Let us take a moment to appreciate the irony. Hera Pheri — a film whose entire plot revolves around a get-rich-quick scheme that spirals catastrophically out of control, leaving everyone involved worse off than when they started — has spawned a sequel situation that is itself a get-rich-quick scheme spiralling catastrophically out of control, leaving everyone involved worse off than when they started.
Raju would call this destiny. Shyam would call this bad luck. Baburao would call this the bank's fault.
Here is what actually happened.
The Franchise That Became a Religion
Hera Pheri released in 2000. Directed by Priyadarshan and starring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, and Paresh Rawal as Raju, Shyam, and Baburao respectively, it was a Hindi remake of the 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking. It performed modestly at the box office on release. It became, over the following decade, one of the most rewatched films in Indian cinema history.
The genius of Hera Pheri is architectural. The three characters are perfectly calibrated against each other: Raju is the schemer, eternally optimistic about plans that have no business working. Shyam is the reluctant participant, dragged along by circumstance and a complete absence of better options. Baburao is the landlord, the authority figure, the man who believes he is in control of a situation that is visibly disintegrating around him. The comedy emerges from the collision of these three registers — and from Paresh Rawal's delivery, which operates at a frequency that should not be as funny as it is and consistently is funnier than it has any right to be.
Phir Hera Pheri followed in 2006, directed by Neeraj Vora. It made more money than the original. It is, by most assessments, significantly worse than the original, because it made the mistake of thinking the first film's success was about the plot rather than the characters. The first film worked because its characters were trapped in circumstances beyond their control. The second film worked less well because its characters were, essentially, idiots who walked into a scam voluntarily. The audience noticed.
The cultural legacy of the franchise, however, had by this point detached entirely from the quality of the films. The dialogue — “Baburao ka style alag hai,” “Aa gaya na paisa double,” “Utha le re baba, utha le” — had entered the permanent vocabulary of Hindi-speaking India. The memes generated by the films are, in 2026, still among the most circulated formats on Indian social media. Hera Pheri became the rare cultural property that exists independently of whether anyone is actively watching it, because its characters and its lines have become a shared reference point for an entire generation.
The 25 Din Mein Paisa Double Problem
Here is where the plot of Hera Pheri 3 begins to resemble the plot of Hera Pheri.
In Phir Hera Pheri, the central scheme involves a “25 din mein paisa double” promise — a fraudulent investment scheme that promises to double your money in 25 days. Raju, Shyam, and Baburao invest everything they have, including money that is not theirs, and the scheme inevitably collapses. This is satire. It is also, apparently, something like a production philosophy for the sequel that has been in various stages of development since approximately 2014.
Hera Pheri 3 has been announced, confirmed, denied, re-announced, recast, re-confirmed, and re-denied so many times that tracking its development history requires a dedicated spreadsheet. At various points, it has had different directors attached, different cast configurations discussed, and different release dates promised. The one thing it has consistently not had is an actual release date that anyone involved takes seriously.
The Current State of Chaos — In Full
The situation in 2025–2026 has reached a level of complication that Priyadarshan himself described, with characteristic directness, as terminal.
Director exits. Priyadarshan — who directed the original and whose involvement was considered essential to any authentic continuation — has officially confirmed his exit from the project. His assessment was not optimistic: “To the best of my knowledge, Hera Pheri 3 will never hit the screen due to lots of legal issues and personal conflicts.” On social media, he went further: “Hera Pheri was born, the second fell sick, and the third may die.” He also observed, pointedly, that extending cult classics often feels like exploiting their popularity rather than genuinely continuing them. This is the director of the original film saying this. About the third film. Publicly.
The IP litigation. The primary obstacle to the film moving forward is a legal dispute over who actually owns Hera Pheri. Seven Arts International, a South-based production house, has claimed legal ownership over the franchise and its iconic characters. Producer Firoz Nadiadwala disputes these claims and insists the project remains technically active. The litigation has frozen active production. A film cannot be made while the courts are deciding who has the right to make it.
Paresh Rawal's exit. Reports emerged that Paresh Rawal — Baburao, the irreplaceable anchor of the franchise's comedy — stepped away from the film over creative and financial reservations, reportedly returning his signing amount. A Hera Pheri without Baburao is, by most audience assessments, not a Hera Pheri at all. It is a film that happens to feature two of the three main characters from Hera Pheri, which is a different and considerably less interesting proposition.
Akshay Kumar's confirmation. Akshay Kumar, who plays Raju, has confirmed that the film is not happening for now. Not “delayed.” Not “in development.” Not happening for now.
Producer Nadiadwala. Producer Firoz Nadiadwala maintains that they are working through the complications and the project is not dead. This is the position that Raju takes in every Hera Pheri scene approximately thirty seconds before everything goes catastrophically wrong. We note this without further comment.
Why This Matters Beyond the Drama
The Hera Pheri 3 situation is, beyond the entertainment value of its chaos, a useful illustration of what happens when intellectual property, nostalgia, and commercial ambition collide without a clear plan.
The franchise's cultural value is enormous and genuinely difficult to monetise, because the thing people love about Hera Pheri is not available for purchase. You cannot manufacture the specific chemistry of three actors who were perfectly cast in roles written for them. You cannot recreate the timing of a 2000 film by hiring the same actors twenty-five years later. You cannot make a sequel to a perfect cultural moment — you can only make a film that references that moment, which is a different and lesser thing.
Priyadarshan understands this, which is probably why he left. The audience understands this, which is why the memes about Hera Pheri 3's perpetual non-existence are funnier than any sequel could be. The only people who do not appear to fully understand this are the people trying to make the film.
In this sense, the story of Hera Pheri 3 is the most Hera Pheri story possible: a scheme that everyone can see is not going to work, pursued with great confidence by people who cannot stop, because the potential payoff is too large and the sunk costs are already too significant. Raju would recognise this immediately. Baburao would be charging late fees on it.
The Franchise Lives — In Memes, Forever
Whatever happens with Hera Pheri 3 — and at this point, the options range from “never released” to “released in a form that satisfies no one” to the genuinely unlikely “actually good” — the franchise itself is not in danger. The original film is not going anywhere. Baburao is not going anywhere. The memes are not going anywhere.
The cultural immortality of Hera Pheri does not depend on a third film. It depends on the fact that twenty-five years after its release, a new generation of Indians is still discovering it, still quoting it, still finding it funnier than most things made specifically for them. That is not something a sequel can give it. It is also not something a failed sequel can take away.
Aa gaya na paisa double. Except this time, nobody's getting paid.
Wear the Reference
The 25 Din Paisa Double T-shirt (India) and (International) — for everyone who has heard this line, lived this line, and watched at least one real-life acquaintance fall for a scheme that had exactly this energy. Browse the full Pop Culture Collection at Xavi’s World.
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