‘Haiwaan’ Struggles At Box Office: 16 Akshay Kumar Films That Failed To Click

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Sep 15, 2026 13:36 IST ⓘ

Revisiting Akshay Kumar's most expensive and unexpected box-office misfires.

Stardom can buy a film a huge launch, prime screens and an advertising campaign loud enough to drown out traffic. What it cannot buy is a second Friday. Once the first wave of curiosity passes, every star – no matter how bankable, beloved or prolific – must face the same merciless review panel: paying audiences. A celebrated career, therefore, is rarely a spotless victory lap. It is usually a highlight reel interrupted by a few very expensive lessons. Akshay Kumar understands those extremes better than most. The actor has delivered blockbusters across comedy, action, romance and social drama, but his film-a-year count often resembles an entire studio’s slate – and a few titles have inevitably landed with a thud.

ALSO READ | As Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan Reunite; Bollywood's Biggest Two-Hero Films

The discussion has returned with ‘Haiwaan’, Priyadarshan’s Hindi remake of the Malayalam thriller ‘Oppam’. Released on 11 September 2026, it reunited Akshay and Saif Ali Khan more than 18 years after ‘Tashan’. Saif plays Shyam, a visually impaired caretaker framed for murder, while Akshay switches camps as the killer Parshuram; Boman Irani, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Saiyami Kher also feature.

The reunion has not translated into a rush at ticket counters. ‘Haiwaan’ opened at Rs 3 crore net in India and, by the end of Monday (14 September) – its latest completed theatrical day – had collected Rs 8.05 crore net domestically and Rs 12.63 crore gross worldwide. Its Monday collection was just Rs 70 lakh, a 62.2 per cent fall from Sunday. Since the film is still in cinemas, it would be premature to stamp a final verdict on it. The available trend, however, explains why the industry is already discussing another possible Akshay Kumar misfire.

That makes this an apt moment to revisit the films in Akshay’s career where scale, hype or star power ran into a brick wall called box-office reality.

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1. Bade Miyan Chote Miyan

If star power, explosions and military hardware automatically produced hits, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ would have required an extra vault for its earnings. Ali Abbas Zafar’s action spectacle, released on 11 April 2024, teamed Akshay with Tiger Shroff as elite soldiers battling a masked enemy played by Prithviraj Sukumaran. Manushi Chhillar, Alaya F and Sonakshi Sinha completed a cast designed to leave no demographic unattended.

The film opened reasonably, but the mission soon went off course. It finished with Rs 65.97 crore net in India and Rs 111.50 crore gross worldwide – substantial numbers in isolation, yet deeply underwhelming for a production mounted and marketed on such an enormous scale. The title borrowed instant recall from the 1998 Amitabh Bachchan-Govinda comedy, but nostalgia, helicopters and matching action heroes could not manufacture staying power.

2. Sarfira

Sudha Kongara’s ‘Sarfira’ arrived on 12 July 2024 with a genuinely stirring underdog premise. A Hindi adaptation of her acclaimed Tamil film ‘Soorarai Pottru’, it starred Akshay as Veer Mhatre, a man determined to launch a low-cost airline, alongside Radhikka Madan, Paresh Rawal and Seema Biswas. Suriya, who led the original, appeared in a cameo.

The protagonist wanted to make flying affordable for ordinary Indians; persuading ordinary Indians to fly to the cinema proved harder. Despite appreciation for its performances and emotional moments, ‘Sarfira’ earned only Rs 24.85 crore net in India and Rs 33.91 crore gross worldwide. Familiarity with the widely watched original, weak initial footfall and a crowded theatrical environment all featured in the conversation around its failure.

3. Khel Khel Mein

What could possibly go wrong when seven friends place their phones on a table and agree to share every call and message? In Mudassar Aziz’s ‘Khel Khel Mein’, the answer was: almost everything. Released on 15 August 2024, the ensemble comedy starred Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Ammy Virk, Fardeen Khan, Pragya Jaiswal and Aditya Seal as couples whose seemingly harmless dinner-party game detonates their secrets.

The film showed better endurance than its weak start suggested and attracted some favourable word of mouth, but it began far too far behind – particularly opposite the runaway phenomenon ‘Stree 2’. It ultimately earned Rs 40.36 crore net in India and Rs 56.78 crore gross worldwide, with Bollywood Hungama recording a flop verdict.

4. Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue

Released on 6 October 2023, Tinu Suresh Desai’s rescue drama cast Akshay as mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill, who led the operation to save trapped workers from the flooded Raniganj coal mine in 1989. Parineeti Chopra, Kumud Mishra, Pavan Malhotra, Ravi Kishan and Dibyendu Bhattacharya featured in the ensemble.

