bollywood

Updated: Sep 06, 2017 09:53 IST

Since her 2014 hit, Queen, Kangana Ranaut has firmly established herself as one of the industry’s top stars. Several reports pegged her salary to be approximately Rs 11 crore per film, making her one of Bollywood’s highest-paid actors. By her own admission, she became “bigger than” her movies (in an interview to critic Anupama Chopra).

But her track record tells a different story altogether.

Kangana has appeared in six films since Queen, which can safely be called a turning point for her. Prior to that, she’d mostly appeared in small films, and attracted a fair amount of acclaim for a few performances (Fashion, Tanu Weds Manu, Life in a... Metro). Just prior to Queen making over a hundred crore at the BO, she’d appeared in Rajjo, which could only manage Rs 2 crore.

While Queen’s success should ideally have paved the way for more blockbusters for Kangana, the performance of her films post 2014 have been more along the lines of Rajjo - with the sole exception of Tanu Weds Manu Returns.

Here is a list of her films, and their BO hauls

Made on a budget of Rs 27 crore, Revolver Rani’s didn’t click with the audiences, but critics singled out Kangana’s performance.

Ungli was produced on a budget of Rs 39 crore, by Dharma Productions. Kangana was a part of an ensemble cast led by Emraan Hashmi. In 2017, she accused Dharma chief Karan Johar of nepotism, sparking off a heated debate.

Tanu Weds Manu: Returns is Kangana’s biggest hit yet. Made on a budget of Rs 39 crore, the film more than quadrupled the box office takings of the first Tanu Weds Manu movie, which crossed Rs 50 crore on a budget of Rs 17.5 crore in 2011.

The film began production in 2011, and was originally slated for release in 2013. But behind-the-scenes troubled forced the release date to be delayed several times. In the end, the film was released hot on the heels of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, and Kangana publicly acknowledged that she wasn’t approached to promote it in any way.

The film failed to recuperate its Rs 34 crore budget. Some reviews mentioned that Kangana didn’t have as much to do in the film as she should have.

Made on a budget of Rs 80 crore, director Vishal Bhardwaj’s film was released amid a slew of controversies - Kangana’s on-set relationship with her co-stars, Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan wasn’t pleasant, and her appearance on Karan Johar’s Koffee With Karan sparked off the nepotism controversy.

There is also a direct co-relation between the quality of her films and their success at the box office - a sign that her star power isn’t enough to attract audiences.

Here’s how her movies have scored on the review aggregator site, Review Monk:

All numbers sourced from Box Office India, Bollywood Hungama and Box Office Collection.

Simran releases 15 September

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