From Varun Dhawan in Thamma to Shah Rukh Khan in Tubelight: Significant cameos in the Rs. 100 crores grossers

From blink-and-miss appearances to significant roles, cameos in Hindi cinema, whether billed as Friendly, Guest or Special Appearances or simply with a ‘Thank You XYZ’ have been common phenomenon for over 40 years now, though rare earlier.

But what is interesting to note is that 41 of the 132 Rs. 100 crore-grossing Hindi movies have had at least one artiste, usually a big-name star, in such mini-roles. The latest cameo is of Varun Dhawan, who appears as the Bhediya in Thamma, which has just entered the 100-crore club!

Let us attempt to ‘classify’ at least the significant ones among them.

Voiceovers!

This was the most unique of all the star-roles. There was Jackie Shroff’s voice emanating on a GPS machine as a comic tool in Total Dhamaal, while Kareena Kapoor Khan was shown ‘altering’ her voice naughtily on the phone to tease Salman Khan in Bodyguard.

The Songsters

In the former film, Sonakshi Sinha, danced to a re-creation of ‘Mungda’ (Inkaar), while Katrina Kaif danced and sang in part in the title-track of Bodyguard. Many of these cameos were thus song-based, and we saw Katrina again enact ‘Chikni Chameli’ in Agneepath.

In a single year, Kareena Kapoor Khan enacted ‘Chinta ta chita chita’ in Rowdy Rathore and ‘Fevicol se’ in Dabangg 2. Jacqueline Fernandez was the face (with Prabhas) of ‘Bad boy’ (Saaho) and in the re-creation of ‘Ek do teen char’ from Tezaab in Baaghi 2.

Ram Charan joined Venkatesh and Salman Khan in the song ‘Yentamma’ in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. Salman was also a part of the peppy ‘Ho soni nachle mere naal ve’ in Son of Sardaar.

Brought in to be a part of the movie’s title-songs were Amitabh Bachchan (with son Abhishek Bachchan and Ajay Devgn) in Bol Bachchan’s title-track: the three actors even sang the song themselves! And Priyanka Chopra enacted the title-song of Goliyon Ki RasLeela: RamLeela.

In Stree 2, Tamannaah Bhatia lip-synched the biggest hit of 2024—‘Aaj ki raat’. While the makers of the Pushpa franchise seem to prefer an ‘item’ song by a star: Samantha Ruth Prabhu danced to ‘Oo bolega ya oo oo bolega’ while Sreeleela danced to ‘Thappad maaroongi’ in the first and second movies respectively.

Huma Qureshi enacted the mujra ‘Suna hai ke unnko shikaayat bahut hai’ in Gangubai Kathiawadi.

A biopic cameo and a dual cameo!

As everyone knows, Ranbir Kapoor played the title-role in the Sanjay Dutt biopic, Sanju, with Sanjay himself doing a cameo for a special sequence in the film! Judwaa 2 had Varun Dhawan carrying forward a Salman Khan reboot, so the latter made a ‘dual’ cameo in it as the original Judwaa boys!

The ‘lead’ cameo

Kesari had no scope for a heroine, only a miniscule role. And Parineeti Chopra’s appearance was billed as a special appearance. In OMG 2, Akshay Kumar was similarly billed, as he played Lord Shiva in a film with Pankaj Tripathi in the lead.

The ‘Dosti mein’ cameos

Sanjay Dutt made a special appearance in friend Shah Rukh Khan’s home production, Jawan, and posed as the Khal-Nayak, his 1993 cult character, in SRK’s RA. One, with Priyanka Chopra as the Desi Girl from Dostana. Salman Khan’s Tubelight saw Shah Rukh Khan celebrate their revived friendship with a cameo as a magician!

The ‘Universe’-al Cameos

Salman in turn did Pathaan, and SRK starred in Tiger 3, which were both part of the YRF Spy Universe. Hrithik Roshan did a blink-and-miss cameo in the latter film, as Kabir from War.

The Rohit Shetty Cop Universe also saw such appearances happening thrice: in Simmba, Ajay Devgn appeared as Bajirao Singham and Akshay Kumar was introduced in the last scene as Sooryavanshi. It was Simmba Ranveer Singh and Ajay again in special appearances in Sooryavanshi, and naturally, Akshay and Ranveer came in for Singham Again.

And speaking of Akshay, he had a crazy cameo as the descendant of the headless fiend, Sarkata in Stree 2, the second film in which Varun appeared as the Horror Comedy Universe’s Bhediya, which itself failed to reach the magic figure of 100 crores!

The ‘Just for kicks’ cameos

Sanjay Dutt, Arbaaz Khan, Ajay Devgn and Kangana Ranaut featured in a hilarious registered marriage court sequence in Ready, while the Golmaal gang of Arshad Warsi, Tusshar, Kunal Khemu and Shreyas Talpade (minus Ajay Devgn who had a special appearance as Singham!) tangoed in the re-creation of ‘Aankh maare’ from Tere Mere Sapne (1996). That film was Arshad Warsi’s debut film. The re-created song was being enacted by Ranveer Singh and Sara Ali Khan, the lead players of Simmba.

Rana Daggubati in Housefull 4, Shah Rukh Khan masquerading in a song with Hrithik Roshan’s ‘face’ as a mask in Don 2, Nana Patekar’s momentary tryst in Golmaal Again, and Ranbir Kapoor as a young alien in PK were among the others. Suniel Shetty appeared as an Army captain in serious mode in Jai Ho.

The cameos that would have been!

The character Chitti, played by Rajinikanth in Robot appeared in RA. One, but it was computer-generated and was not played by the actor himself. Similarly, we saw a shadow of what looked like Deepika Padukone in Brahmastra—Part One: Shiva.

…And many more are there, all non-specific!

Kartik Aaryan, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Sunny Singh, Ananya Panday, Janhvi Kapoor (who has no solo 100-crore film as yet), Tabu, Nagarjuna, Alia Bhatt and more cameos with Shah Rukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt are also a part of this list. Obviously, as long as Hindi films are made, cameos will remain!

Also Read: Thamma director Aditya Sarpotdar defends use of item songs: “They’re marketing assets, but my story unfolds through them”

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