India's ‘biggest flop film' faced 99.99% loss despite two big actors, later released on YouTube for free

Mint

14-07-2025

From a filmmaker's A-to-Z involvement in production to top-notch performances by a star-studded cast, a great deal of effort goes into making a film. But above all, it's the producers—the backbone of the film industry—who take the biggest risks, often investing large sums of money in the hope that a film will perform well at the box office. While many assume that a bigger budget guarantees success, that's far from the truth. In fact, India's biggest box office flop stands as proof that even popular actors and heavy investment can't always save a film from failure.
India's 'biggest flop' film was The Lady Killer, made on a staggering ₹ 45 crore budget.
The film earned only around ₹ 60,000 at the box office, reportedly selling just 500 tickets.
Directed by Ajay Bahl, the 2023 release has been widely labelled as India's biggest box office disaster, as reported by multiple portals.
Starring Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar, it was a crime thriller produced by Bhushan Kumar under the T-Series banner. The Lady Killer went into production in 2022, but multiple re-shoots in 2023 pushed the final budget up to ₹ 45 crore. Despite the big names and high production costs, the film failed miserably once it hit theatre screens.
On day one, the film reportedly sold only 293 tickets across India, and ended up earning less than ₹ 1 lakh as its total lifetime box office collection.
If reports are to be believed, The Lady Killer was released even though it wasn't fully completed, with the climax left unfinished. Director Ajay Bahl initially confirmed this in an interview, though he later changed his stance. The film received only limited screenings in a handful of theatres across a few cities in the country.
According to trade insiders, the reason behind this token release was a deal the makers had signed with Netflix. For the film to stream on the OTT platform in December, it needed to have a theatrical release in early November. Delaying the release to complete the film could have cost them the streaming deal.
To avoid losing that opportunity, the producers went ahead with a quiet, barely-promoted theatrical release—even though the film was still incomplete.
Reports also claimed that because the film's release was handled so poorly, even the lead actors—Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar—chose not to promote it.
Apart from a trailer, there was no marketing or publicity for The Lady Killer. When it finally released in theatres, it performed terribly and was critically panned.
As a result, Netflix reportedly pulled out of the streaming deal, and the planned OTT release was cancelled. It is believed that no other OTT platform picked up the film due to its poor performance. Eventually, The Lady Killer was released for free on YouTube under the T-Series channel in September 2024.
The film has now crossed 4 million views on YouTube. Reacting to the movie, one user commented, 'I didn't skip any ads… That's my donation to the producer (sic).' 'Guinness World Record for the fastest movie to be released on YouTube,' joked another.
'I highly suggest this movie to anybody suffering from insomnia—that is, lack of sleep. It works like wonders,' someone else mocked.