Bollywood Franchises That Changed Their Lead Actors: Dhoom, Race, Dhamaal And More

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Sep 05, 2026 15:36 IST ⓘ

From 'Race' to 'Dhoom', Bollywood franchises that changed their lead stars.

In Bollywood, a franchise can lose its hero and still keep its passport, theme music and favourite plot twists. Sometimes the switch is the whole business model: ‘Dhoom’ changes its glamorous thief while the cops keep chasing, ‘Race’ treats loyalty – and apparently casting – as temporary, and ‘Dhamaal’ simply keeps adding new passengers to the chaos. At other times, a sequel jumps ahead with an entirely new story and cast, trusting the title to do the introductions.

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These changes are not all identical. The list below includes direct sequels, stand-alone sequels, spiritual successors and reboots, but labels them clearly. What connects them is simpler: at some point, a familiar Bollywood brand handed its leading position to a different star and asked the audience to come along. Sometimes viewers happily did. Sometimes the new face discovered that a famous franchise can also come with some very unforgiving old fans.

1. Dhoom

No Bollywood franchise has turned recasting into a more glamorous annual – or, eventually, very occasional – ritual. Sanjay Gadhvi's ‘Dhoom’, released on 27 August 2004, starred Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra as cop Jai Dixit and his motor-mouthed helper Ali, but John Abraham's motorcycle thief Kabir was the cool customer everyone left discussing. Gadhvi's ‘Dhoom 2’ arrived on 24 November 2006, retained Abhishek and Uday, and upgraded the fugitive slot to Hrithik Roshan's master of disguise, Aryan, opposite Aishwarya Rai Bachchan; Bipasha Basu also joined the chase. Vijay Krishna Acharya then directed ‘Dhoom 3’, released on 20 December 2013, with Aamir Khan playing twin brothers Sahir and Samar, Katrina Kaif as Aaliya, and Abhishek and Uday once again representing law, order and increasingly difficult working conditions.

Technically, the franchise never replaced its police leads during the completed trilogy; it changed the marquee antihero around whom each film was sold. John brought biker cool, Hrithik turned robbery into performance art and Aamir made it a circus-sized revenge drama.

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2. Race

If the ‘Race’ films taught viewers anything, it was to trust nobody – not the lover, not the brother and certainly not the cast list from the previous installment. Abbas-Mustan's ‘Race’, released on 21 March 2008, put Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif inside a maze of betrayal, with Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy investigating from the sidelines. Saif and Anil returned for Abbas-Mustan's ‘Race 2’ on 25 January 2013, but John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel replaced most of the original players. The biggest handover came with Remo D'Souza's ‘Race 3’, released on 15 June 2018: Salman Khan took over as the central star, leading a new family of schemers that included Anil, Jacqueline, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah and Saqib Saleem.

The third film was not a continuation of Saif's Ranvir Singh story; it effectively reset the board around Salman's Sikander. A fourth ‘Race’ remains in development. But reports naming Aamir Khan, Sidharth Malhotra or Tiger Shroff should not be treated as confirmed casting: producer Ramesh Taurani said on 31 August 2026 that no cast had been finalised.

3. Dhamaal

The ‘Dhamaal’ series began as a wonderfully unserious treasure hunt involving Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi and Aashish Chaudhary. Indra Kumar directed the original, released on 7 September 2007, and brought the same five back for ‘Double Dhamaal’ on 24 June 2011, adding Mallika Sherawat and Kangana Ranaut to the con. Then ‘Total Dhamaal’, released on 22 February 2019, changed the seating arrangement: Riteish, Arshad and Jaaved stayed, but Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Mishra became the new headline ensemble, while Sanjay Dutt and Aashish were absent.

Indra Kumar remained in charge for ‘Dhamaal 4’, which opened in theatres on 10 July 2026. Ajay, Riteish, Arshad, Jaaved and Sanjay Mishra returned, while Ravi Kishan, Esha Gupta, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Anjali Anand were among the additions. The fourth film once again revolved around hidden fortune and competitive idiocy – the franchise's two most dependable natural resources. In other words, ‘Dhamaal’ did not execute one clean hero-for-hero replacement; it gradually rebuilt its ensemble while keeping a few chaos specialists permanently employed.

