Suniel Shetty, in a recent interview with IMDB, opened up on crossing over into the world of comedy with 2000’s Hera Pheri, on account its 20th anniversary. The actor who had become known as an action hero prior to the iconic film, recalled what had drawn him to the script in the first place.
"I've worked on Hera Pheri and Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar with Priyadarshan. I knew Priyan sir was a riot when it came to this genre. I switched over to comedy because I knew the kind of films he produced and his sense of comedy was brilliant," Shetty said.
The Dhadkan admitted he was less concerned about his image while taking up the film. "Also, you were less conscious at that time, I guess. Because for comedy, I don’t think anybody cared about how they looked. The thing was we dictated style; style didn’t dictate us! Brands didn’t dictate us or tell us what to wear back then," he explained.
According to Shetty, the film’s exponential success and cult status has to do with the 'simplicity' of its script. "What makes Hera Pheri so iconic is basically the simplicity. Hera Pheri is a film where everybody has problems and in those problems, there is so much humour that it is hard to stop watching,” he said. “So it’s the simplicity of the film, simplicity of the script, the honesty of the performances and the characters, each of them - whether it was Khadak Singh or Kabira or Anuradha or Raju, Babu Bhai, Shyam…”
Suniel Shetty says 'Hera Pheri 3' will definitely happen
For the actor, Hera Pheri also marks one of the rare instances in Bollywood where two action heroes (Akshay Kumar and himself) were embroiled in silly comedy together. “It was a film where action heroes were doing comedy and being controlled by someone like Babu Bhai, so audiences must have found that very amusing.”
Adding on, Shetty discussed how it was teamwork that successfully brought out the full potential of such a unique idea. "The basic script, the writing, the dialogues, the legendary direction of Priyadarshan and the entire team that worked so brilliantly…Neeraj Vohra, Priyadarshan, Sabu Cyril and Jeeva, the cameraman Sabu, the art directors, AG Nadiadwala, the producer. I think I would say team work. Hera Pheri is a perfect example of perfect team work," he said.
Among other things, Shetty recalled that it many ways, the comedy of errors was shot in gorilla style, with him and the other two lead actors, (Kumar and Paresh Rawal) having to sleep on newspapers at times. “I don’t know how the film was made; it just happened. We arrived on the sets every morning, the costumes were basically just stretched and given to us, not even ironed. The director would ask us to sleep in the afternoon on newspapers, so we used to sleep on newspapers,” he reminisced. “Priyadarshan said I don’t want you to be comfortable. When you get up, you should have rested but be uncomfortable. So, we wore no makeup, nothing. Akshay Kumar, myself and Paresh jee were constantly together, constantly rehearsing our lines, constantly improvising and Priyan sir is one man who knows when to say cut.”
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