Filmmaker Priyadarshan has come out to strongly denying Firoz Nadiadwala's allegations that he abandoned his film Hera Pheri midway, and tried to wreak havoc on the plans to make a sequel. Speaking to ETimes, Priyadarshan was asked about the length of the film that Nadiadwala had pointed out earlier saying that it was initially 3 hours, 40 minutes long. "How could I make a film as long as three hours and 40 minutes? It is a remake of a Malayalam film, and so, I knew what I was making. All these claims are false. The whole film was made in Chennai. It was mixed in my theatre. I completed the film and I gave the final copy to him." As for the film's remake rights, Nadidwala had claimed that Priyadarshan had sold the Hindi remake rights to a filmmaker in Punjab.
"Literally 10 days before the film’s release, we got to know that a filmmaker from Punjab had the rights to the film. I rushed to Chandigarh for the settlement. I had to pay him whatever he demanded. I have proof of all this,” Nadiadwala had said.Reacting to the same, Priyadarshan said, "How can I sell the rights, when I never had them? It is the original writers of the Malayalam film (Siddique and Lal, also the directors of that film) who sold it. It was not written by me. It was written by Siddique, the one who directed Bodyguard starring Salman Khan. They sold the rights to someone else. Then, we started the film (Hera Pheri) and we were supposed to buy the rights from them for Rs 5 lakh." He further added, "During my latest film promotions when the media asked me if I was directing Hera Pheri 3, I said that I am not interested in directing it. I personally don’t believe I will be able to do justice to the sequel, so why will I even consider it? It is as simple as that! I don’t know what has irked Firoz. Maybe it is his anger and frustration at being unable to make Hera Pheri 3." Recently, producer Firoz Nadiadwala made several claims against the director, from leaving the 2000 film midway to making a depressing version to trying to convince the actors to say no to the sequel. Hera Pheri is counted among the greatest comedies made in Bollywood, and also got a sequel, Phir Hera Pheri in 2006, but with no involvement of Priyadarshan.