Akshay Kumar’s ‘Hera Pheri 3’ in legal battle, producer sued over franchise rights

Hera Pheri 3 is one of the much-awaited comedy spectacles that the entire country is waiting to watch. However, seems like the return of Raju, Shyam and Baburao to theatres will have to go through a lot of roadblocks. The movie has found itself in legal trouble over the franchise rights.

A production house - Seven Arts International- has knocked on the doors of the Madras High Court, claiming that they own the copyright to the Hera Pheri franchise, not the Nadiadwala production house.

As reported by Bar and Bench, Seven Arts International Limited has filed a petition over the rights of Hera Pheri, which was the remake of the e Malayalam original Ramji Rao Speaking (1989).

In the plea, they have stated that Nadidwala was authorized to make only one Hindi remake of the 1989 Malayalam film, which was directed by Priyadarshan and was released in 2000 with the title Hera Pheri.

However, the production house went on to produce a sequel, Phir Hera Pheri (2006), and have now sold the rights of the movie to actor Akshay Kumar’s production house, Cape of Good Films.

Amid all this, GP Vijayakumar, MD of Seven Arts International, has said that Firoz Nadiadwala had been given the right to make one Hindi version of the film.

During a conversaton with HTCity, he has said, “I bought the entire rights for the Hera Pheri franchise from the original producers of Ramji Rao Speaking, Adithya Films in 2022. They informed me that Firoz Nadiadwala had been given the right to make one Hindi version of the film. But he made a second version which released in 2006. He is not authorized to make a sequel or prequel, or use the characters.” (Agencies)

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