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The Past Blast: When a crossover of Hera Pheri with Welcome was planned… And soon shelved
The films that never saw day of light. When Uday Shetty and Majnu Bhai planned to kidnap Babu Rao, with Raju and Shyam to his rescue.
The Hera Pheri trio – Raju (Akshay Kumar), Shyam (Suniel Shetty), Baburao (Paresh Rawal) - along with the Welcome duo – Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar), Majnu Bhai (Anil Kapoor) – are easily five of the most iconic characters of a comic film in Bollywood. Both franchises are produced by Firoz Nadiadwala and have stood the test of times when it comes to longevity among the audience. In-fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the fan following is growing with every passing year. The two films fronted by Akshay Kumar also played a significant role in making him the king of Meme world.
Did you know that earlier last decade, producer Firoz Nadiadwala, his late writer director friend, Neeraj Vora, Anees Bazmee along with the creative team had once discussed the possibility of making a crossover between Welcome and Hera Pheri. The one liner of the core premise stemmed from a random question in the midst of a discussion, “What would happen if Majnu and Uday get to know that the girl, whose love they are fighting for, is actually attracted towards Baburao Apte?” The answer they got in return was, “Uday and Majnu would kidnap Baburao.”
That’s what the one-liner of this Welcome to Hera Pheri crossover was. Being the don that they are, Uday and Majnu decide to kidnap Baburao, and the other two leads, Raju and Shyam come to Baburao’s rescue. Imagine the chaos if Uday, Manju and Baburao were locked in a room? Think about the madness if two jealous souls, Raju and Shyam team up for a common goal? That’s what Firoz and his team wanted to create, however, the one-line idea never saw the day of light. The team was unable to weave this idea into a screenplay, and hence, it died a natural death without even reaching to a stage when the actors could be approached.
After this, Firoz tried to revive the Hera Pheri franchise multiple times, with a different cast, however, it never took off due to financial constraints. Even today, there is a strong buzz about Hera Pheri 3 being made, however, no one knows the exact status quo. Akshay has hinted about doing Hera Pheri 3 on his social media, but one hears, there isn't a script in place. Earlier last year, Firoz had got Raj Shandiliya on baord to write the script of Hera Pheri 3, but the writer wasn't able to crack a version that does justice to the legacy of the three idiots - Raju, Shyam and Baburao. There have been talks about the third instalment of Welcome as well, but again, it’s all up in the air, without anything concrete.
Leaving the independent films of the two-comic franchise’ aside, we hope, the idea of a crossover between Welcome and Hera Pheri is revived at some point of time with newer set of writers working on the idea and develop it into a bound screenplay. Afterall, these are 5 of most iconic characters and they blend well into each other’s universe.
ALSO READ: The Past Blast: Dilip Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and a dream debut, that got shelved
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