Hera Pheri (film series)

Hera Pheri series
Directed by	Priyadarshan (Hera Pheri) Neeraj Vora (Phir Hera Pheri) Indra Kumar (Hera Pheri 3)
Screenplay by	Neeraj Vora (Hera Pheri)
Story by	Siddique-Lal (Hera Pheri) Neeraj Vora (Phir Hera Pheri, Hera Pheri 3)
Produced by	A.G. Nadiadwala (Hera Pheri) Feroz Nadiadwala (Phir Hera Pheri, Hera Pheri 3)
Starring	Akshay Kumar Sunil Shetty Paresh Rawal
Cinematography	Jeeva (Hera Pheri) Velraj (Phir Hera Pheri)
Edited by	N. Gopalakrishnan (Hera Pheri) Diwakar P. Bhonsle, Virendra Gharse (Phir Hera Pheri)
Music by	Anu Malik (Hera Pheri) Himesh Reshammiya (Phir Hera Pheri, Hera Pheri 3)
Production companies	A.G. Films (Hera Pheri) Base Industries Group (Phir Hera Pheri, Hera Pheri 3)
Distributed by	A.G. Films (Hera Pheri) Base Industries Group (Phir Hera Pheri, Hera Pheri 3)
Release dates	1: 31 March 2000 (2000-03-31) 2: 9 June 2006 (2006-06-09) 3: July 2019 (2019-07)
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Hera Pheri is a series of Indian comedy films. The first film is directed by Priyadarshan and produced by A.G. Nadiadwala, , the second one was directed by Neeraj Vora while third will be directed by Indra Kumar and produced by Firoz Nadiadwala. The series starring Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar in lead roles. The third instalment of the series is due for release. After initial hiccups, all the three lead stars of the franchise will be reprising their roles. This series is now the twentynineth Highest-grossing film series in Bollywood.

Films

Hera Pheri (2000)

Main article: Hera Pheri (2000 film)

The plot revolves around an eccentric trio, consisting of a comically hilarious but kind hearted garage owner named Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Paresh Rawal), a crafty and cunning loafer named Raju (Akshay Kumar),m and a simple and struggling pauper named Shyam (Sunil Shetty) who find themselves trapped in crazy shenanigans including hilarious bits from Rawal himself.

The film begins with Shyam searching for a job at a bank which he find that is given to some girl named Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar (Tabu) even though Shyam's father died in the bank due to a fire. The manager (Asrani) tells Shyam that despite knowing the truth, he is unable to do anything further. Shyam walks off in a huff and accidentally bumps into Raju. Shyam mistakes Raju for a pickpocket and begins to chase him. Raju eventually gets away clean. Raju has his own troubles, dealing with his daydreams and unfriendly and disappointed people he is working for. He doesn't seem to keep a job alive and thus faces many problems.

Shyam then approaches a garage owner by the name of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, and manages to get a room on rent by compromising on the amount for Baburao's alcohol. Unknowingly for him Raju is staying in the same house on rent, which he hasn't paid for the last two years. The trio falls into hilarious situations that usually involve Raju instigating Shyam and purposefully trying to create a tandem that Baburao, fondly called as Babu Bhaiyya has to resolve. During one such fight, Anuradha intervenes and tries Shyam to sign the Non-Objection Certificate, so that she could have the job at the bank. When Shyam refuses, Raju makes a plot to make him sign the papers. Shyam eventually finds out that Raju made him sign the papers and that is when the rivalry between the two commences. An old friend of Shyam's, Khadak Singh (Om Puri) comes to Shyam's place asking to return his money so that he can marry off his sister and afford the dowry.

Shyam finds out that Raju has been deceiving his mother by posing as an engineer and creates an uncomfortable situation for Raju as he calls his mother fake while being inebriated. Raju retaliates, saying he just wants to see his dying mother happy and nothing else. Anuradha prepares a job resignation meanwhile and gives it to Shyam, who in return tears it up because of her mentally ailing mother and the debts to be paid to the debtors.

Their life takes an unexpected turn when they get a call from Kabeera (Gulshan Grover) which is a wrong number actually meant for the owner of Star fisheries, Mr. Devi Prasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). The wrong number is because of the misprint in the phone directory, which renders Star fisheries' number as Star garage's and vice versa. Kabeera, a terrorist cum kidnapper, tells who he thinks is Devi Prasad that his granddaughter is kidnapped and asks for ransom. Raju overhears the entire conversation going between Kabeera and Shyam and decides to play a game.

