Disappointment for Kangana Ranaut as Dhaakad has turned out to be her biggest flop of all time in the Hindi film industry. Moreover, it has no buyers on OTT and satellite rights as Dhaakad has failed to cross the Rs 3 crore mark at the box office.
Disastrous Flop
Kangana Ranaut starrer Dhaakad was released on May 20. The buzz was little, but it was expected that the film might open to respectable numbers. After the release, the industry and trade experts were stunned when the day 1 figure was a mere Rs. 50 lakhs. The day two figures were in the same range. The three-day collections were Rs. 1.55 crore while the lifetime of the film will be less than Rs. 3 crore.
When compared to Kangana’s previous releases Dhaakad ranks as her third-lowest opening weekend grosser, managing to surpass the collections of her previous releases like Thalaivii, which collected Rs. 1.07 cr, and Miley Naa Miley Hum, which had collected Rs. 0.46 cr. With Dhaakad underperforming, the actress now has two back-to-back disasters at the box office in the form of Dhaakad and Thalaivi.
Meanwhile, Kangana’s recent releases like ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ managed to collect Rs. 33.11 cr. during its run, while her other releases Panga and Thalaivii managed Rs. 28.92 cr. and Rs. 1.46 cr. respectively. Going further back, the actor’s last hit was the 2015 release Tanu Weds Manu Returns which managed to pull in Rs. 150.8 cr. at the box office. Since then, Kangana has had eight flops, which also include I Love NY, Katti Batti, Rangoon, and Simran in addition to the previous four films. The only exception during this time was the film Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi which had collected Rs. 92.19 cr. and turned out to be an average fare.
Lifetime collections of Kangana Ranaut’s last 9 releases
Dhaakad – 1.55 cr.
Thalaivi – 1.46 cr.
Panga – 28.92 cr.
Judgemental Hai Kya – 33.11 cr.
Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi – 92.19 cr.
Simran – 17.26 cr.
Rangoon – 20.68 cr.
Katti Batti – 24.41 cr.
I Love NY – 1.54 cr.
Trade expert’s opinion
Trade expert Komal Nahta, speaking about Dhaakad’s flop show, said, “It deserved to fail as it’s such a bad film. People don’t bother about the form as much as they bother about the soul of the film. If there’s no soul, then no amount of uniqueness of the action or that it’s being helmed by a lady protagonist matters as the content was so poor. They did work a lot on the action but to no avail.”
Veteran analyst Taran Adarsh stated, “The content of the film has gone wrong. It’s a routine story with a focus only on action. That is a major drawback. People want wholesome entertainment to balance the heavy proceedings. The action is very stylish and very well shot. But the content has to do the talking and here, the content falls flat. The director has not been able to provide the audiences with what they want to watch. Also, the title is very ‘desi’ but the content is very English. Kangana Ranaut, Arjun Rampal and Divya Dutta have done very well. However, performances alone cannot make the film run.”
Making it worse, many single screen and multiplexes were forced to replace Dhaakad with Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 due to no audience. Now Kangana starrer has no buyers on OTT and satellite rights as Dhaakad has failed to cross the Rs 3 crore mark at the box office.
“Usually, these rights are sold before the release. The revenue earned by selling the film to a streaming giant and television channel often helps the producers to make a profit. In the case of Dhaakad, the makers had not sold the rights before release, in the hope of a better deal. That’s why there was no mention of the OTT and the satellite partner in the opening slate of the film, as is the norm nowadays,” a source said.
So does Dhaakad’s performance affect her Bollywood image? trade expert replied, “Yes, it does as this is her worst flop. Collections-wise, it is one of the worst films in recent memory. It collected Rs. 50 lakhs a day on the weekend. Which mainstream actor’s films open in lakhs? Even B-category films collect better. Hence, this is a very terrible mark on her report card.”
The costs of Dhaakad are reportedly Rs. 70-80 crore. With the present condition, the film will be the biggest flop ever in Hindi cinema.
