Actor Suniel Shetty clears the air about Kartik Aaryan's casting in Hera Pheri 3 and talks about the role he was supposed to play in the film.

At this point the drama around the making of Hera Pheri 3 seems to have a more complicated and engaging plot than the actual movie. Amid Paresh Rawal’s exit and Akshay Kumar’s legal onslaught on him, Suniel Shetty still remains positive that the movie cannot be made without him, Akshay and Rawal reprising their roles as Shyam, Raju and Babu Rao. He even commented on how Kartik Aaryan was considered for a role, but he clarified that the actor was never going to replace the main characters and that it was never even a part of the discussion.

Shetty talked to Zoom about his career and the plans around Hera Pheri 3 while pointing out the importance the cast of the film holds when planning for a sequel. He said a few days before Paresh announced his exit from the film, “A film becomes iconic when the audience remembers the characters. This is not Suniel, Akshay, and Paresh; it was Raju, Shyam, and Babu Rao. Nobody can replace those 3 characters, and even when Kartik was considered for the movie, he was never going to replace Raju; it was for a different role altogether.”

Shetty credited the film’s success and its iconic status to the director and said, “It was because of someone like Priyadarshan; while we were shooting the scene, he would cut it the moment he felt he got what he needed, not a line extra and not an emotion more. These are the directors that the current generation is not seeing or not getting a chance to work with.”