Housefull 4

Housefull 4 is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language fantasy action comedy film directed by Farhad Samji and produced by Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Fox Star Studios. The film is the fourth installment of Housefull Franchise, and stars a cast of Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde and Kriti Kharbanda in the lead roles. The plot deals with reincarnation. Three brothers are set to marry three sisters. However, a peek into the distant past reveals to one of the brothers that their brides have been mixed up in their current reincarnation.

The film was half directed by Sajid Khan, who had also directed the first two installments, but was replaced by Farhad Samji midway during the shooting due to Me Too allegations. Nadiadwala claimed the film to be the highest-budgeted Indian comedy film.

The film was theatrically released in India on 25 October 2019 during the occasion of Diwali and received mixed to negative reviews. The film became a major commercial success by grossing almost 300 crores worldwide. It went on to become the 4th highest grosser of 2019.

Plot
The story of the film is based on reincarnation, and spans a period of 600 years from 1419 to 2019.

Harry, Max and Roy are three brothers who live in London. Harry, a barber gets frequent bizarre flashes of a past era. His forgetful nature causes him to misplace a don Michael's bag of 5 million pounds whose henchman demands them to return the money. To fulfill this, Harry, Roy, and Max get engaged to Pooja, Neha and Kriti, the 3 respective daughters of rich businessman Manraj Thakral. But soon all of the 3 trios fall in love, and their wedding preparations begin.

Soon circumstances cause the wedding to be in Sitamgarh. There all of them meet Aakhri Pasta, a bellboy at their hotel who recognizes them as reincarnated people of 600 years ago in 1419. Harry realizes his flashes have a connection with Pasta's claims, and gets to know the past from him in Madhavgarh.

In 1419, Madhavgarh's Rajkumar Bala was banished by his father Maharaj Parikshitap for trying to kill him to become king. His servant Pehla Pasta took him to Sitamgarh (then a kingdom) whose king Surya Singh Rana wanted grooms for his daughters. Bala planned to marry the eldest Madhu to become Maharaj and meets Bangdu, an effeminate dance teacher who's dating the second daughter Mala. Meena, the youngest loves her brave bodyguard Dharamputra. Bala helps them to be together and also they get him and Madhu united. The plan works as Surya announces their weddings, but his nephew Suryabhan who wants the throne kills Sitamgarh's enemy clan leader and frames the couples for it. The leader's brother Gama fights for revenge. Bala realizes he truly loves Madhu. The wedding mandap collapses and kills the couples and Gama. Back in present, Harry realizes the grooms are set to marry the wrong brides. Pasta helps Harry remind Roy and Max of their previous lives. Pappu Rangeela, a qawwali singer and Gama's reincarnation, enters but has no recollection of his past. Pasta finds a painting of their past lives' wedding day, which shows Madhu-Bala, Mala-Bangdu and Meena-Dharamputra to make the girls remember their past. Before they can show painting to the girls, it is caught by Pappu, who remembers his life as Gama and crashes the wedding, leading Pooja and Neha to remember everything. Michael, in fact Suryabhan's reincarnation, shows up at wedding for his money and shoots Gama.

Kriti remembers everything when she sees Michael and also reveals the mandap hadn't collapsed - Suryabhan broke it down to kill everyone so he could be the Maharaj. Michael recounts his past and boasts how he killed Gama's brother. Pappu hears this and pushes Michael into the collapsing mandap, thus bringing his revenge. The film ends on a happy note as Harry-Kriti, Roy-Pooja and Max-Neha get married, thus completing their 600-year-old love story.

