'Shilpa is the sunshine girl'

Priyadarshan makes a comeback to directing a Hindi film after seven years.

"It's been a tough time for me," he tells Subhash K Jha.

"I was going through some difficult personal issues. When I finally decided to come out of my dark phase, I had to do a comedy. These days everyone needs laughter more than ever before."

"This Hungama has nothing to do with the Hungama I made 18 years ago," he adds.

"Hungama 2 is a remake of my 1994 Malayalam film Minnaram, but that was a tragedy. I have turned Minnaram into a comedy in Hungama 2. The last three reels of the original were tearjerkers. I got rid of them. Nobody wants to cry during these tough times."

Hungama 2 was one of the happiest films of Priyan's career.

"There was sunshine and laughter all the time. Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav and Mohan Joshi have worked with me a number of times. So it was like a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. reunion."

"I had never worked with Shilpa Shetty before. She was a delightful surprise. So beautiful and always smiling. Today, she's looking much better than she did 20 years ago. I have never seen anyone so happy all the time. The minute she walked into the set, she brought laughter and sunshine with her. She is the sunshine girl in my film."

Priyadarshan had worked with Meezaan's grandfather Jagdeep in Muskurahat.

"I have never worked with Meezaan's father Javed Jaffrey. But I can tell you this: Meezan has inherited his father's dancing shoes and his grandfather's comic timing."

Priyan hopes he will bring laughter into audiences' lives with Hungama 2.

"This is my 94th film. I don't know if it is some kind of a world record but I do know that I want to complete 100 films. Please pray that I am able to achieve my target."