Accomplished filmmaker Priyadarshan’s forthcoming Hindi language comedy film ‘Hungama 2’ is slated to start streaming on the Disney+ Hotstar platform from July 23, 2021, onwards. It’s being described as a spiritual sequel to the filmmaker’s 2003 laugh riot ‘Hungama’ that featured Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Aftab Shivdasani, and Rimi Sen in the lead roles.
‘Hungama 2’ can be said to be Priyadarshan’s comeback Bollywood film after a hiatus of eight years. This is contrary to the earlier reports that his previous film ‘Rangrezz’ would be his last Hindi film. Although ‘Rangrezz’ did not exactly set the box office on fire despite garnering generally positive reviews.
The prolific filmmaker started off his career in the Malayalam film industry with slapstick comedy films and effortlessly changed gears to other genres. But his tryst with the Bollywood industry is also known to all. He made his Bollywood mainstream directorial debut with ‘Muskurahat’ in the year 1992. The film didn’t do very well.
The following year, Priyadarshan’s next Hindi film ‘Gardish’ was released and received critical and commercial acclaim. Later, in 1996, his epic hard-hitting Malayalam film ‘Kalapani’ which was also dubbed in the Hindi language, eventually won four National Film Awards.
Subsequently, he again made a successful comeback to Bollywood with the Anil Kapoor starrer ‘Virasat’ in the year 1997. However, his subsequent Hindi directorial projects ‘Saat Rang Ke Sapne’, ‘Doli Saja Ke Rakhna’, and ‘Kabhi Na Kabhi’ failed to pull the Hindi film audiences. All three films were released in the year 1998.
After a short break, in the year 2000, Priyadarshan made a glorious comeback, this time with a comedy film ‘Hera Pheri’ starring Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, and Paresh Rawal. The film has now achieved a cult following amongst cinephiles.
In the post ‘Hera Pheri’ era, Priyadarshan regularly directed films for the Bollywood industry including ‘Hungama’, ‘Hulchul’, ‘Garam Masala’, ‘Malamaal Weekly’, ‘Chup Chup Ke’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiya’, ‘Billu’, and ‘Aakrosh’, amongst others. However, Priyadarshan’s last few Hindi movies like ‘Tezz’, ‘Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal’, and ‘Rangrezz’ didn’t perform as expected, commercially.
Whether ‘Hungama 2’ can prove to be yet another spectacular Bollywood comeback for the virtuoso filmmaker, will soon be known when the film releases on Disney+ Hotstar on 23rd July 2021. The absence of any big stars can deter a certain segment of the viewers. Nevertheless, the more refined OTT audience might give the film a thumbs-up if the film is well made and is a genuine entertainer in line with the prequel or even better – if it’s even half as good as ‘Hera Pheri’.