Golmaal (film series)


Golmaal is a series of Indian comedy films directed by Rohit Shetty and produced first by Dhillin Mehta and later by Shetty and Sangeeta Ahir. All the four films starred Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor, with Shreyas Talpade appearing in three and Kareena Kapoor and Kunal Khemu appearing in two of the four films. The first film was released in 2006, the second film Golmaal Returns was released in 2008. The third film Golmaal 3 was released in 2010 and became the second-highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year.
The fourth instalment of this series Golmaal Again, released on the occasion of Diwali on 20 October 2017.
Golmaal is now the eighth-highest-grossing film series in Bollywood. The film series has been described as a screwball comedy franchise.
This is the fifth Indian movie franchise to have four installments after CID 999 Franchise, CBI Franchise, Major Mahadevan Franchise and Raaz Series.
An animated version of the film series named Golmaal Junior was released for with three central characters: Madhav, Gopal and Lucky.

The title

The title is a portmanteau of the names of four of the characters from the first film, Gopal, Lucky, Madhav and Laxman.

Films

All the films star Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor as Gopal, Madhav and Lucky. All the films are reboots of each other.

''Golmaal: Fun Unlimited'' (2006)

Laxman is an intelligent student who is diverted from doing well in college by his mischievous band of friends Gopal, Madhav and Lucky. Lucky is a mute in the movie. The three friends use Laxman's hostel room for their mischiefs. The naughty foursome then finds refuge in the bungalow of a blind couple, Somnath and Mangala, who are waiting for their grandson
A cat-and-mouse game unfolds as Laxman's body and Gopal's voice make up Sameer. Each time the blind Dadaji comes amidst them, hilarious situations arise. Enter Nirali, the saucy girl-next-door, and the group now have time, place and 'resources' to fall in love. Their individual efforts at winning the lady's heart fail. Apart from their amorous interests, there is a quest for hidden treasure in the old couple's house. There is also a gangster named Babli who wants to steal from the couple's bungalow. All his attempts are unintentionally and unknowingly thwarted by the foursome.

''Golmaal Returns'' (2008)

Gopal lives with wife Ekta, who is addicted to watching soap dramas. He also lives with sister Esha who is in love with investigating officer Madhav, and a mute brother-in-law Lucky. Lucky is in love with a deaf girl named Daisy. One night, while returning from his office, Gopal saves an attractive young woman named Meera from some dreaded goons. Due to the circumstances, both of them decide to spend the night at Gopal's friend's yacht.
When he arrives home the next day, his over-suspicious wife suspects him of flirting around with his female employees and having an affair with his secretary. Knowing how difficult it is to convince her with the truth, he invents a story about spending the night with a fictitious friend named Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta becomes suspicious and does not believe his story as she knows that he never had a friend by that name and, hence, she decides to write to Anthony to visit her and to confirm Gopal was telling the truth.
Gopal meets Laxman Prasad who has come to interview for a position in his office. He is Meera's boyfriend, which is not known to Gopal who asks him to pretend to be Anthony, and meet and convince Ekta that he was indeed telling the truth, in return for a job. Laxman agrees to do so, and everything goes according to plan until the address on which Ekta had written a letter to Anthony turns out to be real. Meanwhile, Gopal finds out that a dead body was found at the same location where he saved Meera from the goons. Investigating Officer Madhav, who also happens to be Esha's boyfriend, does not get along with Gopal. He finds out that Gopal was missing from his home that very night and that the dead person was Gopal's colleague whom he had threatened to kill over a spat. Madhav also finds out that Laxman is not the real Anthony. Madhav is really suspicious to Gopal and often accuses him in front of his wife, Ekta. He asks Gopal to get Meera to the police station to prove that Gopal had been with her, and did not murder his employee. In panic, his friends hire a woman called Munni who needs money to get her boyfriend Vasuli out of jail. But Munni is kidnapped by the murderer.
In a rage, Vasuli comes to Meera's house, where Laxman and Lucky learn the woman was none other than Meera whom Gopal had saved from the goons that night. After an initial shock, they decide to go to the police station. However, Vasuli kidnaps Meera in anger, and they follow him, along with Madhav, Esha and Ekta in tow. Gopal learns that this was a plot concocted by his employer, Sawant to frame him for the murder. The drama grows, as everyone attempts suicide, much to Sawant's anger. Finally, Sawant goes crazy and kills himself. Ekta and Gopal get back together in the end.
Lucky meanwhile marries the daughter of the president of Gopal's company who happens to be Daisy and becomes the new boss, giving a shock to the others. Gopal and Laxman are the junior bosses while Madhav is a 24-hour guard for Lucky.

