Indra Kumar is an Indian film director and producer. He had five Filmfare nominations, has also appeared in number of Gujarati-language films. Kumar's real name is Indra Irani. His latest film produced is Thank God (2022).
Kumar debuted into direction as well as production with Dil (1990) and then directed the different concept-based drama films Beta (1992), Raja (1995) and Ishq (1997); all four being among the highest-grossing Hindi films of respective years and critically as well as commercially successful. He received two Filmfare Award for Best Director nominations for Beta and Raja. He followed this with a number of average grossers or commercial failures, causing a setback, except the comedy Masti (2004), which ended with Dhamaal (2007). Kumar went on to make commercially successful comedy film sequels including Double Dhamaal (2011), Grand Masti (2013) and Total Dhamaal (2019). The latter ranks among the highest-grossing Hindi films and remains his highest-grossing release till date.
He was born on 26 August 1973 in a Marwari family in Jaipur as Inder Kumar Saraf. He studied at St. Xavier's High School, Fort and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vidyalaya (both in Mumbai), and completed his graduation.
He is the brother of actress Aruna Irani. He is father of actress Shweta Kumar.[
Kumar's directorial career prospects briefly improved when he directed the ensemble comedy Dhamaal (2007), the first film of the Dhamaal franchise, starring Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Aashish Chaudhary, Arshad Warsi, and Javed Jaffrey. The film received unfavourable reactions from critics and was a commercial success, grossing over ₹800 million (US$10 million) worldwide.
After a four-year absence from directing films, Kumar directed Double Dhamaal (2011). A sequel to Dhamaal (2007), it retained the five previous lead actors, and also added Kangana Ranaut and Mallika Sherawat in the roles of Sanjay Dutt's sister and wife respectively. Collecting totally ₹710 million (US$8.9 million) worldwide, Double Dhamaal proved to be a box office hit, despite being critically panned unlike its predecessor
Kumar's next directorial venture was yet another comedy film sequel–Grand Masti (2013)–a sequel to Masti. It saw Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, and Vivek Oberoi, reprising their roles from Masti, with Karishma Tanna, Manjari Fadnis, and Sonali Kulkarni entering the cast as the new female leads. The film received positive response from critics and became the most successful entry in the Masti franchise, with a gross revenue of more than ₹1.3 billion (US$16 million).
The following year, Kumar directed the drama Super Nani (2014), which starred Sharman Joshi, Rekha, Randhir Kapoor, Anupam Kher, and Kumar's daughter Shweta Kumar. It failed to do well at the box office. He next directed the third installment of the Masti franchise, titled Great Grand Masti (2016), again starring the previous three male leads. Unlike the success of the previous two films, Great Grand Masti was a major financial failure grossing ₹190 million (US$2.4 million) worldwide on a budget of ₹390 million (US$4.9 million).
In 2019, Kumar directed the third installment of the Dhamaal franchise, titled Total Dhamaal, which was not a sequel to Double Dhamaal and was a reboot to it, having a different story and a different genre of adventure comedy. Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffrey, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, and Esha Gupta played the lead roles (Deshmukh, Jaffrey, and Warsi reprised their roles). Total Dhamaal proved to be Kumar's highest-grossing film release, collecting ₹2 billion (US$25 million) within 12 days of its release, thus attaining a super hit status.
Kumar will next direct Hera Pheri 3, the third installment of the comedy franchise Hera Pheri, starring Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, and Suniel Shetty. Kumar announced to direct the film after the death of Neeraj Vora, who directed the second installment and was to direct Hera Pheri 3 too. Later, reports suggested that Kumar will not direct Hera Pheri 3, so Priyadarshan, who was the director of the first installment, will return for Hera Pheri 3. But it was later finally confirmed by Kumar that he will direct the film. Furthermore, Kumar will also direct the fourth installment of the Dhamaal franchise, titled Full on Dhamaal, which will feature Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffrey, and Arshad Warsi reprising their roles, with Sanjay Dutt and Aashish Chaudhary returning to play the lead roles in this installment though they did not were seen in Total Dhamaal.
# | Released Date | Type | Credited As | Movie |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 Dec 2025 | Film | Producer | Masti 4 |
2 | 26 Dec 2025 | Film | Director | Dhamaal 4 |
3 | 29 Dec 2023 | Film | Director | Hera Pheri 3 |
4 | 25 Oct 2022 | Film | DirectorProducer | Thank God |
5 | 22 Feb 2019 | Film | Director | Total Dhamaal |
6 | 15 Jul 2016 | Film | ProducerDirector | Great Grand Masti |
7 | 31 Oct 2014 | Film | ProducerDirector | Super Nani |
8 | 17 May 2013 | Film | ProducerDirector | Grand Masti |
9 | 24 Jun 2011 | Film | ProducerDirector | Double Dhamaal |
10 | 28 Aug 2009 | Film | Producer | Daddy Cool |
11 | 09 Oct 2008 | Film | Actor | Maai Ka Bituwa |
12 | 07 Sep 2007 | Film | ProducerDirector | Dhamaal |