40 Fun Facts About Hera Pheri

Which actor won the Filmfare Best Comedian award as Baburao, the landlord in Hera Pheri?

Paresh Rawal was seen mainly as a character actor until Hera Pheri turned him into a leading man of mainstream Hindi comedy. He had spent the 1980s and 1990s mostly playing villains.

Hera Pheri is regarded as which action star's move into comedy, playing the scheming tenant Raju?

Akshay Kumar plays Raju, a daydreamer who has not paid his rent in two years and talks his housemates into the ransom scheme.

Which actress plays Anuradha, who gets the bank job that Shyam wanted in Hera Pheri?

Tabu plays Anuradha, who offers to resign once she learns how broke Shyam is. He tears up her resignation letter and tells her to keep the job.

Which superstar played the con man Vijay opposite Vinod Khanna in the 1976 film Hera Pheri?

Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna play partners who trick crooks out of their money, a year before the two stars reunited in Amar Akbar Anthony.

Which escaped animal scatters the loot during the circus climax of Phir Hera Pheri?

A gorilla breaks loose after Munna Bhai provokes it, then strews the hidden loot across the circus ground while every gang gives chase.

Which comic actor appears in both the 1976 film Hera Pheri and the 2000 comedy of the same name?

Asrani plays the bank manager who turns Shyam away in the 2000 film, a generation after his supporting part in the 1976 caper.

Baburao's much-imitated accent in the Hera Pheri films comes from which Indian language?

Marathi gives Baburao his voice: he is written as a Maharashtrian garage owner, though the actor who plays him made his name in Gujarati theatre.

In Hera Pheri, what sends a kidnapper's ransom call to Baburao's garage instead of Star Fisheries?

A phone directory misprint had swapped the numbers of Star Garage and Star Fisheries, so the kidnapper believed he had reached a rich businessman.

In the cliffhanger that ends Phir Hera Pheri, what is Raju about to drop into a river?

Antique guns worth crores are in Raju's hands, and he has no idea of their value while his friends ring him frantically to stop.

What is the name of the gangster whose ransom call reaches the wrong number in Hera Pheri?

Kabira announces himself by name whenever his call is answered, a habit the rescued girl copies in a prank call at the very end.

Which actor plays Shyam, the job-seeker who arrives in Mumbai at the start of Hera Pheri?

Suniel Shetty was an action hero trying his hand at comedy, and his villain in Dhadkan, released the same year, won him a Filmfare Award.

Which director of Hungama and Bhool Bhulaiyaa made the 2000 comedy Hera Pheri?

Priyadarshan had never worked with either of his two leading men before Hera Pheri, and he kept casting its three stars in his later Hindi films.

In Hera Pheri, what successful career does Raju's widowed mother wrongly believe her son has?

An engineer in Kolkata is the lie Raju keeps alive, because he will go to any length to avoid breaking his mother's heart.

Hera Pheri is a Hindi remake of which 1989 Malayalam comedy?

Ramji Rao Speaking was the first film directed by the duo Siddique–Lal, and its landlord Mannar Mathai became Baburao in the Hindi version.

Which actress plays the con woman who poses as a bank manager in Phir Hera Pheri?

Bipasha Basu plays the fraudster who promises to double the trio's money in 21 days, then disappears with every rupee of it.

In Hera Pheri's climactic brawl, what does Baburao lose just before he sprays bullets from an AK-47?

His spectacles go missing in the scuffle, so the near-sighted landlord ends up shooting the rifle blindly across the floor.

Phir Hera Pheri is loosely based on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, by which British director?

Guy Ritchie wrote and directed the crime comedy in 1998, eight years before the Hindi sequel reworked its plot.

In Phir Hera Pheri, which speech trait marks Tiwari, the dreaded gangster the trio owe money?

A lisp softens every threat Tiwari makes, yet Pappu knows the gangster will kill him if the borrowed money is not repaid.

Which actor, nicknamed the 'Bad Man' of Hindi cinema, plays the kidnapper in Hera Pheri?

Gulshan Grover earned the 'Bad Man' tag through a long run of villain roles, and footage of his gangster was reused in the 2006 sequel.

Which Ardh Satya star plays Khadak Singh, the friend who comes to collect a debt in Hera Pheri?

