Priyadarshan opened up recently about Paresh Rawal’s decision to leave Hera Pheri 3 earlier this year and said that the veteran actor was pressurised by “bad forces” The filmmaker said that Paresh and Akshay didn’t have any problems.
After Paresh decided to leave the film, Akshay reportedly sent a legal notice to the actor. The issue was however resolved later and Paresh re-joined the film.
Speaking about it now, Priyadarshan said during an interaction with Pinkvilla, “Paresh and I never had an issue. To the best of my knowledge, even Akshay and Paresh never had any problems. There were other forces, bad forces, who were pressurising Paresh. He is someone who worries about his health, but that has never affected our relationship.”
Priyadarshan added, Akshay told me, ‘Prince sir, if it happens, let it happen. Otherwise, let’s forget it.’ There were other bad forces creating unnecessary issues, but it’s not worth discussing them. Filmmaking is like this—you have friends, enemies, fans, critics. I still don’t know how I’ve survived 40 years in the industry.”
In an earlier interview with Mid-day after Paresh announced his exit from the film, Priyadarshan recalled the conversation Akshay had with him. “Akshay had tears in his eyes when he asked me, ‘Priyan, why is Paresh doing this to us?’ Akshay shouldn’t suffer financial losses because Paresh walked out on a whim. I understand that he will have to take whatever action is required,” the filmmaker said.
He even said that Paresh didn’t inform him about leaving the film. “When I tried calling him, he texted, saying, ‘Please don’t call me. This is my decision and it has nothing to do with you.’ He also wrote that we should work together again. With me, Akshay has never cut down anybody’s role. He does not interfere with a director’s vision at all,” he said.
Paresh later confirmed that he is doing the film during a podcast. “Earlier too, the film was scheduled to go ahead, but we had to fine-tune ourselves. After all, all of them—Priyadarshan, Akshay, Suniel—are highly creative and friends for many years,” he said.