There has been a resurgence of old films re-releasing in theatres that did not work at the box office initially. It all started with the re-release of the 2011 Imtiaz Ali directorial Rockstar, which managed to do more business than the newly released films of the week. This has led to a lot of petitions by fans demanding the re-release of their favourite films.
However, a lot of this has to do with the nostalgia attached to these films as opposed to the quality of the film. Here are 10 flop Bollywood movies of the last decade that tanked at the box office—and rightfully so!
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Kalank (2017)
The 2017 film Kalank, starring an ensemble cast of Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, and Madhuri Dixit, had everything in its favour. From a beautiful album to grand sets, opulence, and costumes, Dharma Productions left no stone unturned to ensure the film’s box office success. However, the film’s main problem was its script, which was the brainchild of veteran film producer Yash Johar.
The script had many inconsistencies, the characters had many plot holes, the timeline of the world had errors and was filled with historical inaccuracies, and the worst of all, it had too many subplots for one film. The resultant?
The film came out half-baked, with rushed solutions to deeper conflicts, unexplored character arcs, and, at times, illogically crafted sequences that added nothing to the narrative. In the end, it was devoured by its own opulence. While Kalank had a lot of potential, it still missed the mark of being a great film and joined the list of flop Bollywood movies.
Also, read
8 Worst Indian B Grade Movies That Are Too Bad To Watch
Bombay Velvet (2015)
When we are talking about films being taken over by their luxury, another film that comes to mind is the Anurag Kashyap film Bombay Velvet. Bombay Velvet aspired to show the journey of an underdog, Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor), and his dream of conquering Bombay.
While Kapoor was formidable in his role, and the story of the film was also quite good, the film suffered from two things: its editing and the censor board.
Fox Star Studios wanted the best for their film, which led them to hire the veteran film editor Thelma Schoonmaker and a humongous budget of 118 crores. The film’s major issue turned out to be the editing of the film, as Schoonmaker, though a marvellous film editor, could not really grasp the world of an Indian film.
Another huge issue for the film was the cuts made by the censor board, which chopped off many integral scenes that explored the dynamic of Balraj and Rosie (Anushka Sharma).
Kashyap later reflected on the film’s failure and talked about the budgeting of the film on which it was mounted, citing that he had never worked on such a scale, which led to a lot of mismanagement of finances.
Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017)
Fans were over the moon when they first heard about the news of Imtiaz Ali collaborating with Shah Rukh Khan for his next film, which was initially titled “The Ring,” which was later renamed Jab Harry Met Sejal.
The film had quite a remarkable first half, with a great establishment of the character and the premise. However, towards the end of the first half, there were signs of the story going downhill, which further elevated itself in the second half. The story had the potential to explore the depths of the emotions of the titular character Harry and his love interest, Sejal.
However, things took a turn for the worse in the second half when all of these conflicts were pushed aside, and the film started to become an elongated commercial for Europe with random song sequences, which added nothing to move the narrative forward.
The film literally had its Raula Pe Jaan De moment in its rushed climax, including a semi-comic kidnapping sequence that was downright cringe.
Panipat (2019)
Ashutosh Gowariker was once known for his mastery over the craft of historical films such as Lagaan and Jodhaa Akbar. However, when executing his epic historical saga, Panipat, fans were left scratching their heads over what they had just witnessed.
For starters, the film starred Arjun Kapoor, who could not correctly pronounce a single expression; it was almost as if he was trying to replicate Ranveer Singh from Bajirao Mastani.
The courage and bravery that his character required were not showcased at the least by the actor. Actress Kriti Sanon gave one of the worst performances of her career, with little to no role in the film, almost mechanically performing her way throughout.
The film’s only redeeming quality was Sanjay Dutt, but he could not even save the train wreck that Panipat transpired to be. The album and background score of the film were quite underwhelming, making it one of the worst films of all time and the biggest box office failure in 2019.
Shamshera (2022)
It was quite a major announcement back in the day when Yash Raj Films announced its epic curry western dacoit saga Shamshera, with Karan Malhotra at the helm and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, and Vaani Kapoor.
Karan Malhotra had already proved his skills with the 2011 remake of the cult classic Agneepath. However, the film’s inability to evolve was exactly what caused its demise.
Shamshera had a similar story about Agneepath, a son on his path to vengeance against a ruthless sadistic antagonist. The only difference was that the father-son duo had identical faces. The major problem with Shamshera was its dragged narrative, with forced humour and random dance sequences.
Another major flaw of the film was to focus more on the son’s journey, which was mostly concerned with shenanigans and tomfoolery.
What would have been rather exciting to see would have been the father’s journey to become a dacoit, as shown in the film’s initial animated sequence, but sadly, that wasn’t the case with Shamshera.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024)
Unlike the other films in this list, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan had no redeeming qualities. Since the teaser dropped, it had “disaster” written all over it.
It was a pointless premise, a joke for a masked villain, terrible writing with off-putting jokes, and surprisingly, Tiger Shroff performed better than the Akshay Kumar film, which was marketed as an action-comedy entertainer. The film was filled with many surprises, though, all of which is best left forgotten.
Rangoon (2017)
When it comes to masterpieces in Hindi cinema, Vishal Bharadwaj almost appears in the top five. However, things went terribly wrong with his historical war drama Rangoon, which starred Shahid Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, and Saif Ali Khan.
Though the film had an amazing album and was marketed quite well, the problem lied elsewhere. The premise of the film was carefully constructed, as it would appear, but the characters had been horribly designed.
Every character’s motives were held on to till the climax of the film, which is great for creating suspense, but there should also be a hint of the same to keep audiences engaged, which unfortunately did not happen with this film.
Instead, it became an almost three-hour snooze fest, with the narrative mostly dormant, a noisy female protagonist, two clueless male protagonists, and an even more clueless story.
Joker (2012)
The less we speak about this film, the better it is. Its random premise, which consisted of villagers, aliens, and rocket science, was so absurd that the lead actor, Akshay Kumar, refused to speak about it. He even declined to promote it, shifting all his focus to OMG. You cannot sit through the film even for five minutes! We dare you.
The LadyKiller (2024)
There was a growing trend of leaving films incomplete in the ‘90s due to budgeting or scheduling issues. However, after corporatisation, this was barely something we would hear of until recently, when a film titled The LadyKiller, starring Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pedneker, was released and left the theatre earning close to Rs 60,000 in its lifetime. The film is a mystery thriller set in Nainital and has quite a promising plot at the onset. However, the film was left incomplete as the producers of the film backed out in the middle of production. To recover the money invested in the film (roughly 45 crores), the film’s producers decided to release it without even completing it, and as expected, it tanked terribly at the box office.
One cannot even speak about the film properly, as the shots are unedited and raw. There are no follow-up shots reaction shots, and so forth.
Every OTT platform rejected the film, so the producers had to release it on YouTube in hopes of recovering something; however, that does not seem likely.