Chandni Chowk To China
Producers: Ramesh Sippy, Rohan Sippy and Mukesh Mukesh Talreja | Director: Nikhil Advani | Cast: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and Mithun Chakraborty
Budget: approx Rs 75 crore
Loss: approx Rs 30 crore
Why it failed: The film was touted to be the first big hit of the year. Enough and more publicity had ensured that Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone were all over the place just before the release.
Yet somehow the positive buzz that is usually associated with a big release was missing. If reports are to be believed, the film managed to collect just Rs 1.5 crore through the paid preview shows across the nation.
BOX OFFICE REPORT: CC2C is a disaster!
Even though the movie did open to a decent 65 to 70 per cent on Friday, the weekend collections fell considerably – again an unusual trend for a big film.
CC2C was made to be some sort of a contemporary film about kung fu. Whereas it turned out to be a yawn-inducing Manmohan Desai-ish flick about twins being separated at birth.
The tacky storyline and bizarre circumstances it created made it an absolute torture to watch.
As an insider pointed out, Chandni Chowk... could have done well if it had released say ten years ago.
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Drona
Producer and director: Goldie Behl | Cast: Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra
Budget: approx Rs 60 crore
Loss: approx Rs 45 crore
Why it failed: As a thumb rule, whenever Abhishek Bachchan has worked under his director friends, the films have failed at the box office.
Think of it – Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (directed by Apoorva Lakhia), Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai (directed by Goldie Behl) and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (directed by Shaad Ali) were all box office disasters.
Drona where he teamed up with Goldie Behl (yet again) was no exception to the rule.
It was an Eid release and ideally should have done well. But there was a hitch – another big film hit the screens on the same day, Kidnap. And although the Imran Khan-starrer did not do great business, it did eat into whatever little money Drona could have made.
BOX OFFICE REPORT: Kidnap versus Drona
The sad part of it all was that A Wednesday, which had released a couple of weeks before Drona was getting more crowd than the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer.
In fact the initial buzz around Drona was not particularly positive to begin with. The joke within the industry was that it would be the biggest flop of the year. And it was.
With a storyline that could have well been written by a teenager and special effects gone wrong, Drona was a disaster from the start.
As an industry observer pointed out, fantasy films do not find an audience today. Plus when you have a fantasy film like Drona, you have all the reasons to not watch it.
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Saawariya
Producers: Columbia Tristar and SLB Films | Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Cast: Rani Mukerji, Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and Salman Khan
Budget: approx 40 crore
Loss: approx Rs 10 crore
Why it failed: With Om Shanti Om releasing in the same week, there was no hope in hell for Saawariya.
2007's 'other' big Diwali release, the Bhansali film was reeling at the box office barely days after it opened.
Shah Rukh Khan was on a media overdrive and ensured he had all the eyeballs required.
"Diwali is all mine" he had famously declared and he showed just what he meant.
Saawariya, starring newcomers Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, was all but entertaining as compared to Om Shanti Om.
The unnecessary elaborate sets, song-and-dance ritual and a dragging story contributed to its debacle. As a theatregoer commented it looked like a ballet when it was not supposed to be one!
Saawariya's plans had opened about a week before its release and OSO's barely days. Yet the Shah Rukh-starrer emerged the winner and ended up being one of the biggest hits of all times.
Saawariya opened to about 90-95 per cent collections on the first weekend. But it simply couldn't sustain the hype around Om Shanti Om and the initial audience reactions.
Perhaps the saddest part about Saawariya is that it will always be remembered as the film that made the mistake of being releasing alongside Om Shanti Om.
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Tashan
Producers: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra | Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya | Cast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor
Budget: approx Rs 40 crore
Loss: approx Rs 30 crore
Why it failed: YashRaj Films was riding high on the success of Chak De!. But Tashan was clearly the film that would be their undoing. With a weak script and a screenplay that made you go off to sleep, Tashan was a disaster.
The film reportedly opened to a 70-80 per cent collection at the box office – clearly not a figure YashRaj would want to boast of.
What contributed to the further debacle was the fact that the Chopras were so adamant that the film didn't release in the multiplexes for at least three weeks!
There was some amount of buzz within industry circles and the media about Kareena Kapoor's bikini scene in the film. But somehow neither the bikini nor Kareena could save the movie.
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Eklavya
Producer and Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra | Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan
Budget: approx 25 crore
Loss: approx Rs 15 crore
Why it failed: Eklavya was a movie that generated enough and more positive curiosity.
It was shot in Rajasthan against a breathtaking backdrop of deserts and palaces and had a very haunting score. Yet somehow the movie never caught on.
According to industry observers, Eklavya had no commercial value. Strange you may say considering it had one of the biggest star casts ever.
The debacle of Eklavya proved yet again that you may have the best and the biggest names in showbiz – and the power of the media – on your side. But if you can't tell a story right, there's no way you can make money at the box office.
But things weren't to end there. Eklavya was chosen as India's nomination to the Oscars and all hell broke lose.
Bhavana Talwar, director of a little-known film Dharm raised a storm and sent a legal notice to Film Federation of India accusing them of jury bias. She eventually got a stay invoked on the nomination.
