Welcome (2007 film)

Welcome is an Indian 2007 Hindi-language buddy comedy drama film co-written and directed by Anees Bazmee. Described as a "loose remake" of 1999 British comedy Mickey Blue Eyes which is itself inspired by the 1972 French film The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, it stars Feroz Khan (in his final screen appearance), Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, and Mallika Sherawat in prominent roles. Sunil Shetty and Malaika Arora feature in special appearances.

Budgeted at ₹320 million (US$3.8 million) which includes making and marketing costs, Welcome was distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. It was theatrically released worldwide on 21 December 2007, coinciding with the Christmas festival. The film received mostly mixed to positive reviews from critics and praise towards Patekar and Kapoor's gangster characters. It led to stiff competition with Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par. Nevertheless, Welcome was a major commercial success and went on to become the second highest grossing Hindi film of the year with global revenues of ₹1.22 billion (US$14 million). It is considered as a modern cult film.

The film is the first instalment of the Welcome series and spawned a sequel, Welcome Back in 2015 that also became a commercial success. A third, unrelated instalment in the series, titled Welcome to the Jungle, is slated for release.

Welcome marked the final appearance of actor Feroz Khan, who died of lung cancer 2 years later. Khan's character and dialogues became largely popular among masses even after his demise.