Cast

 * Akshay Kumar as
 * Rajkumar Bala Dev Singh
 * Harsh "Harry" Sinha, Rajkumar Bala's reincarnation
 * Bobby Deol as
 * Mahabali Dharamputra Deo Singh
 * Madhav “Max” Sinha, Dharamputra's reincarnation
 * Riteish Deshmukh as
 * Bangdu Pratap Singh a.k.a. Bangdu Maharaj
 * Raman “Roy” Sinha, Bangdu Maharaj's reincarnation
 * Kriti Sanon as
 * Rajkumari Madhu
 * Kriti Thakral, Rajkumari Madhu's reincarnation
 * Pooja Hegde as
 * Rajkumari Maala
 * Pooja Thakral, Rajkumari Maala's reincarnation
 * Kriti Kharbanda as
 * Rajkumari Meena
 * Neha Thakral, Rajkumari Meena's reincarnation
 * Rana Daggubati as
 * Raja Gama Chandrendar
 * Ashish "Pappu" Rangeela (Voice dubbed by Manoj Pandey), Gama's reincarnation
 * Chunky Pandey as
 * Pehla Pasta
 * Aakhri Pasta, Pehla Pasta's reincarnation
 * Ranjeet Bedi as
 * Maharaja Suryadev "Surya" Singh Rana
 * Manraj Thakral, Raja Surya's reincarnation
 * Sharad Kelkar as
 * Suryabhan
 * Gangster Michael D'Costa/ Michael Bhai, Suryabhan's reincarnation
 * Johnny Lever as Winston Churchgate, Hotel Manager of Sitamgarh and reincarnated Giggly (Dual role)
 * Jamie Lever as Giggly: Madhu, Mala, and Meena's maid, Pehla Pasta's wife
 * Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Dharmesh Ramsey a.k.a. Ramsey Baba (special appearance), a tantrik
 * Manoj Pahwa as Viraj Sehni a.k.a. Big Bhai, Ganglead of Michael Bhai (special appearance)
 * Parikshit Sahni as Maharaja Parikshitap Dev Singh (special appearance)
 * Archana Puran Singh as Varsha P. Sinha (photo only), Mother of Harry, Max and Roy
 * Shakti Kapoor as Prabhakar Badrinath Sinha (photo only), Father of Harry, Max and Roy
 * Large Spider as Makdudeen Mohideen, personal pet and attack animal of Rajkumar Bala
 * Three pigeons as Neil, Nitin, Mukesh, personal pigeons of Rajkumar Bala
 * Sham Mashalkar as Darbari
 * Prithvi Zutshi as Shekhar Siskeria
 * Saurabh Sachdeva as Raazdaar
 * Saurabh Srivastava as Lakhan
 * Jitendra Bamgude as a Goon
 * Dipesh K. Shrestha as a Driver
 * Mathew McVarish as a Raymond
 * Luke Toulson as a Captain DJ

Development
After the success of Housefull (2010), Housefull 2 (2012), and Housefull 3 (2016), Sajid Nadiadwala announced Housefull 4 on 27 October 2017. The film was the fourth film in Housefull film series.

Sajid Khan was announced as the director. Farhad Samji, who directed Housefull 3 came on board to write screenplay and dialogues, from the story by Sajid Nadiadwala.

The film was made on a budget of ₹75 crore. In February 2018, it was reported that the film would commence filming in June 2018, in order to give time to post-production and VFX works. DNEG was reported to be do the VFX works of the film, the team shifted from London to Mumbai till the release for the same. The theatrical distribution, overseas, satellite and digital rights of the film were acquired by Fox Star Studios for ₹200 crore.

The technicians includes cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, editor Rameshwar S. Bhagat, production designers Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty, stunt director Sham Kaushal, art directors Rupam Paul, Pallavi Pethkar, and Vinayak Joshi, costume designers Rimple, and Harpreet Narula and choreographers Farah Khan, Ganesh Acharya and Chinni Prakash.

Casting
Mukesh Chhabra served as the casting director. Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh, who were part of previous films in the series were part of the film. Bobby Deol joined the cast in March 2018. The film marks fifth collaboration his with Kumar after Ajnabee (2001), Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo (2004), Dosti: Friends Forever (2005), and Thank You (2011).

While Kriti Sanon and Pooja Hegde joined the casts and lead actresses in March 2018, Kriti Kharbanda joined in June 2018. Sharad Kelkar joined the cast in August 2018. Rana Daggubati joined the cast in November 2018. In May 2019, it was reported that Nawazuddin Siddiqui would appear as a Baba in a song.

Chunky Pandey revealed that his character name Aakhri Pasta came from the film Aakhree Raasta (1986), and the character of Marconi from the film The Great Gambler that was played by Sujit Kumar. He took him as an inspiration, his clothes, that moustache, and created Aakhri Pasta.

Filming
Principal photography began on 9 July 2018 in London. The filming of the song "Ek Chumma", featuring lead casts was held on mid July 2018. Choreographed by Farah Khan, the song was entirely shot in United Kingdom, over 5 locations spread across London and its outskirts, including at the House of Lords and Kensington Palace. The first schedule was wrapped on 21 July 2018.

The second schedule started in September 2018 in Rajasthan, with filming in Ranthambore forest. Later the production moved to Jaisalmer Palace for filming funny war sequences. Later, in October 2018 the team constructed a huge set Chitrakoot grounds in Andheri. The filming was wrapped on 20 November 2018, except the song shoots.