Om Puri, a National Award winner for serious drama, plays the creditor who wants his money back to pay for his sister's wedding.

Which writer of Hera Pheri's Hindi screenplay went on to direct the sequel, Phir Hera Pheri?

Neeraj Vora first made his mark writing Rangeela, and he was preparing a third Hera Pheri film when he died in 2017.

Which director of Zanjeer and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar made the 1976 caper film Hera Pheri?

Prakash Mehra went on to make seven more films with his Zanjeer star, and the 1976 Hera Pheri was one of the hits among them.

Which actor, star of Krantiveer and Ab Tak Chhappan, is the unseen narrator of Phir Hera Pheri?

Nana Patekar is heard but never seen, in a film that opens with a prologue on what each of the trio lost after getting rich.

Which actor plays Pappu, the small-time goon who lends Raju money in Phir Hera Pheri?

Rajpal Yadav plays Pappu, who puts in the last 20 lakh rupees of the deposit, money he had himself borrowed from a gangster.

After losing their bungalow to the scam in Phir Hera Pheri, where do the trio end up living?

A chawl, or tenement, is all they can afford, because Raju had sold the bungalow to raise part of the deposit the fraudster asked for.

Which music director composed Phir Hera Pheri's songs and sang three of them himself?

Himesh Reshammiya had only just broken through as a singer with Aashiq Banaya Aapne, and this album went on to sell around a million copies.

Hera Pheri was remade in 2002 as Dhanalakshmi, I Love You in which South Indian language?

Telugu audiences got their version two years after the Hindi film, with the actor Naresh taking the landlord's part.

What does 'hera pheri', the Hindi phrase that titles the 2000 comedy, roughly mean in English?

Foul play is the usual English rendering, so the sequel's title, Phir Hera Pheri, promises the same mischief once again.

In 2022, which younger star was reported to be replacing Raju's original actor in Hera Pheri 3?

Kartik Aaryan was named in a tweet by the actor who plays Baburao, but by February 2023 the original trio were reported back on set together.

What nickname do Raju and Shyam use for their landlord, Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, in Hera Pheri?

Babu Bhaiya is how his tenants address the short-tempered owner of Star Garage, and it is the name fans still use for him.

Which actress, who made her Hindi debut in Hungama, plays Pappu's sister Anjali in Phir Hera Pheri?

Rimi Sen plays Anjali, whose kidnapping by a gangster's men is what stops the trio from simply fleeing the city.

In Phir Hera Pheri, what do the trio find instead of cash after robbing their neighbour Munna Bhai?

Drugs worth at least three crore rupees are what they end up with, because Raju had misheard a plot to rob a rival gangster as a plan to steal money.

In Hera Pheri, what killed Shyam's father at the bank where Shyam later comes looking for a job?

A fire killed him, but a colleague who died two minutes later was senior, so the vacancy went to that man's daughter first.

Where in Mumbai does Raju's widowed mother live while he fakes a successful career in Hera Pheri?

An old age home is where she waits for him, and at the end Raju collects her discharge papers and takes her away with him.

What is the name of the fisheries tycoon whose granddaughter is kidnapped in Hera Pheri?

Devi Prasad hands over the ransom once the trio admit they are not the kidnappers, and he later lets them keep what is left as a reward.

The Malayalam original of Hera Pheri borrowed its plot from a 1971 TV film made in which country?

The United States is where the idea began, in See the Man Run, a television film made for the ABC network and directed by Corey Allen.

Which star of Junglee and Padosan played Kiran, the female lead of the 1976 film Hera Pheri?

Saira Banu and Sulakshana Pandit play the love interests of the two con men, caught in the middle when the partners fall out.

Which Malayalam actor played Mannar Mathai, the landlord who became Baburao in Hera Pheri?

Innocent played the landlord again in two sequels, and he was later elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's parliament.

Which actor, also known for Mr. India, plays the gangster Tiwari in Phir Hera Pheri?

Sharat Saxena had earlier played Kichaka in the television Mahabharat and earned a Filmfare villain nomination for Ghulam.

Which former Miss Asia Pacific makes a special appearance in a dance number in Phir Hera Pheri?

Dia Mirza dances in the song Pyaar Ki Chatni, six years after she won the Miss Asia Pacific title in Manila.