A landline rings several times. The caller wants to talk to a certain Devi Prasad.
A bespectacled near-sighted Paresh Rawal picks up the phone and answers, "Kaun Devi Prasad? Devi ka prasad mandir mein milta hai, garage mein nahin. Yeh Star Garage hai. Aur main garage ka owner Baburao Ganpatrao Apte."
Blast From A Distant Past
Those times are as far in the past as the landline phone, which Gen Z might have seen only in a museum and not in their homes.
The scene we're talking about is from Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri (2000), which marked the first ever collaboration among Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Suniel Shetty and the director. The film, which acquired a cult status much later, is back in the news for an apparent hera pheri between Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal.
Blame it on money, script, clause or contractual obligations - Babu Bhaiya (Paresh Rawal) and Raju (Akshay Kumar) don't seem in the mood to provide chappad phaad ke entertainment on screen. The entertainment that the audience is watching at the moment, is from all the behind-the-scenes drama... which, to be honest, is no less entertainment than the movie itself.
An Exit
On May 18, Paresh Rawal exited from the much-awaited sequel, Hera Pheri 3. He confirmed his exit via an X post.
Two days later, a Hindustan Times report claimed that Akshay Kumar has sued Paresh Rawal for Rs 25 crore in damages, for incurring heavy losses on the production house. Akshay Kumar is one of the producers of Hera Pheri 3 after he acquired the rights from Firoz Nadiadwala.
Even while Paresh Rawal and Team Hera Pheri wash their dirty laundry in public, with allegations and counter allegations, the question on our minds is different. Who needs a Hera Pheri 3? The audience? Or Akshay Kumar and the team?
Bollywood's Sequel Mania
At a time when Bollywood is grappling with dearth of ideas, creative bankruptcy and the lack of a single blockbuster, producers are pinning their hopes on sequels. They seem to be unbothered by commercial results as making or announcing a sequel is the safest formula in the box office playbook.
Veteran trade analyst Komal Nahta tells NDTV, "If it's a popular franchise, sequels will come. If I were a producer, I too would have made a sequel."
So, at a time when sequels are not working, what actually drives producers to take a risk with one?
"Every filmmaker thinks he's making a Sholay. It's a safe formula," says Komal Nahta.
If we were to look at the bigger picture, the sequel trend seems to be getting stronger with each passing year. Two of the biggest Hindi hits of 2024 were Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3. The quality of sequels might be questioned but they did mint a whole lot of money. Stree 2 minted a staggering amount of Rs 837 crore, while Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 minted more than Rs 371 crore.
Not surprising then, that Bollywood has a list of big sequels releasing this year too.
- Ajay Devgn's Raid 2 was released on May 1.
- Akshay Kumar's Housefull 5 will be releasing in theatres in June.
- The trend continues with War 2, Alpha, Welcome To The Jungle, Son Of Sardar 2, De De Pyaar De 2.
But a sequel to Hera Pheri? Here's why a sequel in 2025 (or later, considering the legal tussle) doesn't make sense.
Why We Don't Need A Hera Pheri 3
The premise of Hera Pheri 3 was built on innocence; perhaps the lost innocence of a bygone era.
It was a time when landlords threatened tenants to drive them away but never actually did it. Two star-crossed applicants (Tabu and Suniel Shetty) vying for a bank job after their fathers' deaths. They try to eliminate each other to get the job. But when Suniel Shetty comes to know about Tabu's plight, he can easily pass on the job even when Tabu wants to give it up.
Raju (Akshay Kumar), Shyam (Suneil Shetty) and Baburao (Paresh Rawal) - are all grappling with debt and they don't want to fight their fortunes with complete dishonesty. But when an opportunity of making quick money knocks on their door, they set out on a twisted path and end up with an unexpected outcome.
A still from Hera Pheri. Photo Credit: X
The real Devi Prasad's granddaughter is kidnapped. Akshay, Suniel and Paresh want to make a quick buck by utilising a case of mistaken identity (who is the real Devi Prasad?), and a comedy of errors follows. But it's a world where the rich (the real Devi Prasad) recognises the innate goodness in desperate people. When the police pick up the trio, Devi Prasad sets them free as they save his granddaughter from the goons.
Given that most of Priyadarshan's comedies thrive on chaos, the ending of Hera Pheri was no different. But the film upheld the ideas of love, friendship, desperation, honesty, and an unblemished innocence that wants to survive a changed world.
The sequel to Hera Pheri, titled Phir Hera Pheri, hit the theatres in 2006. The second sequel followed the trope of the first one - Raju, Shyam and Baburao trying to find a way to repay the money borrowed from a dreaded gangster. The film was a huge commercial success.
It has been 19 years since Phir Hera Pheri, and 25 since Hera Pheri. Almost two generations have passed in between. The innocence of that era is difficult to recreate on screen, as well as in every sphere of life probably.
Times have changed; as have audiences. That forever-ringing landline phone, which played a leitmotif in the film, might work as a reminder for Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal, now at war in court. Hera Pheri is from a bygone era.
All films should not have sequels, and all sequels won't bring in money, like the trio says, chappad phaad ke.