Pankaj Tripathi, Richa Chadha decode 'Fukrey' series success; speak on challenges of starring in franchise

Unique characters and absurd storyline are the qualities that have made Fukrey a successful film franchise, believe actors Pankaj Tripathi and Richa Chadha as they gear up to return for the third part.

The buddy comedy film franchise began in 2013 with Fukrey and was followed by a 2017 sequel, titled Fukrey Returns. The series revolves around four friends -- Hunny (Pulkit Samrat), Choocha (Varun Sharma), Laali (Manjot Singh), and Zafar (Ali Fazal), who get together to make quick money.

Tripathi and Chadha play the characters of Pandit ji and Bholi Punjaban, respectively. They will be reprising the roles in the upcoming third film, set to release on September 28.

Chadha credited director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and writer Vipul Vig for creating quirky characters and the attention to detail.

“The audience like the films because each character is unique. My character had so much detailing, like her Nigerian henchmen has a barcode on his neck, she wears leopard print jacket. Pankaj ji’s character of Pandit ji worked because whenever he would speak in English, people loved him," Chadha said.

“The writing is very detailed, and it shows that the writers have worked so hard and have written with a lot of love with the intention to make the audience laugh. Mrighdeep has worked very hard; he focuses on every little detail. The audience liked the film because they feel the characters are fleshed out from real life,” the actor told PTI in an interview here.

According to Tripathi, the “absurd” plotline of Fukrey worked in the favour of the youth-comedy franchise.

“There was a certain kind of absurdity in the story... We do a lot of absurd things in real-life, so maybe that is one of the factors why people loved the film. Besides, the film entertained the audience in a big way and is hugely popular among kids,” he added.

Returning for the third part, however, was challenging for Chadha. The actor said to perform in sequels one needs to 'relearn' a lot of things.

“It is not that easy (to do sequels). Every character has something special. My character has a certain brashness. So you have to relearn if the gap is a bit more. But we had a director, who never let us off the hook. Within two-three days (of shoot) you are in the character, before that we do readings and all. He ensures that he gets whatever he wants,” the actor said.

For Tripathi, it was an easy process.

“It was very easy, just the weather was not favorable because we were shooting in extreme heat. So, the difficulties were related to weather and not playing the character,” he said.

Fukrey 3 is produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment.