Hera Pheri (film series)

Hera Pheri (2000)

Directed by Priyadarshan starring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal and Tabu as Raju, Shyam and Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, and Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar respectively. The story of this film is based on the 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking. The film received average response upon release, however due to a positive word of mouth, the film's collection speeded up and became one of the biggest box office earners of the time. While the film's success, became a turning point for Akshay Kumar's career, enormous praise was given for Paresh Rawal's comic timing, for which he won a lot of film awards, including the IIFA Filmfare award for the best comedian. It has become a cult classic among the Indian audience.

Phir Hera Pheri (2006)

The story of this film continues from the previous film. Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal reprises their roles. Bipasha Basu and Rimi Sen were new additions in this film. The film was directed by Neeraj Vora. Like its prequel, Hera Pheri 2 became a huge success, with huge praise given to Akshay Kumar's acting prowess and Paresh Rawal's humour. This one of Akshay Kumar’s funniest movies. It continues to be a cult classic among the Hindi audience and is regarded as one of the best made sequels ever in Indian cinema.

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^[3].

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.^[4]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 and Paresh Rawal 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^[5].