The true story had courage, urgency and a tailor-made big-screen climax, but the movie never generated a comparable emergency at ticket windows. It collected Rs 34.17 crore net in India and Rs 46 crore gross worldwide. The commercial result was especially striking because Akshay and Tinu Suresh Desai had earlier collaborated on the successful ‘Rustom’.

5. Selfiee

There is a brutal irony at the centre of ‘Selfiee’: a film about the combustible relationship between a movie star and a fan could not persuade enough fans to turn up. Raj Mehta’s comedy-drama, released on 24 February 2023, starred Akshay as superstar Vijay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi as RTO inspector Om Prakash Aggarwal. Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty played the principal female roles.

An official remake of the Malayalam hit ‘Driving Licence’, the film converted a missing licence and one denied photograph into a very public ego war. Its opening was startlingly low for an Akshay-led wide release, and the lifetime numbers never recovered: Rs 17.03 crore net in India and Rs 24.60 crore gross worldwide. Akshay even set a Guinness record by clicking 184 selfies in three minutes during promotions; unfortunately, the box office supplied the record nobody wanted to frame.

6. Ram Setu

Abhishek Sharma’s ‘Ram Setu’ had a Diwali release, an adventure-film pitch and Akshay playing an archaeologist racing to investigate the origins of the bridge between India and Sri Lanka. Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Satyadev joined him in the film, which opened on 25 October 2022.

The movie began with Rs 15.25 crore net across languages, the best opening among Akshay’s troubled 2022 releases, but the festive boost did not grow into a durable run. It closed at Rs 74.70 crore net in India and Rs 96.74 crore gross worldwide. For a smaller film, that total might have looked sturdy. For an effects-heavy star vehicle positioned as a major Diwali attraction, it was another underperformance.

7. Raksha Bandhan

Aanand L Rai’s family drama opened on the festival it was named after – 11 August 2022 – and cast Akshay as Lala Kedarnath, a brother who believes he must arrange the marriages of his four sisters before marrying his childhood sweetheart, played by Bhumi Pednekar. Sadia Khateeb, Deepika Khanna, Smrithi Srikanth and Sahejmeen Kaur played the sisters.

The emotional pitch was broad, the songs leaned hard into sibling sentiment and the release date could hardly have been more appropriate. Yet the film’s box-office thread came undone: it earned Rs 48.63 crore net in India and Rs 68.38 crore gross worldwide, with Sacnilk classifying it as below average. Its clash with ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ divided attention, but neither film converted the extended holiday corridor into the celebration the trade had expected.

8. Samrat Prithviraj

Yash Raj Films brought out the armour, battlefields and royal scale for ‘Samrat Prithviraj’, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s historical drama released on 3 June 2022. Akshay played the 12th-century ruler Prithviraj Chauhan, while Manushi Chhillar made her film debut as Sanyogita. Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, Manav Vij, Ashutosh Rana and Sakshi Tanwar rounded out the major cast.

The film arrived as a prestige epic but departed as one of the costliest setbacks of Akshay’s career. Against Sacnilk’s reported Rs 220 crore budget estimate, it collected Rs 68.25 crore net in India and Rs 90.55 crore gross worldwide. The tracker recorded a “disaster” verdict.

9. Bachchhan Paandey

Akshay played a stone-eyed gangster with a prosthetic eye in Farhad Samji’s ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, released on 18 March 2022. Kriti Sanon was the aspiring director hoping to make a biopic about him, Arshad Warsi played her reluctant partner in danger, and Jacqueline Fernandez and Pankaj Tripathi added to the deliberately chaotic ensemble.

On paper, it had action, comedy, romance and the Holi holiday. In theatres, the mixture never caught fire. The film earned Rs 51.04 crore net in India and Rs 74.20 crore gross worldwide against Sacnilk’s estimated Rs 165 crore budget, earning a “disaster” classification. The extraordinary run of ‘The Kashmir Files’, released one week earlier, made the battlefield even harsher, but competition alone could not explain the rejection.

10. Brothers

Two fighters entered the ring; the collections tapped out early. Karan Malhotra’s ‘Brothers’, released on 14 August 2015, remade the Hollywood drama ‘Warrior’ with Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra as estranged siblings who face one another in a mixed-martial-arts tournament. Jackie Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez and Shefali Shah played key members of their fractured family.

The film, made on a reported budget of Rs 105 crore, posted a strong Rs 15.20 crore opening and reached Rs 82.47 crore net in India and Rs 140.30 crore gross worldwide. Those numbers may appear healthy beside several titles on this list, but scale determines verdict.

11. Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!