4. Housefull

The ‘Housefull’ franchise has always kept two seats permanently reserved for Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh while treating practically everyone else as movable furniture. Sajid Khan’s ‘Housefull’, released on April 30, 2010, paired them with Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan. Sajid Khan’s ‘Housefull 2’, released on April 6, 2012, retained Akshay and Riteish but surrounded them with John Abraham, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zareen Khan and Shazahn Padamsee. Sajid-Farhad then directed ‘Housefull 3’, released on June 3, 2016, in which Abhishek Bachchan joined Akshay and Riteish, while Jacqueline returned alongside Nargis Fakhri and Lisa Haydon.

Farhad Samji’s ‘Housefull 4’, released on October 25, 2019, swapped Abhishek for Bobby Deol and introduced Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde and Kriti Kharbanda as its principal female leads. Tarun Mansukhani’s ‘Housefull 5’ followed on June 6, 2025, reuniting Akshay, Riteish and Abhishek while bringing Jacqueline and Nargis back and adding Sonam Bajwa, Sanjay Dutt, Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Fardeen Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Chitrangda Singh and several others to its enormous cruise-ship ensemble. The fifth film even arrived as Housefull 5A and Housefull 5B, with two different killers and climaxes. Few franchises have changed so many actors without losing their identity: as long as Akshay, Riteish, Aakhri Pasta and several dozen misunderstandings enter the same building, the house is officially full.

5. Bhool Bhulaiyaa

Priyadarshan's ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’, released on 12 October 2007, balanced comedy and psychological horror through Akshay Kumar's eccentric psychiatrist Dr Aditya Shrivastav and Vidya Balan's unforgettable Avni/Manjulika. Shiney Ahuja, Ameesha Patel, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav completed the principal ensemble. 15 years later, director Anees Bazmee did not try to turn Akshay's doctor into a legacy cameo. His stand-alone sequel ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, released on 20 May 2022, handed the keys of the haveli to Kartik Aaryan's fraudulent ghostbuster Rooh Baba, with Kiara Advani and Tabu leading the mystery and Rajpal providing a bridge to the earlier film.

Kartik then became the franchise constant. Anees Bazmee's ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’, released on 1 November 2024, retained him and Rajpal, introduced Triptii Dimri and Madhuri Dixit, and brought Vidya back to the franchise after 17 years. That made the third chapter both a continuation of the Kartik era and a reunion with the face who had made the first film's climax so difficult to forget. The actors changed, but Manjulika clearly negotiated a permanent contract.

6. Don

Before franchise universes came with announcement videos, Chandra Barot's ‘Don’ made a criminal mastermind, his lookalike and a red diary enormously entertaining. Released on 12 May 1978, it starred Amitabh Bachchan as both Don and Vijay, alongside Zeenat Aman, Pran and Iftekhar. Farhan Akhtar's ‘Don: The Chase Begins Again’, released on 20 October 2006, was a reboot rather than a sequel: Shah Rukh Khan inherited the double role, Priyanka Chopra became Roma, and Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor entered a slicker version of the story. Farhan Akhtar then directed a true sequel to his reboot, ‘Don 2’, released on 23 December 2011, with Shah Rukh, Priyanka and Boman returning and Lara Dutta and Kunal Kapoor joining the operation.

Ranveer Singh was officially unveiled as the next Don in 2023, which initially appeared to complete a rare three-generation baton pass from Amitabh to Shah Rukh to Ranveer. It did not. Ranveer exited ‘Don 3’ before production, and the disagreement generated an industry dispute in 2026. As of now, no replacement has been announced. The Don may be difficult to catch, but at present he is also difficult to cast.

7. Jolly LLB

Subhash Kapoor's courtroom comedy has managed the neatest casting trick on this list: it replaced its hero and later put both versions in the same courtroom. ‘Jolly LLB’, released on 15 March 2013, starred Arshad Warsi as struggling Delhi lawyer Jagdish Tyagi, with Amrita Rao, Boman Irani and Saurabh Shukla. The stand-alone follow-up ‘Jolly LLB 2’, released on 10 February 2017, moved the action to Lucknow and cast Akshay Kumar as a different lawyer with the same nickname, Jagdishwar Mishra; Huma Qureshi and Annu Kapoor joined, while Saurabh's permanently exasperated Judge Tripathi returned.

