New Delhi: Actor Paresh Rawal, who plays the much-loved character of Baburao in the ‘Hera Pheri’ franchise, left fans shocked and disheartened by exiting from the third installment of the film.
After Paresh confirmed his exit, reports stated that actor Akshay Kumar, who is also a producer of ‘Hera Pheri 3’, has sued the veteran actor for unprofessional conduct.
Now, amid this ongoing controversy around ‘Hera Pheri 3’, an old interview of Paresh, in which he has expressed his discontent to play the character of Baburao, has gone viral.
A few weeks ago, in an interview with The Lallantop, Paresh had shared that his character in the ‘Hera Pheri’ franchise appeared to him like a ‘noose around his neck.’
The veteran further shared that though he took up the role in the first two installments of the film, he never did it happily.
“I went to Vishal Bhardwaj [director] in 2007. In 2006, Hera Pheri 2 was released. I told him that I have a film. I want to get rid of this image. You are the person who can offer me a completely different role in the same getup,” revealed Paresh.
When Vishal asked him why he wanted to get rid of this image, the actor said, “Whoever comes to me, he has an image of Hera Pheri in mind. I am an actor. I don’t want to get stuck at one place.”
“I asked him to offer me a new character in the same getup. I felt happy but dum ghutta hai (I felt choked). I need mukti (liberation) from that role,” he admitted.
Criticising the Bollywood trend of making sequels to spin money, the veteran said, “For instance, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and Lage Raho Munna Bhai – the two films have different trajectories as they picked up different subjects with the same protagonists.”
Referring to his ‘Hera Pheri’ character, the actor added, “It’s a 500 crore goodwill character. If a maker wants, he can upscale the character to a different height. But people have either mental bankruptcy or mental lethargy to take a plunge.”