Made in Rs 45 crore, this film made less than Rs 1 lakh at the box office as it was released incomplete with its lead stars not even promoting it.
The revenue model of Bollywood has changed drastically over the last few years. Earlier, the box office returns largely governed if a producer’s stake was rewarded or not. Now, with the emergence of music rights, digital rights, and satellite rights, there are times when theatrical revenue is not even a concern for the makers. That is exactly what has happened with a recent Bollywood release. The apathy of the makers has meant that the film has ended up becoming the biggest box office disaster in the history of Indian cinema.
How The Lady Killer became India’s biggest box office bomb ever
Ajay Bahl’s crime thriller The Lady Killer stars Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles. The film had been in the making for all of 2023. Made in a budget of Rs 45 crores as per reports, The Lady Killer ran into a few production delays due to postponement in shooting schedules. This meant that by October, the film was still incomplete. There were reports that a final schedule would be done in November to finish the shoot. However, the film’s makers surprisingly dropped a trailer and announced a limited theatrical release of the film. In the end, The Lady Killer was released in just a dozen theatres across India, selling 293 tickets on day one, grossing Rs 38,000. Its lifetime total was under a lakh, dismal for the film.
Why was The Lady Killer released incomplete with zero promotions
The Lady Killer became one of the few Indian films to be released in theatres incomplete. The stars and the director did not promote the film as well. The reason for this bizarre release strategy was a contractual obligation on the part of the film’s makers. As per some media reports, the deadline for the film’s OTT release (for which the digital rights had already been sold) was December-end. This meant that the film needed to be released in theatres in early November for the stipulated 4-6-week theatrical release window. Since the digital rights revenue mattered to the producers, they decided to release the incomplete film in a handful of theatres, leading to the film’s dismal performance.
Does The Lady Killer deserve the ‘flop’ tag?
There are a few arguments that the farcical way in which The Lady Killer has been released should make it ineligible to counted as a theatrical release. The film’s totao box office revenue won’t even reach 0.1% of its landing cost. By that logic, it is the biggest box office disaster in Indian cinema ever. But does it truly deserve to be called that? It was the producers’ choice to limit the release. The makers will profit from the film with the non-theatrical rights but the film does deserve to be called out. The farce that has been played out not only does disservice to viewers (who are beng served an unfinished product) but also the industry as a whole. It is a message from the corporate backers of films that the content really does not matter. In the end, the bottomline is always the revenue.
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 "Arjun Kapoor in The Lady Killer")
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