The game involves Shyam calling Devi Prasad posing as the kidnappers and asking for double the ransom amount. This will make their monetary problems disappear. Shyam and Baburao initially repel the idea and try to go the faithful way. But Raju in turn convinces them that even though wrong, this is a golden chance to earn money. Both relent and phone the real Devi Prasad and ask for double ransom. Their first attempt gets foiled, by the police and Kabeera informs them that the ransom has been doubled. They phone Devi Prasad again. This time they ask for a foolproof double ransom.

They reveal their true identities to Devi Prasad to win his confidence and try to save the girl from the kidnappers. But the girl recognizes Shyam as an imposter and Kabeera gets alerted. A huge fight involving the police, Kabeera's gang members and Khadak Singh's men, infuriated by the delay in the money return intervene the fight, takes place. The scenes are hilariously choreographed, especially those involving Baburao losing his spectacles and accdentally firing an AK-47 all over the floor. The girl is saved by the three and returned to Devi Prasad. Baburao and Shyam go home happily intending to find Raju with the money, but they find him missing. They call the police and Raju is found to be gone to return the money of the debtors.

In the end, Devi Prasad comes to the trio's rescue and convinces the police that it was all a misunderstanding and saves the three and they go home, richer than ever.

Phir Hera Pheri (2006)

Main article: Phir Hera Pheri

Hera Pheri ended with the trio of Raju (Akshay Kumar), Shyam/ghanshyam (Sunil Shetty), and Baburao Ganapathrao Apte (Paresh Rawal) rich and rolling in money. Phir Hera Pheri tells the story of what happens after they become rich.

The film opens with a prologue bringing the audience up to date, stating that each has suffered a personal loss despite their new riches. Shyam lost his love, Anuradha (Tabu (actress)), in an automobile accident, Raju's mother died after battling a disease, and Baburao - having nothing to lose in the first place - lost the little traces of common sense that he did possess.

The three men are living a king's life in a massive bungalow and splurging on various luxuries. Raju hears about an idea for doubling his wealth from a con woman, Anuradha (Bipasha Basu), who is claiming to be a bank manager, and she convinces Shyam and Baburao to go along with it. Raju first arranges for ₹30 lakh from Shyam and Baburao and then a further ₹50 lakh by selling their bungalow. He convinces a small-time goon, Pappu (Rajpal Yadav) to contribute the remaining balance of ₹20 lakh so that he can come up with the minimum deposit of ₹1 crore, which Anuradha has promised to double.

The trio invest the money and three weeks later realise that it was all a scam and that they are now penniless. To make matters worse, they do not even have possession of their bungalow, which Raju had sold off in order to arrange the last bit of money needed, and have to live in a chawl (tenement). Pappu shows up to the bungalow the next day to pick up his portion of the money, but is shocked to learn that Raju has left and the bungalow is now in possession of a gun collector (Dinesh Hingoo). Pappu is now in trouble because he had borrowed money from a lisping but dreaded gangster, Tiwari (Sharat Saxena), who will kill him if he doesn't pay up. He comes across Raju one day, and upon hearing of the scam pretends to be sympathetic. He tricks him and brings the three to his boss, telling him that they are the ones who took the money. Tiwari threatens them and tells them they have to come up with the money or else they will die. As they are being taken home by some of Tiwari's goons, the three manage to escape. Raju, Shyam and Baburao are about to leave the city when Raju remembers that he owes money to a woman named Anjali (Rimi Sen). The three head over to her house and are surprised to find that she is Pappu's sister. Tiwari's goons show up and kidnap Anjali because Pappu has not returned the money. Feeling guilty that he is the one who got Anjali in trouble, Raju decides that he will go to Tiwari and try to get her freed. Shyam and Baburao refuse to leave without them and decide to stay as well. The three go back to Tiwari to ask him to release Anjali, and Tiwari tells them to bring the money, releasing Anjali.

Raju, Shyam and Baburao now have three days to come up with ₹40 lakh to pay back the goon or else they will themselves be killed. Raju overhears the neighbor, Munnabhai (Johnny Lever), plotting to steal drugs from another gangster, Nanji Bhai (Milind Gunaji), and wrongly assumes they are talking about stealing money. Raju hatches a plan for the three of them to steal from Munnabhai. The three manage to barely succeed, but are confused when they do not find money inside. Raju recognizes the stuff as drugs and tells them that they are worth at least ₹3 crore (thirty million). They think that if they can sell them to Kachara Seth (Manoj Joshi) and pay off Tiwari, they can also become rich, but their neighbor once again steals the drugs from them. They then run into Anuradha and she tells them that the entire scam was hatched by Kabeera (the gangster from the first Hera Pheri) to get revenge on the trio, and that the only reason she went along with it was because they were holding her niece hostage (Anuradha's sister was Kabeera's gang member and part of the first movie's kidnapping plot). Their money was converted to diamonds to pay the ransom, but she fled with them once she discovered her niece had escaped and hid them under a decoration of a circus float.

