Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’s Box Office Bomb Sparks Legal Battle and Financial Turmoil for Pooja Entertainment

After a ₹350 crore flop, Jackky Bhagnani reveals mortgaging family assets, while director Ali Abbas Zafar faces FIR over alleged financial misconduct.

The 2024 action film Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, was anticipated to be a blockbuster. However, its dismal box office performance, grossing only ₹59.17 crore against a staggering ₹350 crore budget, has plunged producer Vashu Bhagnani’s Pooja Entertainment into a financial crisis.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Jackky Bhagnani, co-producer and son of Vashu Bhagnani, candidly discussed the repercussions of the film’s failure. He acknowledged that the grand scale and star power were insufficient without a compelling story. “We invested a lot of money, and I realised that just scale is not good enough,” he admitted. The financial strain was so severe that the Bhagnani family had to mortgage properties to mitigate losses. Reports also indicate that Pooja Entertainment sold its Mumbai office to repay debts amounting to ₹250 crore .

Compounding the crisis, a Mumbai court directed the police to file an FIR against director Ali Abbas Zafar and his team for alleged financial misconduct during the film’s production. The Bhagnanis accused Zafar of inflating the production budget from the agreed ₹125 crore to ₹154 crore without proper justification, forging invoices, and misappropriating funds .

The fallout has also affected the crew, with several members alleging delayed payments. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) claimed that Vashu Bhagnani owes over ₹65 lakh to crew members from multiple films, including Bade Miyan Chote Miyan .

This series of events underscores the volatile nature of the film industry, where even high-budget projects with star-studded casts are not immune to failure, leading to significant financial and legal consequences.