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Salaam-E-Ishq
Producers: Mukesh Talreja, Sunil Manchanda and Chetan Motiwalla | Director: Nikhil Advani | Cast: Salman Khan, Govinda, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla and Vidya Balan
Budget: approx Rs 40 crore
Loss: approx Rs 15 crore
Why it failed: The reasons for this are many. But the one thing that went totally wrong was the length of the film. At a time when Indian audiences were warming up to shorter films, Salaam-E-Ishq in its epic nature was a put off right from day one.
Worse still, Salaam-E-Ishq tried to tell far too many stories in one. There were five couples and somewhere along the way the songs made the film even more unwieldy than it already was.
Salaam-E-Ishq opened to a 60 per cent collection at the box office. The collections slid further over the coming days till the movie disappeared from the screens altogether.
What added to the makers' woes was the Priyanka Chopra-Salman Khan controversy. The relationship between the two reportedly turned sour during the making of this very movie.
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Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag
Producer and Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan, Nisha Kothari and Sushmita Sen
Budget: approx Rs 25 crore
Loss: approx Rs 20 crore
Why it failed: It was considered to be a big gamble – remaking what is arguably one of the most popular films of Indian cinema. And indeed it proved to be a big mistake.
Right from the start, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag was caught in controversy. The movie was initially supposed to be called Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay.
But the Sippys – the original makers of Sholay – sued RGV and got him to get all references to the film and the character names out.
As a result, the movie was one trashy attempt of a remake. Bad jump cuts, terrible editing, poor dubbing and pathetic direction made it one of the worst film of the year.
Yet Amitabh Bachchan stood by the film and defended it at every event that followed the release.
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag opened to a dismal 20 per cent collection at the box office and then fizzled out.
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Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Producers: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra | Director: Shaad Ali | Cast: Abhishek Bachcan, Preity Zinta, Lara Dutta, Bobby Deol, Amitabh Bachchan
Budget: approx Rs 25 crore
Loss: approx Rs 20 crore
Why it failed: Before Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, YashRaj Films was on a high. It had delivered some of the biggest hits including Dhoom 2 and Bunty Aur Babli.
With Jhoom Barabar Jhoom people's expectations from Abhishek Bachchan and YashRaj had skyrocketed.
But JBJ proved to be such a dismal effort at filmmaking, not only did the critics pan it even the audiences stayed away from the film. It opened to a collection of 40 per cent at the box office.
Another thing happened around the time JBJ released. Rajinikanth's first big film in years Sivaji: The Boss hit the screens.
Now although it was a Tamil film and should not have affected Jhoom Barabar Jhoom's collections, the Rajini mania worked its magic.
The joke around the time was that the money collected by parking lot managers near theatres playing Sivaji was more than the box office collections of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
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Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag
Producers: Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra | Director: Pradeep Sarkar | Cast: Jaya Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan, Konkona Sen Sharma
Budget: approx Rs 15 crore
Loss: approx Rs 10 crore
Why it failed: Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag was probably doomed from the start. For starters, it didn't look like a YashRaj movie.
GOSS: Ash and Jaya gang up against Rani on the sets of LCMD
Moreover since it was set in small town India, the trademark glamour associated with a YRF movie was clearly missing.
LCMD was the story of a young girl from small town India who takes to prostitution to save her family from disaster.
With a non-traditional plot such as this, and a somewhat lacklustre promotion, LCMD failed to impress the critics as well as moviegoers. It opened to a collection of about 30-40 per cent at the box office.
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Love Story 2050
Producer: Pammi Baweja | Director: Harry Baweja | Cast: Hurman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra
Budget: approx Rs 50 crore
Loss: approx Rs 40 crore
Why it failed: To begin with Love Story 2050 was stuck in the cans for quite many years now. It was supposed to star Kareena Kapoor in the lead role opposite Hurman Baweja.
Better sense prevailed and Kareena made way for Priyanka Chopra. The film itself opened to a 30-40 per cent opening.
In the weeks to come, the movie fizzled out especially since Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na the film that released on the same day began eating into the profits.
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Karzzzz
Producer: Bhushan Kumar | Director: Satish Kaushik | Cast: Himesh Reshammiya, Urmila Matondkar
Budget: approx Rs 25 crore
Loss: approx Rs 30 crore
Why it failed: Himesh Reshammiya is not exactly one's idea of a hero. Yet for some reason the guy refuses to stop trying.
After Aap Ka Surroor, Himesh made a comeback with Karzzzz. Unlike Surroor though, audiences rejected Karzzzz outright.
So Himesh's second movie as an actor opened to a pathetic 30 per cent and showed no promise of rising through the weeks that followed.
BOX OFFICE REPORT: Karzzzz is a failure
Karzzzz was a mighty expensive remake of the classic by the same name minus the three extra zees.
The original directed by Subhash Ghai was a hit but this one failed miserably. One of the major reasons was the poor direction and some really sad dialogues.
Perhaps the only chap who made a lot of money from this misadventure was one Mr Ghai who sold the rights and sat pretty.
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Yuvvraaj
Producer: Subhash Ghai | Director: Subhash Ghai | Cast: Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Zayed Khan
Budget: approx Rs 35 crore
Loss: approx Rs 25 crore
Why it failed: When you try to make a musical that is stuck in the 80s and expect it to work in 2008, chances are you will be disappointed.
Subhash Ghai did just that. The film starring Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Zayed Khan told the story of three estranged brothers and the love lost between them.
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