Milan Luthria’s gangster sequel, released on 15 August 2013, promoted Akshay to the role of Shoaib Khan, taking over the character played by Emraan Hashmi in the first film. Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha joined him in a love triangle set inside Shoaib’s criminal empire, with Sonali Bendre and Mahesh Manjrekar in supporting roles.

The first ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’ had mixed gangland swagger with popular music and sharp dialogue. The sequel had the brand, a holiday and an A-list star, yet it could not reproduce that appeal. Box Office India recorded Rs 58.49 crore net in India and Rs 91.71 crore gross worldwide against a Rs 100 crore budget, classifying it as a flop.

12. Joker

Aliens landed in Paglapur; audiences largely stayed on Earth. Shirish Kunder’s science-fiction comedy, released on 31 August 2012, starred Akshay as a scientist who returns to his forgotten village and manufactures an extraterrestrial spectacle to force the world to notice it. Sonakshi Sinha, Shreyas Talpade and Minissha Lamba co-starred.

The premise was proudly eccentric, but its mixture of aliens, crop circles, villagers and broad humour was rejected almost immediately. Sacnilk listed Rs 22.53 crore net in India and Rs 32.09 crore gross worldwide. The film remains one of the clearest examples of a project whose curiosity value ended almost as soon as opening day did.

13. Action Replayy

Vipul Amrutlal Shah gave Akshay a time machine in ‘Action Replayy’, released on 5 November 2010. Aditya Roy Kapur played a young man who travels into the 1970s to transform the bitter relationship between his parents, played by Akshay and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Neha Dhupia, Om Puri, Kirron Kher and Rajpal Yadav supplied additional comic firepower.

The retro styling was loud, the wigs were louder and the Diwali release placed it in direct competition with ‘Golmaal 3’. The time-travel comedy collected Rs 29.06 crore net in India and Rs 48.56 crore gross worldwide, and Bollywood Hungama classified it as a flop. Its machine could return to the past, but not to the edit room for another attempt at the future.

14. Blue

Few Hindi films of its period looked as technically ambitious as ‘Blue’. Anthony D’Souza’s underwater action adventure, released on 16 October 2009, starred Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan, with Katrina Kaif in a special appearance. AR Rahman composed the music, while Kylie Minogue’s much-publicised appearance in ‘Chiggy Wiggy’ supplied international sparkle.

The film opened well but could not stay afloat. Bollywood Hungama recorded Rs 38.55 crore net in India and Rs 61.30 crore gross worldwide, while Box Office India estimated that it cost Rs 80 crore and labelled it a flop. The underwater sequences were a genuine production flex; the screenplay was the leak nobody managed to plug.

15. Chandni Chowk To China

Nikkhil Advani’s ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ set out to turn a Delhi vegetable cutter into an international martial-arts hero. Released on 16 January 2009, it starred Akshay opposite Deepika Padukone, with Mithun Chakraborty, Ranvir Shorey, Gordon Liu and Roger Yuan in important roles. The Warner Bros-backed production was pitched as an unusually ambitious Hindi-Chinese crossover.

Instead, the journey stalled. The action comedy earned Rs 29.46 crore net in India and Rs 53.44 crore gross worldwide, receiving a flop verdict from Bollywood Hungama. The film had locations, kung fu, reincarnation, twin Deepikas and Akshay doing what should have been a comfortable blend of action and comedy. It also had so many ingredients that the story appeared to need its own immigration queue.

16. Tashan

Before ‘Haiwaan’ reunited them, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan shared the screen in ‘Tashan’. Vijay Krishna Acharya’s directorial debut, released on 25 April 2008, also starred Kareena Kapoor Khan and Anil Kapoor. Its caper plot followed four flamboyant characters chasing money, revenge and one another across a hyper-stylised Yash Raj Films universe.

Akshay’s gloriously eccentric Bachchan Pandey, Kareena’s size-zero look, Vishal-Shekhar’s soundtrack and Anil’s invented English all entered pop-culture memory. The ticket sales did not show the same enthusiasm. ‘Tashan’ collected Rs 29.35 crore net in India and Rs 51.27 crore gross worldwide and was classified as a flop by Bollywood Hungama. The title promised style, attitude and swagger; the box office responded with the least stylish accessory possible – empty seats.

Akshay Kumar’s failures look dramatic partly because his output is so enormous. The same filmography that contains these costly misses also contains ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Welcome’, ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Airlift’, ‘Rustom’, ‘Housefull 5’ and numerous other successes. A bad run does not erase that range; it merely proves that speed is both his superpower and his gamble.

‘Haiwaan’ still has time left in theatres, but its first four days have delivered a familiar warning: even when Akshay, Saif and Priyadarshan arrive together, nostalgia cannot purchase the one thing every film ultimately needs – an audience that wants to pay.