Producer Feroz Nadiadwala has claimed that Priyadarshan ‘abandoned’ Hera Pheri midway making some shocking revelations about one of the most iconic films. He said that the filmmaker also tried to convince the lead actors to say no the sequel. The cult film starred Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Tabu in the lead roles. The producer said that the director handed him and his producer-father AG Nadiadwala a nearly four-hour long cut which was ‘full of depressing scenes’ that was nothing close to the hilarious comedy that we know it today. Nadiadwala spoke about Priyadarshan after the latter recently took an indirect jibe on the sequel, Phir Hera Pheri (directed by Neeraj Vora) saying that another film was not needed.
Talking about Hera Pheri, to a leading tabloid, Nadiadwala said, “I kept mum all these years out of respect for Priyan, and because the film became a blockbuster. But he has left no opportunity to run down my father and me. How can he talk about turning down our offer to direct the second and upcoming third part, when he did not even complete the first film? He gave me a film with a runtime of three hours and 40 minutes. His version was full of depressing scenes; a lot of the humorous dialogues were deleted. He was absent during the background music recording, and dubbing.”
He further said, “He (Priyadarshan) gave me a film with a runtime of three hours and 40 minutes. His version was full of depressing scenes; a lot of the humorous dialogues were deleted. He was absent during the background music recording, and dubbing.”
Nadiadwala said, “(Neeraj) added a lot of punchlines. We deleted the sad scenes. We did a lot of improvisations during the dubbing and editing to make it what the audience knows it by today.” He also revealed that his sister Noorie held a special screening for him and his family and that was when Priyadarshan saw the final cut of the film. Recalling Priyadarshan’s reaction at the screening, he said, “He did not tell her how he abandoned the project midway. This was the first time he watched the final cut, which was completely different from what he had (given). The film, which the audiences saw, was the director’s cut in the sense that the director was cut from the final version.”
Hera Pheri 3 is currently in the works as Nadiadwala confirmed to us during and interview and said, "It is being finalized now properly and we’re hopeful of complementing the scrip and dialogues very soon. For casting, the three principals are as it is - Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal."
(Source: Mid-Day)
