The lowest-rated Bollywood film of 2023 has an IMDb rating of only 2, making it one of the worst Hindi films ever.
The year 2023 has seen somewhat of a revival for the Hindi film industry. After a lull that lasted three years, this year saw Bollywood films mint money at the box office and even garner critical acclaim. But of course, this wasn’t true for films across the board. Many films faltered and some simply fell flat, both at the box office and in the critics’ eyes. It is not surprising that the worst film of the year (as per critics and IMDb ratings) is also the one which made the least amount of money.
The worst Bollywood film of 2023
Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar-starrer The Lady Killer has earned the dubious distinction of being the worst Bollywood film this year. On Internet Movie Database (IMDb), it has a rather lowly rating of 2 (on a scale of 1-10). That means it’s not just the lowest-rated Hindi film of 2023 but one of the lowest-rated ever, ranking in the top 10 (or rather bottom 10) of all time. The film was also a disaster at the box office. Made in a budget of Rs 45 crore, the film saw a very curtaliled release in only a handful of theatres. That meant that it sold just over 500 tickets across India, raking in just over Rs 1 lakh at the box office, underlining its status as a monumental failure.
Why Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar did not promote The Lady Killer
What hurt The Lady Killer’s chances were that it was not promoted by its stars, reportedly because they were miffed that the film was being released incomplete. 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 stars’ indifference. The director Ajay Bahl said in an interview that the film had indeed released incomplete, only to backtrack from it a couple of days later.
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 "A still from The Lady Killer")
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