# Golmaal (film series)

Golmaal is an Indian comedy film series directed by Rohit Shetty, with five installments to date, the first three produced by Dhilin Mehta, the fourth by Shetty and Sangeeta Ahir and the fifth which is a spin off is produced by Shetty with Bhushan Kumar. The first film Golmaal: Fun Unlimited released in 2006 and was followed by 4 direct sequels:Golmaal Returns (2008), Golmaal 3 (2010) and Golmaal Again (2017) and Golmaal 5 (2025). All the films starred Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Sanjay Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee and Mukesh Tiwari, with Shreyas Talpade, Ashwini Kalsekar and Murali Sharma appearing in three and Kareena Kapoor, Kunal Khemu and Johnny Lever. The series also has a spin-off named Cirkus was released on 23 December 2022.
Golmaal is now the ninth-highest-grossing film series in Bollywood. The film series has been described as a screwball comedy franchise.
An animated version of the film series named Golmaal Jr. was released for with four central characters: Madhav, Gopal and Lucky and Dev Mallya.

## Films

| Film | Release date | Director | Screenwriter(s) | Story | Producer(s) |
| Golmaal: Fun Unlimited | 14 July 2006 | Rohit Shetty | Neeraj Vora | Ghar Ghar by Harsh Shivsharan | Dhilin Mehta, Parag Sanghvi |
| Golmaal Returns | 29 October 2008 | Rohit Shetty | Yunus Sajawal | Pheka Pheki by Bipin Varti | Dhilin Mehta |
| Golmaal 3 | 5 November 2010 | Rohit Shetty | Yunus Sajawal | Yours, Mine and Ours by Melville Shavelson | Dhilin Mehta |
| Golmaal Again | 20 October 2017 | Rohit Shetty | Yunus Sajawal | Rohit Shetty | Sangeeta Sachin Ahir, Rohit Shetty, Shivashish Sarkar |
| Golmaal 5 | 10 October 2025 | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty | Sangeeta Sachin Ahir, Rohit Shetty, Shivashish Sarkar |

### Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006 film)

Friends Gopal, Lucky, Madhav and Laxman often dupe gullible people out of their money. Hilarity ensues when they target an elderly couple and simultaneously try wooing their beautiful neighbour.

### Golmaal Returns (2008 film)

Gopal, who lives with his ever suspecting wife, Ekta, gets stuck in a yacht for a night after he saves an attractive young woman from a bunch of hooligans. Ekta suspects him of having an affair and decides to uncover the truth.

### Golmaal 3 (2010 film)

Cupid strikes when Pritam, a single father, comes across his college sweetheart, Geeta, in Goa. However, when their respective children go at war with each other, the two find it difficult to reunite.

### Golmaal Again (2017 film)

Five orphan men return to the orphanage they grew up in to attend their mentor's funeral. However, they encounter the ghost of their childhood friend, Khushi, and help her attain salvation.

### Cirkus (2022 film)

A scientist separates two sets of identical twins to find the conflict between nature vs nurture. However, years later the twins come close and creates confusion and hilarious situations.
It was revealed in the upcoming film Cirkus trailer released in December 2022, that film is set in 1960's and it would be a prequel to the fourth film of Golmaal series. In the trailer five kids was standing in front of "Jamnadas Orphanage" and telling their names - Gopal, Madhav and Laxman (2 kids), while the fifth kid is mute and trying to tell his name is Lucky. However, the film failed massively at the box-office.

### Golmaal 5 (2025 film)

After the release of the fifth installment, Rohit Shetty expressed interest in making a fifth part of the franchise. He said, after getting a right script there will definitely be another installment. Ajay Devgn also showed interest to return in the next part. It was also reported that Kareena Kapoor may 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 and Shreyas Talpade and Kunal Khemu and Mukesh Tiwari and Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever, are seen at the end of the holding up their hands to denote the number "5." Finally, on 10 October 2025, Rohit announced that the fifth film of Golmaal series would be titled Golmaal 5.

