Brahmastra’s reported budget figures are ‘all wrong’, says Ranbir Kapoor as he defends film’s ‘hit’ status

Days after Kangana Ranaut questioned how several trade publications and analysts are calling Brahmastra a hit, the film’s lead actor Ranbir Kapoor has defended his film. Kangana had referred to the film’s massive budget while making her point and said the film needs to do a lot more to be called a hit. In a recent interview, Ranbir said the economics of Brahmastra is much different and all figures of budget floating around are ‘wrong’. Also read: Kangana Ranaut raises doubt over Brahmastra collections again

On Wednesday, Kangana Ranaut had shared a number of posts on Instagram, casting doubts on Brahmastra’s collections, saying a film with a budget of ₹650 crore cannot be called a hit after earning ₹246 crore. Other sources have referred to Brahmastra’s budget as ₹410 crore. The film has so far earned around ₹350 crore gross worldwide and just under ₹200 crore nett in India. Officially titled Brahmastra Part One- Shiva, the film is the first of a planned trilogy by Ayan Mukerji.

In an interview with Dainik Bhaskar, Ranbir said, “These days, we are reading a lot where people are discussing the budget of the film. People are saying this much is the budget and this much is the recovery. But Brahmastra is unique being where the budget is not just for one film but for the whole trilogy.”

Reports had claimed that as much as ₹100+ crore of the film’s budget was in VFX. While Ranbir did not discuss the figure, he emphasised that a lot of the work already done for part one would be used in the sequels, thereby spreading that expense out over the other two films. “So, the assets we have created for the film, like the fire VFX or effects for other superpowers, they will be used in three films. So, it’s not like the figures floating around, whether it’s hundred rupees or two hundred rupees, are correct. It’s all wrong. The economics of this film is not like the economics of other films that have been made in our industry. Now, we can easily go into part 2 and part 3. With part 1, Ayan had to learn how to make this kind of a film,” Ranbir added.

Brahmastra also stars Alia Bhatt and Mouni Roy, with extended cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Nagarjuna. The film has already become the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year by its ninth day and is on course to be one of the highest-grossing of all-time.