Which isn't true at all. While I am not even looking into international cinema - if you do, just check out film like The Player or the Ron Burgundy or The Muppet films. Coming closer home, how can we have such a claim when Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om has about 43 celeb cameos? Most of them appear in the "Deewangi Deewangi" song, which include cameos from Salman Khan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Sanjay Dutt, Rekha, Tabu, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Jeetendra, Saif Ali Khan, Priyanka Chopra and others.

Who can forget Zoya Akhtar's Luck By Chance, that features special appearances from Aamir Khan, John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, Anurag Kashyap, Shah Rukh Khan and others. Not to mention an extended cameo from Hrithik Roshan.

Akshay Kumar, who has the most hilarious cameo in Om Shanti Om, also had Shah Rukh Khan appear in a special appearance in Heyy Babyy. The title song in the film also features cameos from 14 actresses, from Malaika Arora to Shamita Shetty.

We can also not forget the "John Johnny Janardhan" song from Amitabh Bachchan's 1981 film, Naseeb, that is set in a Bollywood party scene. It features cameos from actors of that era, like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Rakesh Roshan, Vijay Arora, Waheeda Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Mala Sinha, Bindu, Simi Garewal and Simple Kapadia.

Even the late Hrishikesh Mukherjee's classic, Guddi, has celeb cameos with actors playing themselves. They include Amitabh Bachchan, Pran, Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Naveen Nischol, Vinod Khanna, Om Prakash, Shatrughan Sinha, Deven Verma, Mala Sinha and others.

Honourable mention to Sujoy Ghosh's Home Delivery that has cameos from Karan Johar, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Suri, Suniel Shetty, Naseeruddin Shah, Riteish Deshmukh, Shayan Munshi and Abhishek Bachchan.

These examples can easily eclipse Ghoomketu's claim of having maximum cameos. And most of them are originals, save for Heyy Babyy (remake of Three Men and a Baby). Om Shanti Om has its inspirations, but is mostly original.

Here's the second assumption.

If Zee5's claim was as Ghoomketu being a Zee5 Original...

Sure, the tweet is poorly worded if that's the case, and the article in the story doesn't exactly stand by this assumption. But if this is what Zee5 was trying to say, even then the claim is partly true. Zee5 is right in saying that Ghoomketu has the maximum Bollywood cameos for a film that streamed directly on the streaming platform.

However, Ghoomketu isn't exactly a Zee5 original, which can be used for a project that they have commissioned into production and later released on their platform. Like their own Operation Parindey and Ateet.

Ghoomketu is a property that they had acquired from other production houses, in this case, Phantom Films and Sony Pictures. So not exactly an original then, right?

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 28, 2020 09:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).