Housefull (2010 film)

Housefull is a 2010 Indian Hindi language comedy drama film directed by Sajid Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, The dialogues were written by Anvita Dutt while Nadiadwala wrote the storyline and Rameshwar S. Bhagat served as the editor. It became the first installment of the Housefull franchise.

The film stars Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone and Jiah Khan. The supporting cast consists of Boman Irani, Chunky Pandey, Randhir Kapoor, Lillete Dubey and Malaika Arora, with Jacqueline Fernandez featured in an item number. It was shot across London and Italy on a budget of inr 300000000. The film marked the last screen appearance of Khan, who died three years after its release on 3 June 2013.

The film was released worldwide on April 30, 2010, to mixed critical reviews, on over 750 screens in India. Nevertheless, it proved to be a commercial success. The film grossed over inr 1245000000 at the worldwide box office and was declared a super hit. It emerged as the fifth highest-earning Bollywood film of 2010 only behind Dabangg, Golmaal 3, Raajneeti and My Name Is Khan according to its net collections of inr 750000000 domestically. The film went on to spawn three spiritual sequels–Housefull 2, Housefull 3 and Housefull 4–released in 2012, 2016 and 2019 respectively.

A fifth film titled Housefull 5 is scheduled to be released on 6 June 2025.

Plot
The story follows Aarush, an unlucky person, who works in a casino and earns money when people lose games of poker. After proposing marriage and being rejected by Pooja, a girl who he dearly loves, he then gets punched by her elder brother telling him to stay away from her. Aarush goes to London to stay for some time with his best friend, Bob and his wife, Hetal. Bob is a romantic person and loves his wife very much, both working at a casino owned by Kishore Samtani. Although at first, Hetal is unhappy with Aarush's presence, he proves to be a kind-hearted man looking for a family. Bob and Hetal decide to get him married to their boss' daughter, Devika Samtani. After the marriage, on their honeymoon in Italy, Devika leaves him for her longtime American boyfriend Benny. Aarush decides to commit suicide by drowning in the sea but is saved by a girl, Sandy, whom he kisses when she tries to make him breathe by giving him CPR.

Sandy originally thinks Aarush is a pervert but when Aakhri Pasta, the owner of Italy's "biggest" hotel where Aarush was spending his honeymoon with Devika, tells Sandy that Aarush is a widower as a joke and his wife died the day of their honeymoon, she befriends him and slowly falls in love with him. What she doesn't know is that Pasta was only joking. Aarush calls Bob and Hetal to Italy telling him about the entire situation. Sandy then tells them that she helped Aarush after the death of his "wife", both misinterpret the situation that Aarush lied to Sandy about the dead wife. Aarush later meets Devika and asks for divorce paper leading Sandy to find out his wife is alive and leave him. She does not allow Aarush to enter her room so he climbs her balcony. Pasta thinks Aarush is committing suicide again and a live telecast is conducted. Sandy then switches on her TV and goes to her balcony but later when Aarush manages to clear the confusion, she accepts him.

The only way Aarush and Sandy can get married is by convincing her elder brother, Major Krishna Rao, a strict Indian Military Intelligence officer who loves his sister and is over-protective of her. Meanwhile, Hetal lies to her father, Batuk Patel, that Bob owns a mansion and they have a child, so she can meet him after so many years. On the other hand, Sandy tells her brother that Aarush is quite well to do too. The four are then forced to rent a mansion to make Hetal's dad believe that Bob owns it. Confusion prevails and somehow Batuk accidentally believes that Aarush is married to Hetal, and Bob is the cook. In the confusion, they bring an African child and pretend that it is the baby. Then, Krishna turns up earlier than expected, and much to Aarush's horror, Krishna was the one who punched him earlier for Pooja, leading to more lies and the two couples making him believe that Aarush owns the mansion.

For half of the term, the four must pretend that the mansion is owned by Bob, and the rest must pretend that Aarush owns it. Batuk and the Landlady are Aarush's pseudo parents while Hetal is his sister and Bob is his brother-in-law. An overly suspicious Krishna goes to the casino as his bag was exchanged with Kishore Samtani. Krishna then sees Bob and Hetal working at the casino and as soon as they spot Krishna, they hide from him. Krishna then uses a lie detector on Aarush to find the truth. But Sandy interrupts and proves with the detector that he loves her and Krishna forgives them. The whole family is invited to the Royal Palace to see Krishna get rewarded by the Queen of the United Kingdom. While this is happening, two workers, Santa and Banta Singh, are meant to be installing air conditioning gas for the place. However, instead, they accidentally supply the hall with laughing gas (nitrous oxide) causing everyone to break into an outburst of laughter. During this laughter, the truth is let out but no one seems to be in the right state of mind.

