Akshay Kumar says the entire credit for the success of Hera Pheri, which was released on March 31, 2000 must go to the director Priyadarshan.
And he is right. After Priyadarshan and the film’s producer Firoz Nadiadwala had a fall-out, Nadiadwala made the sequel Phir Hera Pheri where he deputed the direction to the Hera Pheri writer Neeraj Vora. The second Hera Pheri film was not even a fraction as funny as the first.
Now there is the third Hera Pheri film coming up, and Priyadarshan is super-sceptical. “A classic, like lightning,strikes only once in the same space. You cannot hope for miracles to happen twice in the same place. The glory of Hera Pheri will remain forever. I am glad I was instrumental in that glory.I would never dare to try and repeat it.”
He feels encoring the success of Hera Pheri is implausible if not impossible. “Even if the charm of the original is applied again,even if the cast is brought back together, the end-result cannot be the same. Of course I am not discounting the possibility of a miracle.”
The super-prolific Priyan,now putting finishing touches to his latest film Corona Papers , recalls the camaraderie during the making of Hera Pheri. “Akshay, Suniel, Tabu, Paresh, Neeraj Vora and I…we were like one family throughout the shooting. That sort of closeness doesn’t exist any more.”
