Priyadarshan calls it ‘last era of superstars’: Shah Rukh to Salman to Akshay, they should be thankful to God

Priyadarshan has returned to Hindi films after a while with the sequel to his 2003 release titled ‘Hungama 2’. The film stars Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Meezaan, and Shilpa Shetty in leading parts. During the promotional spree of the film, Priyadarshan spoke to PTI about the current state of cinema and the era being the last of superstars. He also mentioned that the films have taken a more realistic form of narrative. He also spoke about how the Bollywood producers only wanted him to make comedy films after he made Hera Pheri, which was released in 2000 and ended up being a huge success. 

Priyadarshan spoke about this being the last era of superstars and said, “The industry has changed. I think this is the last era of superstars. Whoever is enjoying today, Shah Rukh to Salman to Akshay... they should be thankful to God. Tomorrow, the superstar will be the content. I can see how films are taking a more realistic turn. You can't exaggerate without a believable situation. Even in a comedy or a serious film, the make-believe should look right. I don't think any film can fail if it looks convincing.”

Further in the conversation, Priyadarshan spoke about getting typecast as a director into one genre by Bollywood producers. He said, “When things didn't work for me for sometime, I thought of 'Hera Pheri'. I decided to try what I had been successful doing in the south. At that time, I found there was a huge scarcity of comedy films. After 'Hera Pheri', the producers only wanted me to do comedies and not go back to anything else. The couple of times I tried deviating, I didn't succeed.”

ALSO READ: Priyadarshan on returning to Hindi cinema with Hungama 2: I found there is a scarcity of humorous films