Released in 2023 Tejas was pitched as a patriotic drama directed by Sarvesh Mewara and headlined by Kangana Ranaut. Expectations were sky-high. Made on a massive budget of Rs 70 crore the film was promoted aggressively with Kangana herself putting her full weight behind it. Yet when it hit theatres the reality was starkly different. The audience stayed away. On its opening day Tejas struggled badly — so much so that the film has now entered the list of Kangana’s lowest-grossing ventures. Despite releasing on more than 2000 screens the movie could not pull in crowds. How much did Tejas earn? The numbers paint a grim picture. Domestically Tejas crawled to a mere Rs 4.25 crore while overseas markets added only Rs 70 lakh. Even after selling OTT music and satellite rights the makers managed to recover just about Rs 17 crore. Put together the earnings fell drastically short of expectations barely covering half the cost of production. By the end the producers were staring at a loss of nearly Rs 50 crore — making Tejas one of the most disappointing big-ticket films in recent years. Did theatres stay empty? Yes. Theatrical occupancy was shockingly low. On Friday morning shows reports revealed that 94 out of every 100 seats were vacant. Evening and night shows offered some relief with occupancy touching 10% but that was nowhere near enough. At best the film crawled past the Rs 1 crore mark on its first day but the damage had already been done. Why did Tejas fail despite a patriotic theme? Industry watchers suggest that while the film banked on nationalistic emotions it failed to connect with the audience on an emotional or cinematic level. Viewers felt the story lacked freshness and even Kangana’s performance could not lift it. The hype created before release simply did not match the content offered on screen. For Kangana Ranaut and the makers Tejas turned out to be more of a nightmare than a dream project. Despite the patriotic theme wide release and aggressive promotion the film’s failure proves once again that star power alone cannot guarantee success at the box office.