A song featuring Siddiqui along with lead casts was shot in May 2019, Choreographed by Ganesh Acharya, the song has 5 500 background dancers and was shot at Film City, Mumbai. A song featuring Kumar, choreographed by Acharya was shot in late June 2018. The song was shot at a huge set erected at Mumbai with 200-250 background dancers. A Qawwali song featuring Rana Daggubati and lead casts, with 200 background dancers was filmed in August 2019.

Post-production
Post-production for the film began by December 2018, once the film completed its shooting and went for eight months as the film involved extensive computer graphics and visual effects. The VFX works of the film was done by DNEG. In mid-October 2019, the film received a U/A certificate from the Censor Board, with a finalised runtime of 146 minutes.

Music
The film's music is composed by Sohail Sen, Farhad Samji and Sandeep Shirodkar. The music rights were bagged by T-Series.

The soundtrack consists of five songs, namely, "Ek Chumma", "Shaitan Ka Saala", "The Bhoot Song", "Chammo", and "Badla". Lyrics were written by Farhad Samji, Sameer Anjaan and Vayu.

Marketing
In early September 2019, it was reported that promotion of the film would begin in late September, with makers planning a four-week promotion. On 24 September 2019, the logo of Housefull 4 was revealed.

On 25 September, the makers released released the posters of lead casts in every hour spread across from the years 1419 to 2019, for the first time in Indian cinema. The official trailer of the film was released on 27 September 2019 and garnered over 38 million views in 24 hours of its release. The trailer launch event was held at PVR Cinemas, Juhu in Mumbai with the film's cast and crew present at the event. The trailer was launched India, United Kingdom, Australia, and Dubai, becoming the film Indian film to do so. On 7 October 2019, the song "Shaitan Ka Saala"'s launch event was held at Hyderabad, with Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon and Pooja Hegde launching the song. In mid October 2019, the entire casts travelled in Indian Railways from Mumbai to Delhi, becoming the first film to do so.

Theatrical
The film was theatrically released in India on 25 October 2019 during the Diwali festival. The film was released by Fox Star Studios in India.

Home media
Housefull 4's digital streaming rights were acquired by Disney+ Hotstar. The satellite rights were acquired by Star Gold Network. The film started streaming on Disney+ Hotstar from 20 December 2019, and later on Hulu. The film was premiered on television on 22 December 2019 on Star Gold and registered highest viewership ratings for the year.

Box office
Housefull 4 grossed ₹19.08 crore in India on its opening day. The film had huge opening than its previous films, becoming the highest first day grosser of the series. The film collected ₹37.89 crore in two days of its release. The film grossed ₹53 crore in its opening weekend, becoming one of the highest Diwali release opening weekend grosser. Housefull 4 grossed over ₹100 crore in five days of its release in India.

, with a gross of ₹245 crore in India and ₹51 crore overseas, the film has a worldwide gross collection of ₹296 crore and is the 7th highest-grossing Hindi film of 2019.

Critical reception
Komal Nahta of Film Information said, "Housefull 4 is not a very entertaining fare and has ordinary merits. On the one hand is the festival period which will work in its favour and on the other hand is the word of mouth which will work against its interests." Sreeparna Sengupta of The Times of India, giving two and half stars out of five, noted that due to general silliness, there were mindless comic moments and scenes of low-brow humour in the film. She opined that it was a drag in portions and jokes were stale. She concluded, "Overall, Housefull 4 ends up as a complete mad caper. Which, if you're a fan of the Housefull brand of comedy, might appeal to you. But if you are not, then proceed with caution. Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times reviewed the film and wrote "Housefull 4 is quite the comic extravaganza that offers you a heavy dose of laughter this festive season if you can keep your expectations in check."

Controversies
Director Sajid Khan was originally scheduled to direct the film; in October 2018, in the wake of the ongoing "Me Too" movement in India, Khan was accused by actresses Saloni Chopra, Rachel White and journalist Kma Upadhyay of sexual assault and misconduct. Following the accusations, Khan tweeted that he would step down as director, while lead actor Akshay Kumar tweeted that he was cancelling shooting for the film and that he would not work with the accused until the investigation was complete. Later on, Nana Patekar too left the production in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behaviour and touch alleged by victim Tanushree Dutta. Rana Daggubati stepped into essay the role which Nana was supposed to be playing.

Farhad Samji, who co-directed Housefull 3 replaced Sajid Khan as the director.