After all the ups and downs, Akshay Kumar is finally committed to act in Hera Pheri 3 and Welcome 3, two of his cult comedy franchises produced by Firoz Nadiadwala. While Welcome 3 begins soon, Hera Pheri 3 is slated to go on floors in 2024. According to sources close to the development, Akshay Kumar has gone out of the way to bring both the cult comedies to life.
“Akshay Kumar was himself very sad when he heard that Kartik Aaryan was replacing him in Hera Pheri 3. He read all the reactions of fans and media people and then decided to sort out all the differences with Firoz Nadiadwala, and thereby return to the franchise. He has done it for all his fans, who wanted to see him as Raju and Rajeev,” revealed a source close to the development to Bollywood Hungama.
One wonders what has Akshay done to bring the franchises to life. The source told us, “Akshay knew that Firoz Nadiadwala isn’t in best of financial condition, however, was very well aware that the basic idea of Welcome 3 and Hera Pheri 3 have potential to emerge as a humongous blockbuster. To start with, he first decided to completely sacrifice his fees, and entered into a profit-sharing model with Firoz Nadiadwala on entire revenue. Firoz wanted to retain the IP, and hence he has complete control over the IP, however, he will be sharing revenue with Akshay in a pre-decided ratio,” the source explained to Bollywood Hungama.
The source further explained, “On letting go of the fees, he sat down with Firoz to carve out an exit plan by getting a studio on board. He personally spoke to Jio Studios and got them on board to partner with Firoz Nadiadwala. Once Jio came on board, it was one arrow, 3 solutions – Firoz got out of his debts, the franchises were revived and Akshay will be getting his share of profit from Jio, without any risk of films getting shelved.”
As a token of appreciation for going out of the way, Firoz Nadiadwala has given 2 cheques of Rs. 9 crore each as a token amount to Akshay, which qualifies as a goodwill gesture from his end. Now both, Akshay and Firoz along with their studio, Jio Studios, are all ready to entertain the audience and in turn mint money from Welcome 3 and Hera Pheri 3.
Also Read: Hera Pheri 3: Paresh Rawal sets the record straight on Kartik Aaryan’s involvement in the film; says, “Kartik’s role was different and had a different kind of energy than Raju”
