MUMBAI: The comedy film Hera Pheri,  recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. While the movie performed fairly at the box office when it released, over the years it has acquired a cult status thanks to its quirky yet memorable characters Raju (played by Akshay Kumar), Babu Bhai (played by Paresh Rawal) and Shyam (played by Suniel Shetty) and the hilarious comedy of errors they find themselves in. 

In a candid chat with  IMDb, Suniel Shetty spoke about the reason why Hera Pheri is today seen as an iconic movie, “What makes it iconic is basically the simplicity of the film. Hera Pheri is a film where everybody has problems and in those problems, there is so much humor that it is hard to stop watching. Also, it was a film where action heroes were doing comedy and being controlled by someone like Babu Bhai, so audiences must have found that very amusing. Then, the basic script, the writing, the dialogues… the legendary direction of Priyadarshan and the entire team that worked so brilliantly. Hera Pheri is a perfect example of perfect team work.” 

Having worked with  Priyadarshan on various other films, Suniel Shetty said, “I knew Priyan sir was a riot when it came to this genre. I switched over to comedy because I knew the kind of films he produced and his sense of comedy was brilliant. After this movie, Akshay and I worked on Awara Paagal Deewana.” 

Remembering the shoot days of Hera Pheri, Suniel Shetty said, “I don’t know how the film was made, it just happened. We arrived on the sets every morning, the costumes were basically just stretched and given to us, not even ironed. The director would ask us to sleep in the afternoon on paper, so we used to sleep on newspapers. He (Priyadarshan) said I don’t want you to be comfortable. When you get up, you should have rested, but stay uncomfortable. So, we wore no makeup, nothing. Akshay Kumar, me and Paresh ji were constantly together, constantly rehearsing our lines, constantly improvising and Priyan sir is one man who knows when to say cut.”