Paresh Rawal gets candid about 'Phir Hera Pheri'

Veteran actor Paresh Rawal has opened up about his dissatisfaction with Phir Hera Pheri and shared his two cents about the casting changes surrounding Hera Pheri 3. In a recent conversation with Siddharth Kannan, the actor revealed that while the 2006 sequel to Hera Pheri was a commercial success, it did not meet its full potential due to an overstuffed script and a loss of the original's innocence.

Speaking about the shortcomings of Phir Hera Pheri, Rawal admitted, "Everybody was overconfident about the film. It lost its innocence. Sorry to say, but the film wasn't that good. I would tell Neeraj Vohra (director), 'You're overstuffing this film with sequences, it isn't required.' I asked him to keep the simplicity that was there in the first film. It will get messy if you overfill the film. People will laugh at anything; they will laugh if somebody is running naked, but we don't have to run naked. The sense of proportion should be on you."

Rawal, who played the beloved character Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in the franchise, further elaborated on how the character's potential was not fully utilised. "I only welcome Lage Raho Munna Bhai, the sequel to Munna Bhai MBBS. That's a quantum leap. I salute you if you make a sequel like that. But if you're making a sequel just to mint money, that isn't fun. You have a character like Baburao, which has a goodwill of INR5 billion. You put that character in another backdrop. If you only change the jokes, what's the meaning of that?" he remarked.

Rawal also confirmed that Kartik Aaryan is no longer associated with Hera Pheri 3 and that the film will now retain its original trio of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and himself. Explaining what transpired, he said, "Kartik was signed for the film. At that time, the story of the film was different. They cast him thinking he would play Raju, but his character was completely different. This is how much I know. Kartik wasn't cast in Raju's role. Akshay was supposed to star in the film."

With Priyadarshan, the director of the first film, now on board, the film is set to begin shooting in August-September. Fans of the franchise can look forward to seeing their favourite characters back on screen, with the original essence of Hera Pheri intact.