Then came the franchise equivalent of a legal merger. Subhash Kapoor's ‘Jolly LLB 3’, released on 19 September 2025, brought Arshad and Akshay together as the two Jollys, with Saurabh, Amrita and Huma reprising their parts and Gajraj Rao and Seema Biswas among the new cast. Instead of asking audiences to choose which actor had replaced whom, the film turned the casting history itself into the joke.

8. Aashiqui

The ‘Aashiqui’ films prove that a franchise does not need recurring characters when it has heartbreak, hit songs and two singers looking tragically photogenic in the rain. Mahesh Bhatt's ‘Aashiqui’, released on 23 July 1990, starred Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal as Rahul and Anu and became inseparable from its Nadeem-Shravan soundtrack. More than two decades later, Mohit Suri's ‘Aashiqui 2’ arrived on 26 April 2013 with an entirely new tragic romance: Aditya Roy Kapur played fading singer Rahul Jaykar and Shraddha Kapoor played rising vocalist Aarohi Shirke.

This was not a character recast or a delayed continuation. It was a spiritual successor that treated music, love and emotional wreckage as the recurring leads. The gamble worked so well that Aditya and Shraddha became as closely identified with the title as Rahul and Anu had been – proof that sometimes the franchise's real hero is the album.

9. Bunty Aur Babli

Shaad Ali's ‘Bunty Aur Babli’, released on 27 May 2005, starred Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji as small-town dreamers Rakesh and Vimmi, who reinvented themselves as celebrity con artists. Amitabh Bachchan played the cop on their trail. When writer-director Varun V Sharma revived the brand with ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ on 19 November 2021, Rani returned as Vimmi but Saif Ali Khan replaced Abhishek as Rakesh. That was already a conspicuous switch, but the sequel doubled down by casting Siddhant Chaturvedi and Sharvari as younger impostors stealing the Bunty-Babli identity, with Pankaj Tripathi as the pursuing officer.

Few sequels make their casting change quite this literal. The story was about a replaced brand, the new actors played copycats, and the originals had to reclaim their name – while one half of the “original” screen couple was himself a new actor. It was practically a franchise identity crisis wearing coordinated costumes.

10. Student of the Year

Karan Johar's ‘Student of the Year’, released on 19 October 2012, introduced Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan as three immaculate students discovering that friendship becomes complicated when the school trophy apparently carries the emotional weight of an Olympic medal. Rishi Kapoor played St Teresa's flamboyant dean. For the stand-alone ‘Student of the Year 2’, released on 10 May 2019, director Punit Malhotra enrolled a completely new batch: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday, with Aditya Seal as their chief rival.

Alia appeared opposite Tiger in the promotional track ‘The Hook Up Song’, but the narrative belonged to the newcomers. The franchise kept St Teresa's, glossy youth drama and an inter-college competition, while changing every central character. Apparently even cinematic dream schools have graduating classes.

11. Ek Villain

Mohit Suri's ‘Ek Villain’, released on 27 June 2014, turned Sidharth Malhotra's wounded gangster Guru, Shraddha Kapoor's spirited Aisha and Riteish Deshmukh's terrifyingly ordinary killer Rakesh into an unusually successful cocktail of romance, music and serial-killer thriller. When Mohit Suri returned with ‘Ek Villain Returns’ on 29 July 2022, he kept the title, the musical mood and the question of who the “real” villain was – but none of the original leads. John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria became the new quartet.

It was a stand-alone sequel, not Guru's next chapter, so the recasting was built into the format. The connective tissue was atmosphere: damaged lovers, dangerous men, chart-friendly heartbreak and a screenplay determined to keep changing the label on the villain.