The two workers meanwhile stop the gas from spreading – everyone comes back to their senses. Aarush goes on stage to reveal the truth to Krishna about his ill fate and believes his engagement with Sandy is now broken. Krishna though believes Aarush is no longer a jinxed loser and instead orders him and Sandy to get married. In the end, Hetal and Bob live together with Batuk, who then marries the Landlady, and Aarush's luck changes for the better. After a song, Aarush says that nobody is a loser.

Cast

 * Akshay Kumar as Aarush Awasthi
 * Riteish Deshmukh as Baburao "Bob" Joglekar: Aarush's best friend; Batuk's son-in-law; Maithili's grandson-in-law; Hetal's husband
 * Arjun Rampal as Major Krishna Rao: Pooja's elder and Sandy's eldest brother
 * Lara Dutta as Hetal Patel Rao: Batuk's daughter; Maithili's granddaughter; Bob's wife
 * Deepika Padukone as Soundarya Venkateshwari Bhagyalakshmi Basappa Rao alias "Sandy": Krishna's youngest and Pooja's younger sister; Aarush's girlfriend
 * Jiah Khan as Devika Samtani Awasthi: Kishore's daughter; Aarush's former wife; Sorman's girlfriend
 * Boman Irani as Batuk Patel: Maithili's son; Hetal's father; Bob's father-in-law
 * Lillete Dubey as Landlady / Mrs. Patel, Batuk's wife
 * Chunky Pandey as Aakhri Pasta
 * Randhir Kapoor as Kishore Samtani: Devika's father; Aarush's boss and former father-in-law
 * Malaika Arora as Pooja Rao: Krishna's younger and Sandy's older sister; Aarush's former girlfriend
 * Manoj Pahwa as Santa Singh
 * Suresh Menon as Banta Singh
 * Daisy Irani as Maithili Patel: Batuk's mother; Hetal's grandmother; Bob's grandmother-in-law
 * Jacqueline Fernandez as Dhanno (cameo appearance in the song "Aapka Kya Hoga")
 * Rajesh Kava as the voice of Prada, a talking parrot
 * Stove Singh as the black baby (Stella's son)
 * Anvita Dutt Guptan as a broker who introduces Arush to the landlady

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. The lyrics are penned by Sameer and Amitabh Bhattacharya. The song "Aapka Kya Hoga" was a remake of the song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise" from the 1981 film Lawaaris.

Reception
The soundtrack was met with positive reviews. Abid of Glamsham said "Summing up, the album is another fun ride as we encounter one chartbuster after another, and hats off to the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, who have once again shown that they have the potential to compose as per the demand of the makers and the script" and gave the album 4 stars.

Samir Dave of Planet Bollywood gave 7.5 stars out of 10, stating "SEL deliver a fun 'n' frothy soundtrack that serves up a whole heaping spoonful of happiness." Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 stars and stated "Housefull is a fun album and never takes itself too seriously to turn into a landmark affair that would be remembered for years to come. The songs are meant to be entertaining enough to fit in well with the film's narrative and not allow any full moment whatsoever to come in." Rudhir Barman of Sampurn Wire awarded the album 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars saying "The fast paced journey that everything is taking currently, it's the survival of what works 'today'. In that aspect, 'Housefull' works and ensures that there won't be any dull moment once the songs play on screen."

Critical response
Anupama Chopra of NDTV said that it was impossible to take the characters seriously, and gave the movie a rating of 2/5. Rediff gave it a 1/5, calling its humour 'lame'. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN said 'Housefull' makes you cringe in embarrassment and disgust for what passes off as 'entertainment' and 'cinema' these days. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India gave it a 2 and said, "What annoys most about 'Housefull' is the fact that Sajid Khan claims this to be his tribute to greats like Manmohan Desai and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Both have been great filmmakers and had their respective domains and Sajid's attempt at combining both ends up has him falling flat on his face." Gaurav Malani from IndiaTimes gave it 2/5 and said "Housefull is a slap on your senses as the film sticks to the slapstick genre in every literal sense.[...] There are some genuinely funny moments in the second half esp. Boman Irani sleepwalking through his portrayal of Gujarati Sholay. Unfortunately, it fails to salvage the harm caused by the bland, boring and banal first half. Housefull ends up being a painful experience." Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave a 1.5 out of 5 star rating explaining that "You may wonder if this film's a ripoff of any particular Hollywood DVD, but Sajid would probably say its his homage to Ben Stiller's worst films, picking plot points from Along Came Polly, The Heartbreak Kid and Meet The Parents."

