Veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan says he had approached big names from Bollywood like Ayushmann Khurrana and Kartik Aaryan for the sequel of his 2003 comedy Hungama initially but none of them showed any interest in his project. 

The National Award-winning filmmaker said that he believes popular stars must have thought he is an "outdated" director. "I didn’t go directly to meet them but my concept was narrated to a lot of actors like Ayushmann Khurrana, Kartik Aaryan, and Siddharth Malhotra. They all refused to do the film. Now, I am working with Meezaan. They all refused because maybe they thought I am an outdated director, because I was out of the Hindi film industry for five years," Priyadarshan said, in an interview. 

In a career spanning over three decades, Priyadarshan has directed more than 95 films in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Some of his most notable movies in Hindi include Virasat, Hera Pheri, Hulchul, Chup Chup Ke, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, among others. The director said he prefers working with actors who believe in his conviction. "They seemed disinterested. They don’t tell you on your face. I don’t like to beg for actors and (I) prefer to work with somebody who believes in me. Many times when you request an actor to do a film, they show respect to you, offer you coffee and nicely they will avoid you because maybe they don’t trust you."

Priyadarshan said he is happy with the way Hungama 2 has shaped up so far. He said both the original and sequel have a common theme - confusion. The 2003 original film featured Paresh Rawal, Shoma Anand, Akshaye Khanna, Aftab Shivdasani, and Rimi Sen in lead roles. The second part features Paresh, alongside a new cast, which includes Meezaan, Shilpa Shetty, and south actor Pranitha Subhash. Hungama 2, produced by Ratan Jain, is scheduled to be released in August.