Three-hero films are the order of the day in Bollywood.

In the new release Charas, gifted director Tigmanshu Dhulia brings together a triumvirate of stars. The glamorous duo of Jimmy Shergil and Uday Chopra is propped up by the powerful Irfan Khan.

In next week's Lakeer, Suniel Shetty, Sohail Khan and John Abraham get back up from Sunny Deol.

Aftab Shivdasani has done the maximum number of tri-star vehicles, from Rajiv Rai's Pyar, Ishq, Mohabbat (with Suniel Shetty and Arjun Rampal) to Vikram Bhatt's Awaara Paagal Deewana (with Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty) and E. Niwas's Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

In Masti, Aftab seems to have convinced Vivek Oberoi that three can do it better than one, or even two. In his first appearance in a long time, Vivek has chosen to do a three-hero film.

And going by the initial response, he has chosen wisely.

In fact in his next release, the much-anticipated Yuva, he has co-stars Ajay Devgan and Abhishek Bachchan to complete a trio of crowd-pullers.

Are three-hero films the order of the day? Has Masti revived the era of Manmohan Desai's super-successful Amar Abkar Anthony in 1978 where Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor were the three estranged brothers, running into one another without knowing their true identity?

The film spawned several imitations, including Asit Sen's Bairaag and S. Ramanathan's Mahaan and T. Rama Rao's John Jani Janardhan. Their failure aborted subsequent films with a trio of leading men.

The poetic Gulzar did make the luscious three-heroine film Namkeen with Sharmila Tagore, Shabana Azmi and Kiran Vairale as three sisters, followed by F.C. Mehra's version of Charlie's Angels called Ashanti, with Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi and Shabana Azmi as three detectives.

But what happened to the three-hero concept?

Not so long ago, Subhash Ghai produced Trimurti with Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Shah Rukh Khan playing brothers. The film bombed miserably.

After Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai in 2002, Sujoy Ghosh's Jhankar Beats in 2003 and now Masti, there's bound to be a shower of such projects.

Indra Kumar's Masti and then Mani Ratnam's Yuva signal a new beginning for the three-hero concept. During Manmohan Desai's era, it was an indulgence. Today it is a necessity.

Very few stars sell solo or even in pairs. Three heroes like Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Fardeen Khan in Anees Bazmi's forthcoming No Entry ensure the kind of audience participation that none of the above, except perhaps Salman, could ensure on their own.

According to the trade, only the three Khan superstars - Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman - plus Ajay Devgan and to a certain extent Akshay Kumar can serve up a solo success.

For the rest, it's time to wake up and smell the threesome dream team.