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Director Priyadarshan’s film Hera Pheri, which was released in 2000, became has gone on to become a cult classic. The film that starred Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, and Tabu was a remake of the Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking (1989).
A sequel to the film, Phir Hera Pheri was also released in 2006. Directed by the late Neeraj Vora (who wrote the screenplay and dialogues of Hera Pheri) and was backed by Nadiadwala. The third instalment of the series was a long-awaited one.
While recently producer Firoz Nadiadwala confirmed that Hera Pheri 3 is in the making, last year he made some shocking allegations against filmmaker Priyadarshan. He claimed that the filmmaker left Hera Pheri incomplete, leading to a lot of stress.
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Talking to Bombay Times, Nadiadwala said, “Priyan shot a three-hour 40 minutes long film. Usne copy hamare haath pakdadi, and he left. He was not there for the editing, background score, or for the final mix. He was also not there for the dubbing, photo sessions, planning the publicity, or making the trailers. I sat for the edit with the late Neeraj Vora and the rest of the team. We cut down the film by one hour and 30 minutes. Today, when I look back, I am just thankful to Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Neeraj Vora, and Ahmed Khan (choreographer) because whom we could complete the film.”
However, Priyadarshan denied this allegation and said, “How could I make a film as long as three hours and 40 minutes? It is a remake of a Malayalam film, and so, I knew what I was making. All these claims are false. The whole film was made in Chennai. It was mixed in my theatre. I completed the film and I gave the final copy to him.”
Firoz Nadiadwala launched yet another allegation claiming that the filmmaker had kept him in the dark about selling the Hindi remake rights to another filmmaker in Punjab. “Literally 10 days before the film’s release, we got to know that a filmmaker from Punjab had the rights to the film. I rushed to Chandigarh for the settlement. I had to pay him whatever he demanded. I have proof of all this,” says the producer.
Priyadarshan reacted to this by saying, “How can I sell the rights when I never had them? It is the original writers of the Malayalam film (Siddique and Lal, also the directors of that film) who sold it. It was not written by me. It was written by Siddique, the one who directed Bodyguard starring Salman Khan. They sold the rights to someone else. Then, we started the film (Hera Pheri) and we were supposed to buy the rights from them for Rs 5 lakhs.”
Hera Pheri 3 producer then alleged that the filmmaker tried to convince the actors of the film to refrain from being a part of the film’s sequels. But the filmmaker denied that as well and said, “Yes, he never approached me for the sequels. When Neeraj Vora was approached to direct Phir Hera Pheri, he was working with me for a film. He asked me if I wanted to direct the film. I said, no. He asked me if it was okay if he directed it, and I said that I have no problem at all. What do I do when the media asks me if I am directing the sequel of the film? I don’t know why this upsets Firoz. I have nothing against him. See, I personally didn’t want to direct Phir Hera Pheri. And this has been my answer to whoever asked me this question. Part 1 was the remake of a Malayalam film. I wasn’t sure where the story of the sequel will lead. So, I didn’t want to do it. In fact, when I had met Neeraj Vora, I frankly told him that he didn’t do a great job with Phir Hera Pheri. The film had become a brand and so it worked. He accepted it. He even told me that they had drawn inspiration from a few films and joined it all together because they didn’t know how to take the story forward. I shared a great rapport with Neeraj and after that film, too, Neeraj and I did 2-3 films together (Tezz, Khatta Meetha, and Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal).”
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