Bollywood’s biggest flop sold only 500 tickets, made at Rs 45 cr, it earned only…, it starred…

The Hindi film industry aka Bollywood has many secrets to reveal and many stories to tell. Sometimes they become too painful to be a part of. One such story hit the screens in 2023, which eventually made records for all the wrong reasons.

The film we are talking about is The Lady Killer which starred Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles, and it was directed by Ajay Bahl. It was presented by T Series.

However, the project was marred with controversies since the beginning and it never took off. As a result, the makers were never really happy with the way the project took shape. The shooting got delayed in Uttarakhand due to rains and it became over budget, so much so that by the time it hit the theatres, it was already priced at Rs 45 crore. 

When the makers saw the final footage they felt the need to reshoot some parts but it couldn’t happen due to obvious reasons. Then the patchwork on the editing table also didn’t take place the way it should have been. Eventually, a half-hearted attempt was done to salvage the day, but the audience and critics saw through it. 

Upon releasing, the film sold only 293 tickets across 12 screens which amounted to Rs a meagre Rs 38,000. In its entire run, The Lady Killer sold only around 500 tickets amounting to Rs 60,000. Imagine the loss percentage on a budget of Rs 45 crore.

It was such a big flop that even Netflix backed off from buying its OTT rights. Finally, the makers put out their film on YouTube.

Thanks to those Rs 60,000, otherwise the loss percentage would have been a complete 100%. 

The film has almost 25 lakh views on YouTube now. If only even half of these people would have seen the film in theatres!