One of the biggest flops in Bollywood history was directed by Rajkumar Kohli. It had huge stars, world's best VFX but suffered in execution, until it became a success on cable TV.
It is hard to believe a film in Hindi today that can rival the top Hollywood productions in terms of VFX but that is something that happened a little over 20 years ago. Filmmaker Rajkumar Kohli of Nagin fame made an epic fantasy sci-fi film that was meant to rival international productions of its time. However, the film was panned for its execution and ended up becoming one of the biggest disasters in Hindi cinema history.
The biggest flop in Bollywood despite several big stars
Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani is a 2002 film by Kohli starring his son Armaan Kohli in the lead role along with Manisha Koirala. The film had several other big stars of the time, including Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Aftab Shivadasani, Arshad Warsi, Aditya Pancholi, Rambha, and singer Sonu Nigam as well. The film borrowed elements from Kohli’s Nagin and brought the world of shape-shifting snakes to modern India.
Jaani Dushman’s VFX and box office performance
Upon release, the film was heavily panned by critics and is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made. Only the VFX received praise from fans. Many of the sequences in the film were among the best rendered in an Indian film at the time. However, many critics and fans had complaints with the VFX too, saying that most of the best VFX work was directly lifted from Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix, Terminator 2, and several others.
On the box office, Jaani Dushman opened well, earning Rs 1.35 crore on its first day, a healthy number at the time, Its opening weekend net haul in India was Rs 4 crore. But thereafter, the film suffered due to negative word of mouth owing to bad reviews. In the end, the film crawled to a final domestic tally of just Rs 10.7 crore and worldwide gross of just over Rs 18 crore. Given its production budget and massive spending on VFX, it became one of the biggest disasters in Bollywood history.
Jaani Dushman’s subsequent status as cult classic
But over the years, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani gained a cult following after repeated screenings on cable TV. The film was an example of ‘so bad that it’s good’ sub-genre leading to many ‘cringe-watching’ it over the years. For years, the film generated high TRPs when shown on TV, leading to it being called a strange success.
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 "A still from Jaani Dushman Ek Anokhi Kahani")
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