Actor Bhumi Pednekar has finally broken her silence on the chaos surrounding The Lady Killer, a film dubbed the biggest box-office flop in Indian cinema. Bhumi confessed that the project that hit theatres was far from the one she had signed up for, adding that the failure broke her heart.
Bhumi shared that the debacle left her grappling with disappointment and unsure of how to pick up the pieces professionally.
Bhumi Pednekar on giving India’s ‘biggest flop film’
During a conversation with Mid-Day, Bhumi looked back at the debacle of her film The Lady Killer, which emerged as one of Bollywood's biggest flops in recent years, revealing that nearly 35% of the film was never shot. She described the failure of the film as one of the most heartbreaking phases of her career.
Bhumi shared that the film that finally made it to theatres was far removed from the version the actors had originally signed for. She revealed that a substantial part of the script was never even filmed, leaving the project drastically altered from its initial vision.
“The script that we read was complete, but a large part of it was never filmed. What released was an incomplete film. I wish I had known better – maybe if I was a part of the system, I could have manoeuvred things differently. I was in shock. I kept wondering what was happening because nothing like this had ever happened before. Eventually, I told myself this was a learning,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“The script that we read was complete, but a large part of it was never filmed. What released was an incomplete film. I wish I had known better – maybe if I was a part of the system, I could have manoeuvred things differently. I was in shock. I kept wondering what was happening because nothing like this had ever happened before. Eventually, I told myself this was a learning,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}She further revealed that almost 35 per cent of the film was never shot, admitting that she was taken aback when the makers decided to release it nonetheless.
For Bhumi, the entire episode was deeply unsettling, with the actor admitting that it took a toll on her both personally and professionally.
She said, “It was a very heartbreaking time in my life. I felt finished. I didn’t know how to recover from it… It’s still a khichdi in my head – who was responsible. I keep wondering whether I contributed to it or someone else did. But it was a decision the makers took at that time, which they felt was right. It was also a time when the industry had not fully recovered from the pandemic. It was just a mess.”
Released in 2023, The Lady Killer was directed by Ajay Behl, and also featured Arjun Kapoor. At the time of the release, it had extremely limited shows in very few metros. Made on a budget of ₹45 crore, it only earned ₹60,000 on its opening day and ended its lifetime run under ₹1 lakh in less than a week. The film also did not find any takers on OTT, and was eventually released on YouTube for free.
Director Ajay Bahl had admitted in a YouTube comment soon after the film's release that his movie was incomplete, saying “it's no surprise that the film feels choppy and disjointed and one finds it hard to connect with the characters.” He later withdrew that remark, mentioning that his earlier comment had been misread.
Bhumi’s recent project
Bhumi was most recently seen in the web series Daldal. The crime thriller also features Aditya Rawal, Samara Tijori, Geeta Agrawal, Chinmay Mandlekar, and Sandeep Kulkarni. The story revolves around a DCP Rita Ferreria (Bhumi Pednekar), who is given a mission to track a serial killer who is more similar to her than she wants to believe. The show was released on Prime Video last month.
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