25th Anniversary EXCLUSIVE: The True SUPERHEROES of Hera Pheri - Firoz A. Nadiadwallah reveals how Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Suniel Shetty, Neeraj Vora saved the film

Hera Pheri (2000) will complete 25 glorious years, this month on March 31. On this joyous occasion, its producer Firoz A. Nadiadwallah went down memory lane in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama and shared fascinating trivia about the making of this iconic film, starring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Tabu.

Firoz A. Nadiadwallah began by saying, “When we were making it, we knew that the humour would work due to Mr Neeraj Vora and the chemistry between the principal star cast of Akshay ji, Paresh ji and Suniel ji. Neeraj ji was present on the set; he would not just help them learn the lines but would also tell them how to perform those lines. Hence, in terms of creative aspect, we knew that we were making a quality product.”

He then said, “Then we faced a length issue. The final edited length was 3 hours and 40 minutes and this was without those two songs of Akshay ji, ‘Jab Bhi Koi Haseena’ and ‘Tun Tunak Tun’. A major part of the humour was cut out by the director (Priyadarshan). Instead, the film was full of remorse, deprivation and sadness. We had to take a conscious stand as the film was not getting sold at all. Forget an inquiry, there was no inquiry also of the inquiry! What I mean is, koi yeh bhi nahin poochh raha tha ki ‘iss film ke baare mein koi poochh raha hai ki nahin’ (laughs).”

Firoz A. Nadiadwallah further said, “There was no question of MG (Minimum Guarantee) or even releasing the film on a commission basis. Releasing on a commission basis means that a distributor is not paying anything. He simply takes the film for free while the producer pays for the P&A (Print and advertising). Whatever business is generated, the producer will give the distributor a commission out of it. Even under this arrangement, no one was ready to release it.”

Firoz continued, “Hence, it was not just the money but also my company and my father’s goodwill at stake. In the year 2000, we were a 47-year-old company. With no other option, we went back to the drawing board and cut the film’s length from 3.40 hours to 2.10 hours. We removed the depression and morose scenes. In place of that, we added the humour.”

When asked if the film was reshot, he replied, “We reshot a small percentage. A large chunk of the humourous dialogues were cut and thrown away. We put it back in the film. Also, since so much was removed, there were some gaps in the narrative. Hence, we had to do 'cosmetic surgery' – we shot a few close-ups – to retain the sensibility of the screenplay and the narrative. After doing so, we added two songs. That’s how the length of the film came to 2.25 hours.”

Sharing more about the reshoot and replacement process, Firoz A. Nadiadwallah explained, “There were many scenes which had close-ups as a replacement. One particular scene is when Anuradha (Tabu) calls Shyam (Suniel Shetty) home. Originally, that scene was almost 15 minutes long. It begins with Shyam seeing an old woman; her leg has been chained to a bed. That woman, who is Anuradha’s mother, shouts at Shyam. Anuradha arrives and calms her down. Shyam then sees that Anuradha stays in a small, dirty house. Suddenly, a blind boy arrives. Shyam asks who he is. She replies that her elder sister is a widow and this is her son. So you see, the film was filled with such depressing and sad scenes. Then, Shyam and Anuradha have a long conversation. Instead of showing this portion in detail, we depicted that Anuradha invites him home. We then cut to Shyam returning to Baburao’s house and informing Raju and Baburao about what he saw at her house. This is followed by a flashback, that lasted for not more than 15 seconds! We conveyed what we wanted to with the voiceover and visuals and that too in the shortest time possible.”

Firoz continued, “There were few more such scenes which we edited and replaced with close-up shots of Akshay ji and Paresh ji, many of which we shot in our villa. Since we cut so much, there were jerks in the narrative. Hence, we added close-ups and it served as a bridge. Both Akshay ji and Paresh ji went out of the way to shoot these scenes and I am very thankful to them.”

When this writer expressed the desire to watch the film again to understand this aspect, Firoz A. Nadiadwallah guaranteed, “I guarantee you aapko nahin pata chalega (where we have added the shots later on)! Those were the days of Steenbeck. There was no Avid. We had to put the reel and then make the changes. The original editor was also not present. We had to hire a local person from Mumbai. We spent nights. It was a task.”

The adventures just before the release and in the release week

A day before Hera Pheri’s release, Firoz A. Nadiadwallah faced one more challenge. He revealed, “Hera Pheri was released on March 31. Until the night of Thursday, March 30, I was shooting a promo with Akshay ji, Paresh ji and Suniel ji on the lawn of my bungalow. Those were the days when trailers would be aired on MTV, Sony, Star TV, Zee, etc. We finished shooting it at 1 or 2 am. We immediately developed the negatives. We then edited it on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday night, we had to deliver to the channels as we had no choice. On Sunday, it was played on television.”

Firoz also said, “On the day the film was released, the collections were very discouraging. After 6:00 pm, the film started picking up. On Sunday, people came to see the film again. I went to Gaiety-Galaxy, Shaan cinema, etc. The best way to gauge the reaction was to sit on the last row in the stalls. I realized that there was a repeat audience in the shows. Before a funny dialogue would be uttered, I could hear people saying ‘Ab dekh yeh kya bolega’! That was quite encouraging. Day by day, it started picking up.”

What worked for Hera Pheri? Firoz A. Nadiadwallah replied, “People were stunned. They were like, ‘We have never heard such dialogues and never seen any such performances’. Paresh ji’s character Baburao became an iconic figure. It happened because of the innocence and purity with which Paresh ji performed his role. Akshay ji was very helpful while shooting for the two songs. He went out of his way for it. Choreographer Ahmed Khan also provided a lot of support to us.”

Firoz A. Nadiadwallah proudly stated, “It was a miracle that a film which nobody wanted to even release on commission was sold on MG all-India two months before its release! We sold it at a very good price, not at a concession or discount. We managed to do so simply by showing its trailer. The promo had all the glamour portions and humourous dialogues.”

He signed off by saying, “I owe my personal gratitude to Akshay ji and Paresh ji. Without them, there was no Hera Pheri.”

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