In the end, all the guys end up in a circus show where they attempt to get hold of the diamonds. These are strewn all over the ground in public by a gorilla. Raju escapes with Pappu's cellphone and three antique guns with him, which are worth ₹5–6 crore, though he does not know about it. Pappu informs Shyam and Baburao about the guns, after which they try to call Raju on his cellphone. The film ends in a cliffhanger where Raju is about to throw the guns in the river with his cellphone ringing in his pocket.

Hera Pheri 3 (2019)

In May 2018 it was confirmed that Indra Kumar will direct Hera Pheri 3 and Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal will reprise their roles from previous films as Raju, Shyam and Baburao respectively.

The film's production has been especially difficult. When the film was announced, Rawal and Kumar elected not to reprise their roles as Baburao and Raju, respectively, and were replaced by John Abraham, Nana Patekar and Abhishek Bachchan. At one point, the film had been cancelled entirely, but shooting eventually began in 2014. In May 2016, both Abraham and Bachchan left, the latter's departure being particularly acrimonious. Shortly after Bachchan's departure, Kumar returned, reuniting the original trio. In addition to the departures of the two actors, Shetty had briefly left the production,and director Neeraj Vora was replaced by Ahmed Khan.

On October 2016, Vora suffered a massive stroke and was in a coma, throwing the film's future in doubt.The film was expected to go on floors in 2018.

On 14 December 2017, Neeraj Vora passed away. After the untimely death of the director, the future of this film became uncertain once again.

On May 23rd 2018, it was confirmed that Hera Pheri 3 will now be directed by Indra Kumar and star the same team of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Kader Khan in the lead. It was reported that the film will be shot in a start-to-finish schedule and Indra Kumar confirmed to The Indian Express that the film will be ready for release in the second half of 2019. The film will continue the story from the previous two films.

Cast and characters

Character	Film
	Hera Pheri (2000)	Phir Hera Pheri (2006)	Hera Pheri 3 (2019)
Baburao Ganpatrao Apte	Paresh Rawal
Shyam	Sunil Shetty
Raju	Akshay Kumar
Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar	Tabu	Tabu (archived footage)
Kabira	Gulshan Grover	Gulshan Grover (archived footage)
Devi Prasad	Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Khadak Singh	Om Puri
Bank Manager	Asrani
Police Commissioner Prakash	Mukesh Khanna
Chaman Jhinga / Parsi Man	Dinesh Hingoo
Kabira's Gang Member	Razak Khan
Anuradha		Bipasha Basu
Anjali		Rimi Sen
Pappu and Gajodhar Singh		Rajpal Yadav
Kachra Seth		Manoj Joshi
Munnabhai		Johny Lever
Munnabhai's sidekick		Sunil Pal
Tiwari		Sharat Saxena
Tiwari's sidekick		Ravi Kishan
Peter		Suresh Menon
Godfather Ram		Sanjay Mishra
TBA			Esha Gupta

Crew

Occupation	Film
	Hera Pheri (2000)	Phir Hera Pheri (2006)	Hera Pheri 3 (2020)
Director	Priyadarshan	Neeraj Vora	INDRA KUMAR
Producer(s)	A.G. Nadiadwala	Feroz Nadiadwala
Writer(s)	Neeraj Vora Siddique-Lal	Neeraj Vora
Music Director(s)	Anu Malik	Himesh Reshammiya
Director of photography	Jeeva	Velraj
Editor(s)	N. Gopalakrishnan	Diwakar P. Bhonsle, Virendra Gharse

Release and revenue

Film	Release date	Budget	Box office revenue
Hera Pheri	31 March 2000	₹75 million (US$900,000)	₹210 million (US$2.5 million)
Phir Hera Pheri	9 June 2006	₹200 million (US$2.4 million)	₹690 million (US$8.3 million)
Hera Pheri 3	26 July 2020	—	N/A

References

• Confirmed: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Suniel Shetty to reunite for Hera Pheri 3