Firoz Nadiadwala claims Priyadarshan ‘abandoned’ Hera Pheri midway, tried to ‘convince actors’ to reject sequel

Firoz Nadiadwala has claimed that Priyadarshan ‘abandoned’ Hera Pheri midway through the post-production process. 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’. 

Hera Pheri starred Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles. The film, which released in 2000, continues to be popular among Bollywood fans. A sequel, Phir Hera Pheri, was released in 2006, without Priyadarshan’s involvement. 

Speaking with Mid-Day, Firoz said, “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 also claimed that the real work on the film began after Priyadarshan’s ‘disappearance’, with the help of the cast, late writer-director Neeraj Vora, and choreographer Ahmed Khan. Firoz also said that the original version handed to him was not a comedy but a story on an economically challenged family.

“(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 added. 

Priyadarshan apparently watched the final cut of the film when Firoz’s sister, Noorie, held a special screening for him and his family. “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,” he said, adding that Priyadarshan also tried to ‘convince the actors to say no’ to the sequel.

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Priyadarshan, speaking with Mid-Day last month, had stated that he ‘refused’ to be a part of Hera Pheri 2. He also said that he didn’t want Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 to be made. Meanwhile, Paresh Rawal recently confirmed that a third film in the Hera Pheri franchise is in the making.