Made in Rs 10 crore, India's most expensive film was box office flop, producer went bankrupt, earned Rs..., lead actress was...
Big-budget films are often promoted hits even before their release. While many such worked at the box office, a few crash-landed too. Among those was a 1991 film, released in four languages, starred biggest stars of the era, but failed so badly and left the maker bankrupt.
Titled Shanti Kranti , the film was Kannada actor and director V. Ravichandran's ambitious project. He wanted to make a film in all languages for audiences. Wrote, produced and directed the film himself, he made Shanti Kranti simultaneously in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.
The Kannada version starred V. Ravichandran in the lead, whereas Telugu version featured Nagarjuna. Lastly, Rajinikanth was cast to star in Tamil and Telugu remakes. Actresses Juhi Chawla, Khushbu, and Anant Nag played lead in all three versions.
Shanti Kranti was India's most expensive film at the time made on a hefty budget of Rs 10 crore, breaking all-time record of Ajooba . When released in September 1991, all the four versions were announced monumental disasters. It earned Rs 8 crore which was not enough to recover its budget. In fact, the film struggled to get a decent opening in any language.
Despite the presence of a star studded cast including Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna, and Juhi Chawla, the film couldn't be saved and became India's biggest box office bomb at the time.
Ravichandran borrowed a 50 acre of empty land to shoot the climax scene. He spent his life savings on huge sets and VFX, which caused him a loss of Rs 10 crore and more upon release. Ravichandran was in such a financial distress that he was bankrupt. He survived by making remakes of Tamil and Telugu films. Later, these B-grade films saved his drowning career in the 90s.
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