This film, the most expensive ever made in India, flopped badly, with the director accusing producer of sabotaging it
It is a strange fact about the Indian film industry that most of the films that have worn the tag of the ‘most expensive Indian film ever made’ have failed at the box office. Big ticket blockbusters like Shaan and Adipurush have all fallen flat at the ticket counter. But among them was this one film that managed to earn only Rs 21 crore despite having the most opulent sets and big stars.
How India’s most expensive film became Bollywood’s biggest flop
In the mid-2000s, filmmaker and actor Akbar Khan embarked on making his dream project – Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story. The film starred Kabir Bedi, Sonya Jehan, Manisha Koirala, Arbaaz Khan, Vaquar Shaikh, Rahil Azam, and Pooja Batra. Mounted on a massive budget of Rs 50 crore, it broke Devdas’ record as the most expensive Indian film ever made. The film even released in Pakistan, a rarity for Indian films in those days. But upon its release in November 2005, everywhere else, Taj Mahal bombed. It’s business in India was just Rs 21 crore net, around 40% of its production cost. In the overseas market too, the film managed hardly $2 million, taking its worldwide gross to Rs 31 crore, a massive disappointment to the makers.
Akbar Khan, the director, had produced the film himself and had to incur massive losses. There were reports that the filmmaker tried to cover some of the losses suffered by the distributors himself, which put further financial strain on him.
The impact of Taj Mahal’s failure on Akbar Khan
Taj Mahal was only the second feature film directed by Akbar Khan, after his debut Haadsaa, which had come out in 1983. Sadly, this was to be his last theatrical release as well. Akbar Khan accused Mukta Arts, the co-producers of badly marketing Taj Mahal and claimed the film had been sabotaged. There was a huge fallout between Akbar and Subhash Ghai over the film’s failure. The director said that its success in Pakistan showed that the film had it in it to succeed. But the director could never recover from the failure of the film and never made another film. He did have plans to re-release Taj Mahal, but they have not been realised as of 2023.
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 "A still from the controversial flop")
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