Filmmaker Priyadarshan has tickled our funny bones and made us laugh like crazy with films like Hulchul, Bhool Bhulaiyya, Hera Pheri, Chup Chup Ke among others. In his career spanning up to 3 decades, he has gone on to direct over 95 films in various Indian languages like Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Recently, in a tête-à-tête with PTI, the director spoke about his upcoming movie Hungama 2, which is a sequel to his 2003 film of the same name. The veteran director said that he had initially approached Kartik Aaryan, Ayushmann Khurana for the film, but none of them showed interest in the project.
The National Award-winning filmmaker, who roped in Meezaan Jaffery to star in Hungama 2, believes popular stars must have a line of thinking that he is an outdated director.
Speaking to PTI he said—
I didn’t go directly to meet them but my concept was narrated to a lot of actors like Ayushmann Khurrana, Kartik Aaryan and Siddharth Malhotra. They all refused to do the film (Hungama 2). Now, I am working with Meezaan. They all refused because maybe they thought I am an outdated director, because I was out of the Hindi film industry for five years.
The director said that he prefers to work with artists who believe in his conviction and ideas.
He also said:
They seemed disinterested. They don’t tell it to you on your face. I don’t like to beg actors and (I) prefer to work with somebody who believes in me. Many times when you request an actor to do a film, they show respect to you, offer you coffee and nicely they will avoid you, because maybe they don’t trust you.
The 2003 Hungama starred Paresh Rawal, Shoma Anand, Akshaye Khanna, Aftab Shivdasani and Rimi Sen in lead roles. The second part features Paresh Rawal, alongside a new cast — namely Meezaan, Shilpa Shetty and south-Indian actress Pranitha Subhash.
Speaking about the sequel, Priyadarshan said:
It is a film of total misunderstanding. The old film is about misunderstanding and confusion and same is the case with Hungama 2, but the story is different.