## Cast and characters

This table lists the main characters who appear in the Golmaal Franchise.
   This section includes characters who have appeared in two or more installments in the series.
   * An empty grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.
   * $^C$ indicates a cameo role.
   * $^V$ indicates a voice-only role.
   * $^Y$ indicates a younger version of the character.
| Actor | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film |
| Actor | Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006) | Golmaal Returns (2008) | Golmaal 3 (2010) | Golmaal Again (2017) | Golmaal 5 (2025) |
| Ajay Devgn | Gopal | Gopal | Gopal | Gopal |
| Suniel Shetty | Dev Mallya | Dev Mallya | Dev Mallya | Dev Mallya |
| Tusshar Kapoor | Lucky | Lucky | Lucky | Lucky |
| Arshad Warsi | Madhav | Madhav | Madhav | Madhav |
| Sharman Joshi | Laxman Prasad | | | |
| Shreyas Talpade | | Laxman | Laxman | Laxman |
| Kunal Khemu | | | Laxman | Laxman |
| Sanjay Mishra | Bubbly | Subodh Mehra | Dagga | Bubbly |
| Mukesh Tiwari | Vasooli | Vasooli | Vasooli | Vasooli |
| Vrajesh Hirjee | Pandurang | Anthony Gonsalves | Teja | Pandurang |
| Ashwini Kalsekar | | Munni | Chintu | Damini |
| Murali Sharma | | M.D. Sawant | Inspector Dhande | Inspector Dhande |
| Johnny Lever | | | Puppy | Puppy |
| Siddarth Jadhav | Sattu Supari | Lucky's Assistant | | |
| Paresh Rawal | Somnath | | | |
| Rimi Sen | Nirali | | | |
| Sushmita Mukherjee | Mangala | | | |
| Manoj Joshi | Harishchandra 'HaRaMi' Ramchandra Mirchandani | | | |
| Kareena Kapoor | | Ekta | Divya "Dabbo" Kalamkar | |
| Amrita Arora | | Esha | | |
| Celina Jaitley | | Meera Mena | | |
| Anjana Sukhani | | Daisy Paschisia | | |
| Vijay Patkar | | | Constable Gandhari | Constable Gandhari |
| Mithun Chakraborty | | | Pritam "Pappu" | |
| Ratna Pathak Shah | | | Geeta "Guddi" Patnaik | |
| Parineeti Chopra | | | | Khushi Bansal |
| Neil Nitin Mukesh | | | | Nikhil |
| Tabu | | | | Anna Mathew |
| Prakash Raj | | | | Vasu Reddy |
| Sachin Khedekar | | | | Colonel Chouhan |
| Nana Patekar | | | | Ghost |
| Uday Tikekar | | | | Joy Jamnadas |

## Additional crew and production details

| Occupation | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film |
| Occupation | Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006) | Golmaal Returns (2008) | Golmaal 3 (2010) | Golmaal Again (2017) | Cirkus (2022) | Golmaal 5 (2025) |
| Director | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty |
| Producer(s) | Dhillin Mehta | Dhillin Mehta | Dhillin Mehta | Rohit Shetty Sangeeta Ahir | Rohit Shetty Bhushan Kumar |
| Screenplay | Neeraj Vora | Yunus Sajawal | Yunus Sajawal | Yunus Sajawal | Yunus Sajawal |
| Story | Sajid-Farhad | Sajid-Farhad | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty | Rohit Shetty |
| Composer(s) | Vishal–Shekhar | Pritam Ashish Pandit | Pritam | Amaal Mallik S. Thaman Lijo George-DJ Chetas Abhishek Arora | Devi Sri Prasad Lijo George-DJ Chetas |
| Background Score | Sanjoy Chowdhury | Sanjoy Chowdhury | Sanjoy Chowdhury | Amar Mohile | Amar Mohile |
| Director of photography | Aseem Bajaj | Natty Subramaniam | Dudley | Jomon T. John | Jomon T. John |
| Editor(s) | Steven H. Bernard | Steven H. Bernard | Steven H. Bernard | Bunty Nagi | Bunty Nagi |
| Production Companies | Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd K Sera Sera Private Limited | Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd | Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd | Rohit Shetty Pictures, Mangal Murti Films, Reliance Entertainment | Rohit Shetty Pictures T-Series Films |
| Distributing Companies | Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd Eros International | Shemaroo Entertainment | Eros International | Reliance Entertainment | Reliance Entertainment |
| Running Time | 150 minutes | 135 minutes | 140 minutes | 152 minutes | 139 minutes |

## Reception

Box office
| | Film | Film | Film | Film | Film |
| | Golmaal: Fun Unlimited (2006) | Golmaal Returns (2008) | Golmaal 3 (2010) | Golmaal Again (2017) | Cirkus (2022) |
| Budget | ₹15 crore | ₹35 crore | ₹50 crore | ₹80 crore | ₹150 crore |
| Domestic gross | ₹41.49 crore | ₹70.89 crore | ₹149.12 crore | ₹264.89 crore | ₹365.82 crore |
| Overseas gross | ₹9.18 crore | ₹14.91 crore | ₹37.86 crore | ₹59.09 crore | ₹1.88 crore |
| Total gross | ₹46.72 crore | ₹80 crore | ₹169.56 crore | ₹311.04 crore | ₹58.24 crore |
| Franchise gross | ₹1,255.344 crore (US$140 million) | ₹1,255.344 crore (US$140 million) | ₹1,255.344 crore (US$140 million) | ₹1,255.344 crore (US$140 million) | ₹1,255.344 crore (US$140 million) |
Critical reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes |
| Golmaal: Fun Unlimited | N/A (1 reviews) |
| Golmaal Returns | 0% (3.7/10 average rating) (6 reviews) |
| Golmaal 3 | 44% (5.5/10 average rating) (9 reviews) |
| Golmaal Again | 50% (4.7/10 average rating) (8 reviews) |
| Golmaal 5 |

## Animated series

An animated series Golmaal Jr. based on the characters from film series premiered on Sonic Nickelodeon on 13 May 2019 with 5 main characters. However it does not follow with the "Golmaal" canon and does not serve as a prequel to the Golmaal franchise