Made in Rs 10 crore, India's most expensive film was India's biggest flop, producer went bankrupt, earned just Rs..., lead actors were...
Sometimes, even the massive budget can't guarantee box office success. A similar case happened with the 1991 pan-India film Shanti Kranti. At the time, it was India's most expensive film ever made on a staggering budget of Rs 10 crore. The film had country's biggest superstars- Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna and Juhi Chawla.
It was Kannada actor and director V Ravichandran's dream project. He released Shanti Kranti in four languages- Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi. He starred as a hero in the Kannada version. While, Rajinikanth acted in the Tamil and Hindi versions, Nagarjuna starred in the Telugu one. Juhi Chawla, Khushbu, and Anant Nag were part of all the three versions.
Despite the star-studded cast, enormous budget and big publicity across India, Kranti flopped badly. It earned just Rs 8 crore at the box office. Moreover, the audience didn't relate with the plot, and critics gave disappointing reviews. The money spent on the film was never recovered.
Ravichandran wrote, directed and produced the film all by himself. He even borrowed the land and built grand-scale sets. After Kranti flopped, he became bankrupt. He survived afterward by taking on small-budget films and remakes to revive.
Shanti Kranti was the most expensive Indian film at the time, a record that stood till Trimuti broke it four years later. This film is one of the examples that not all big-budget movies become hits. Some crash badly and leave the makers in massive losses.
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