Kamal Amrohi’s ‘Razia Sultan’ most expensive film proved a debacle- entire industry reeled in debts
Kamal Amrohi’s ‘Razia Sultan’ most expensive film proved a debacle- entire industry reeled in debts
No doubt Epic historicals have always been a populator creative medium.in Indian cinema. Right from Nausherwan-E-Adil, Mughal-e-Azam to Baahubali, extravagant films have always dominated the landscape of Indian cinema.
And even aa a majority of these films proved success at the box office one such colossal failure, a biggest flop in the history of Hindi Cinema almost took the entire film industry down with it. It was none other than Kamal Amrohi directorisl ‘Razia Sultan.
Notedly. Kamal Amrohi is recognised for making genre-defining films like Mahal and Pakeezah. After the release of the film of ‘r in the mid-70s, the filmmaker set his sights on making a biopic of Delhi Sultanate’s only female ruler – Razia Sultan.
The film rolled in 1975 and went through numerous cast changes before finally releasing in 1983 with Hema Malini,
Dharmendra in the lead roles.
It was made on a budget of
Rs 10 crore (Rs 200 crore in 2023), making it the most expensive Indian film of the time. However, Raia Sultan tanked badly, earning only
Rs 2 crore worldwide and emerging as one of the biggest loss-making ventures of Hindi cinema. Many found the Urdu used in the film too difficult while others complained about the slow pace of the narrative. The bottomline was that Razia Sultan was a box office disaster.
After the release and failure of the film, many financiers, distributors, and other investors facced heavy losses.
The scale of the film meant that a substantial portion of the film industry suffered.
At that time around a trade magazine ran an article claiming the film’s box office failure put the film industry into debt. Nevertheless Kamal Amrohi countered it saying that any losses would be his, not the producers.
The filmmaker also maintained that the long production period of the film meant that it provided jobs to hundreds of technicians for years
Kamal Amrohi always defended Razia Sultan, saying that the film had been misunderstood. He would say that every classic be it Mughal E Azam, Pakeezah,Sholay were termed flops. The critics could not digest Razia Sultan because it did not have the usual masala.
Regardless of his financial status he was very adversely affected by the film. This was his last film.
Amrohi took an extended break after the film before he began working on a film called Aakhri Mughal, reportedly a biopic of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Ironically the script was lost after his death in 1993. And thus, Razia Sultan remained Amrohi’s final film.
News Edit K.V.Raman
