Priyadarshan exposes why he walked out of Hera Pheri 3, revealing Firoz Nadiadwala’s shocking request to Akshay Kumar and the “poor man’s version” insult.
Fans of Hera Pheri have been waiting for over twenty years to see Raju, Shyam, and Baburao back together on the big screen. The characters have become massive pop-culture icons in India, and people still share their jokes every day. That’s why this latest update about the film hitting a massive roadblock might upset all fans.
The biggest blow comes from director Priyadarshan, who has officially walked away from directing Hera Pheri 3. In an explosive interview with Mid-day, he claimed that he left because he felt constantly insulted by the film’s producer, Firoz Nadiadwala.
Priyadarshan shared that the producer even told Akshay Kumar to make the movie but never to hire Priyadarshan. To make matters worse, the producer insulted the original 2000 classic, calling Priyadarshan’s first cut a “poor man’s version” that was five hours long and needed heavy editing.
This fallout is incredibly sad because the movie was very close to happening. The original trio, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and Paresh Rawal, had personally requested Priyadarshan to direct the third part. When he narrated the new story to them, all three actors were extremely excited. The director was confident that his version would have been a massive hit, making the franchise bigger than recent blockbusters like Dhurandhar.
“If I had directed it (Hera Pheri 3), I could’ve made it bigger than Dhurandhar,” claimed the Hungama director.
Instead, the movie is now stuck in an ugly legal mess. He said that a South Indian production company, Seven Arts International, has claimed that producer Firoz Nadiadwala never owned the permanent rights to the franchise. They argued that he only bought the rights to make a one-time Hindi remake of the Malayalam movie Ramji Rao Speaking. They claimed that Nadiadwala had no right to make sequels or give the rights away to Akshay Kumar’s company. This fight has turned into a massive court battle involving police complaints and copyright lawsuits, leaving the future of the movie completely frozen.
Because of these heavy legal hurdles and internal fights, Priyadarshan believes the much-anticipated sequel is effectively over. He said, “Hera Pheri was born, Hera Pheri 2 became sick, and Hera Pheri 3 will be dead.”
The only silver lining for fans is that Priyadarshan’s bond with Akshay Kumar remains completely safe. Even though they won’t be doing Hera Pheri 3, the duo is reportedly already planning to shoot a brand-new comedy-thriller together later this year.
