This flop film had three superstars, actress hasn't starred in any film since then, made in Rs 200 crore, earned only...

From Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Karan Johar-starrer Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet to Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, and Saif Ali Khan-starrer Om Raut's Ramayana, there have been many Bollywood films that have lost crores at the box office. Another movie in this list is the 2018 romantic drama Zero, which starred three superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, and Katrina Kaif.

Directed by Aanand L Rai, Zero featured Shah Rukh as a dwarf named Bauua Singh, Anushka as a cerebral palsy-affected scientist named Aafia Bhinder, and Katrina as a Bollywood superstar named Babita Kumari. The film also featured R Madhavan, Abhay Deol, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sheeba Chaddha, and Brijendra Kala among others in supporting roles. Multiple stars such as Salman Khan, Rani Mukerji, Kajol, Deepika Padukone, and Alia Bhatt made guest appearances. 

Zero was the first collaboration between King Khan and filmmaker Aanand L Rai, whose last three films - Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Raanjhanaa (2013), and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015) had been critical and commercial successes. And thus, there were huge expectations from the film, but Zero was a huge disappointment, just like its name.

Made on a massive budget of Rs 200 crore, Zero received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences and was a massive box office failure. The VFX-heavy film earned just Rs 97.60 crore net in India and grossed Rs 178 crore worldwide, as per the entertainment tracking portal Sacnilk.com.

Talking about its failure at the film's screening in Beijing International Film Festival in 2019, Khan said, "Unfortunately, Zero itself wasn't received too well back home in India. Maybe I made the wrong film, maybe I did not do the right storytelling so I am a little wary how it will be received here and I hope people here will like it. When it went wrong, I felt bad. That it got rejected by so many people, when you make a film like that for three years and it goes wrong, you get not depressed or anything but I didn't want to see it. I am going to see it after three months. Maybe I will be able to figure out when I am away what went wrong with it."

Anushka hasn't starred in any Bollywood film since Zero's release in December 2018, except for her brief cameo in the 2022 film Qala produced by her brother Karnesh Ssharma. Shah Rukh also took a break of more than four years and made a huge comeback last year with two Rs 1000-crore blockbusters, Pathaan and Jawan. His third 2023 release titled Dunki also earned Rs 450 crore globally. 

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