In a rare positive review, Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 4/5, saying "Housefull is a complete laugh-riot, and is an entertainer all the way, targeted at the masses".

Box office
Upon release, the film had a good opening weekend of Rs. 410 million in India. This gave Akshay Kumar his biggest opening till date, beating Singh Is Kinng. Housefull's opening weekend was the second-highest opening weekend collection of all time, behind 3 Idiots. By the end of the first week, the film had collected Rs 498 million, the third-highest first week collection – behind 3 Idiots and Ghajini. It also broke the 2010 record of biggest first week, previously held by My Name Is Khan. Housefull debuted in the United Kingdom at number two and collected Rs 18 million on 55 screens in its opening weekend, while in the United States, the film collected Rs. 28 million on 82 screens in its opening weekend. After six weeks, the film netted Rs. 1.81 billion. The film was declared a hit by Box Office India. Housefull 2010 total box office grossing crossed 1 billion mark.

Awards and nominations

 * 6th Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards
 * Nominated – Best Comedian – Riteish Deshmukh

Nominated
 * 2011 Zee Cine Awards
 * Best Director – Sajid Khan
 * Best Actor – Akshay Kumar
 * Best Supporting Actress – Lara Dutta
 * Best Comedian – Riteish Deshmukh
 * Best Music Director – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
 * Best Track of the Year – "Aapka Kya Hoga (Dhanno)"

Won
 * IIFA Awards
 * Best Performance in a Comic Role – Riteish Deshmukh

Won
 * Stardust Awards
 * Star of the Year – Male – Akshay Kumar
 * Best Supporting Actor – Arjun Rampal

Nominated
 * 3rd Mirchi Music Awards
 * Best Item Song of the Year – "Aapka Kya Hoga (Dhanno)"
 * Best Song Recording – Abhay Rumde, Sameer Khan and Ashish Saksena – "Oh Girl You're Mine"

Controversies
P L Thenappan, the producer of the 1998 Tamil film, Kaathala Kaathala, filed a complaint with the Tamil Film Producers Council, alleging that producer Sajid Nadiadwala and director Sajid Khan had remade his film into Hindi without proper permission. In his complaint, Thenappan said, "I was shocked when I watched the Hindi film as nearly 60 per cent of the scenes from Kadhala Kadhala are there." He also stated that he was in talks with Nadiadwala about selling the remake rights more than a year ago and the deal did not go through.

The film also faced problems due to the remixed version of the song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise", originally from the 1981 film Laawaris directed by Prakash Mehra, music by Kalyanji Anandji. The Calcutta High Court restrained producer Sajid Nadiadwala from the cinematic use of the song.

Home media
Housefull was released in Blu-ray and DVD in October 2010. The satellite rights of the movie were sold to Star Network. The television premiere of the movie was occurred on 29 August 2010 on Star Plus. The film has been made streaming available on Eros Now, JioCinema, Zee5 and Amazon Prime Video since 2020.

Sequel
See article: Housefull 2, Housefull 3 and Housefull 4

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala announced a sequel to the film on 30 September 2010. In September 2011, it was reported by director Sajid Khan that the film had begun filming. It features Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randhir Kapoor, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey from the previous film in new characters, whilst new additions include Asin Thottumkal, John Abraham, Zarine Khan, Shreyas Talpade and Shazahn Padamsee. It also stars veteran actors such as Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and Johnny Lever in supporting roles. Housefull 2 was released on 6 April 2012 and received a mixed response from critics. The sequel was more successful than the prequel and was declared a super hit at the box office.

Another sequel directed by Sajid-Farhad featuring Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandez from the previous instalments in pivotal roles alongside Abhishek Bachchan, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakhri (the newest additions) was released on 3 June 2016.