The plot revolves around an eccentric trio, consisting of a comically hilarious but kind hearted garage owner named Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Rawal), a crafty and cunning loafer named Raju (Kumar), and a simple and struggling pauper named Shyam (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 accidentally 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, and they keep the money.
Hera Pheri ended with the trio of Raju (Akshay Kumar), Shyam (Sunil Shetty), and Babu Bhaiya (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), 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 21 days 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, Munna Bhai (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 Munna Bhai. 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 mouth.
As the second film ended with a cliffhanger it was obvious that a third film was planned. The production was delayed for a long time due to some issues and at a point of time, the project got shelved.
In 2017, Neeraj Vora came on board to direct the film and the shooting was about to begin. When the film came into production after a long time, 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. However, Vora suffered a massive stroke and was in a coma and later died, throwing the film's future in doubt.[2]
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 the previous films as Raju, Shyam, and Baburao, respectively.[3]
On 28 February 2019, Indra Kumar gave an update on Hera Pheri 3. He revealed that the film will be high on VFX and in his own words, "I am happy that everybody's favourite trio is coming back together, again. We will start the film towards the end of this year. It is currently being scripted. I was completely cut off from that project for the last three months because I was busy with Total Dhamaal."[4]
The film was supposed to go on floors by the year of 2020 and was supposed to release in 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film will continue the story from the previous two films.[5]
In November 2022, it was reported that Kumar will not appear in the third film, citing creative differences.[6] Paresh Rawal tweeted that Kartik Aaryan will replace Kumar and that the film will go on floors in 2023 with Anees Bazmee, instead of Indra Kumar.[citation needed]
On 21 February 2023, after so many rumours and news about Hera Pheri 3 going down with Kartik Aaryan, the news broke out that the shoot of the film has quietly begun with same old cast in Mumbai's Empire Studio under the direction of Farhad Samji.[7][8] On 6 March 2023, it was confirmed that Sanjay Dutt has joined the cast.[9]