''Golmaal 3'' (2010)

The story follows Pritam, an elderly bus driver. His three good-for-nothing sons, Madhav the group leader; Laxman the poetic idiot; and Lucky the innocent mute are always up to trouble, mostly by scamming people. On the other hand, Geeta is an elderly woman, whose two sons, Laxman ; and Gopal the strong but kind leader; own a water sports stall at the beach. Gopal and Laxman's partner Daboo on whom Gopal has a crush, but never shows it. Three robbers—Puppy, Dagga and Teja —rob the queen's necklace and are on the run from police and end up in Goa. Puppy, the don, who suffers from short-term memory, hides the necklace in Pritam's house. Soon enough, Pritam's sons open a water sports shack opposite Geeta's sons' stall, and a rivalry begins. Filled with mayhem, both the groups try to take down each other's business but fail hilariously. In response to this, Pritam goes to meet Geeta to sort this rivalry out, and it turns out that Pritam and Geeta were college lovers. Daboo overhears their love story, and decides to get the two married, without their sons' permissions. After the marriage, the two families start living in one house, filled with non-stop laughs & mayhem. It is also revealed to the five sons that they are not Pritam & Geeta's sons, but orphans after overheard by Lucky, although they vow not to tell them that they know that they are orphans and, to hide that, they become friendly like brothers. They also open a big shop of toys aided by Vasooli bhai and Puppy for money. Puppy eventually remembers where he hid the necklace, and turns himself in along with his goons Dagga and Teja.

''Golmaal Again!!!'' (2017)

The cast consists of Gopal, Madhav, Lucky, Laxman 1 and Laxman 2. The female roles portrayed are Anna and Khushi. The villains in the movie are Vasu Reddy and Nikhil. The film also features comedians like Gopal's boss, Jolly, Vasuli Bhai and Baba.
Beginning in their childhood, all the main characters are raised in an orphanage by Jamnadas in Ooty. The five lead male actors are the first batch of orphans and Khushi is added later, found lying at the gate of the orphanage, abandoned by her parents. Anna is the daughter of the librarian in the orphanage and she is gifted with the power to see and talk to spirits/ aatma. The five males abscond from the orphanage in their childhood, due to conflict with the owner Jamnadas, on account of their internal kiddish fights. The girl, Khushi is later adopted by Colonel Chauhan a retired army-man. The five males adapt a mawali lifestyle; whereas, Khushi grows up into a lavish lifestyle with her father, who later buys the land beside the Ashram and hence, she grows up with Anna the librarain. One day Jamnadas's nephew Nikhil returns to India and is gifted the orphangae land by Jamnadas as he is the only heir to him, with the promise to take care of the orphans after him and improvise the orphanage and build up more opportunities for the orphans. Here comes the twist, Nikhil gets into affair with Khushi and later gets engaged with her. One day it is found that he is fraud and just interested to have the orphanage land to build his own property and add to his business. After the disclosure of his real intentions, he ends up in a quarrel with Jamnadas and murder him, which is unknowingly eyed by Khushi, who is in turn gagged and killed by Nikhil. However, Anna can see and talk to Khushi's soul/aatma due to her powers so Khushi told her how she died.
Anna reunites the five males again, who in turn brings the supporting comedians to the screen in the haunted house. Gopal falls in love with the Khushi. Khushi is apparently visible only to the five lead actors and Anna. Eventually all five come to know that she is a soul/aatma/ghost. But because of their childhood friendship bond with Khushi, they decide to bring Nikhil back to India and take revenge. So that happens a day and at the climax our ghost shows the bhoot acts and herself beats the villain and gets him to custody of police when he admits his crime.

''Golmaal Five'' (2021)

After the release of the fourth installment, director Shetty is interested for the fifth part of the franchise. He said, after getting a right script there will definitely be another installment. Actor Ajay Devgn also shows interest to return to next part. It is also reported that Kareena Kapoor might return for the next installment. After the release of the "Aankh Marey" music video from Ranveer Singh and Sara Ali Khan's Simmba, speculations of a fifth installment of the Golmaal franchise further strengthened. In the video, the four main actors, including Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor, are seen at the end of the holding up their hands to denote the number "5."

Cast and characters


List indicator

  • This table shows characters that have appeared in one or more films in the series.
  • A empty dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the film, or that the character's presence in the film has yet to be announced.
  • A indicates a role as a younger version of the character.
  • An indicates a role as an older version of the character.
  • A indicates an uncredited role.
  • A indicates a cameo role.
  • A indicates a voice-only role
  • A indicates a stills or photographs role.
  • An indicates an appearance through archival footage.

Crew

Release and Revenue

Animated series

An animated series Golmaal Jr. based on the characters from film series premiered on Sonic Nickelodeon on 13 May 2019.