12. Judwaa

David Dhawan's ‘Judwaa’, released on 7 February 1997, gave Salman Khan two roles – street-smart Raja and sheltered Prem – and paired him with Karisma Kapoor and Rambha. 20 years later, the director remade his own comedy as ‘Judwaa 2’, released on 29 September 2017, with his son Varun Dhawan inheriting both twins and Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu taking over the principal female roles. Anupam Kher returned in a different part, while Salman made a cameo alongside Varun's twins.

It was a reboot film that recycled the separated-twins premise, revived ‘Oonchi Hai Building’ and ‘Tan Tana Tan’, and transferred Salman's comic star vehicle to the next generation. The handover could hardly have been more ceremonial – one pair of twins literally met the other.

13. Raaz

The ‘Raaz’ franchise treated haunted relationships like hotel rooms: every few years, a new couple checked in and immediately regretted it. Vikram Bhatt's ‘Raaz’, released on 1 February 2002, starred Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea, with Malini Sharma and Ashutosh Rana. Mohit Suri's stand-alone sequel ‘Raaz: The Mystery Continues’ followed on 23 January 2009 with Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman. Vikram returned for ‘Raaz 3’ on 7 September 2012, mixing old and new franchise faces – Bipasha and Emraan – with Esha Gupta. He also directed ‘Raaz Reboot’, released on 16 September 2016, starring Emraan, Kriti Kharbanda and Gaurav Arora.

The series never depended on one continuous mythology. Bipasha left and returned; Emraan became its most regular male face without playing the same person; directors alternated; the supernatural menace received a fresh address each time. The ‘Raaz’ was less a single secret than a reliable promise: attractive people, troubled romance, popular music and a ghost with terrible respect for boundaries.

14. Murder

Anurag Basu's ‘Murder’, released on 2 April 2004, starred Mallika Sherawat, Emraan Hashmi and Ashmit Patel in a steamy marital thriller that made its songs almost as famous as its scandalous reputation. Mohit Suri's ‘Murder 2’, released on 8 July 2011, retained Emraan but otherwise reset the story, casting Jacqueline Fernandez, Prashant Narayanan and Sulagna Panigrahi in a much darker crime thriller. Then Vishesh Bhatt's ‘Murder 3’, released on 15 February 2013, removed the franchise's most recognisable actor too: Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari and Sara Loren led the new mystery.

Like ‘Raaz’, ‘Murder’ functioned as an anthology brand rather than a continuing saga. Emraan's presence helped connect the first two films, but the third demonstrated that even he was not compulsory. What remained was the formula: desire, deception, danger and a soundtrack doing remarkably heavy promotional lifting.

15. ABCD

Remo D'Souza's dance series began by making working dancers the attraction. ‘ABCD: Any Body Can Dance’, released on 8 February 2013, was led by Prabhu Deva and Lauren Gottlieb, alongside performers including Dharmesh Yelande, Salman Yusuff Khan and Punit Pathak; Kay Kay Menon and Ganesh Acharya also had important roles. For ‘ABCD 2’, released on 19 June 2015, Remo retained Prabhu Deva and several dancers but handed the star billing to Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor, with Lauren returning in another role. The sequel followed a different dance crew and was partly inspired by the journey of Mumbai group Fictitious Dance Group.

Remo's ‘Street Dancer 3D’, released on 24 January 2020, was developed in the same large-scale dance-film lane and again starred Varun, Shraddha and Prabhu Deva, adding Nora Fatehi, but it was released under a separate title rather than as ‘ABCD 3’.

Changing a franchise lead is always a wager on what audiences actually love. Is it Akshay Kumar's character, or the haunted corridors of ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’? Is ‘Dhoom’ about Jai and Ali, or the impossibly stylish criminal they chase? Does ‘Aashiqui’ belong to a couple, or to every doomed romance with a hit album? Bollywood's most durable franchises discovered that the answer can change from film to film.

The successful handovers did more than paste a popular actor onto an old title. They identified the element that could survive the recasting – a genre, a world, a musical identity, a recurring supporting character or simply a dependable flavour of madness. A recognisable name may bring audiences to the door, but the new lead still has to convince them that the franchise has not merely changed faces; it has found a reason to return.