Starring Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Sunil Shetty, Hera Pheri recently completed 21 glorious years. The film is still considered to be one of the most lauded and the best comedy films. The film has managed to entertain for the past 21 years but there was a time when the film did hit a rough patch. Well, according to producer Firoz Nadiadwala, he claimed that director Priyadarshan left the shooting of Hera Pheri midway. Well, the claims came after the director criticised the sequel of the film, Phir Hera Pheri. In an interview, Firoz said as he abandoned the first instalment, the producer decided to keep him away from the sequel as well.
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 then added that the ‘real work’ started after Priyadarshan disappeared as the project which was handed to him was depressing and was about an economically challenged family. Late-writer and director Neeraj Vora completed the Hera Pheri shooting.
“(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 by today," he added. Moreover, he also alleged that the director tried to convince the actors to reject the sequel, Phir Hera Pheri.
Even though Priyadarshan disappeared midway, he watched the final cut of the film when Firoz’s sister, Noorie, organised a special screening for him and his family.
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,” adding that Priyadarshan also tried to ‘convince the actors to say no’ to the sequel.
Image source: YouTube/ shermaroo comedy