Kangana Ranaut’s Dhaakad clashed at the box office with Kartik Aryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Both films released on May 20. While the horror comedy collected Rs 14.11 crores on its opening day, Kangana’s Dhaakad flopped with a reported Rs 50 lakh on day one.
However, Kangana on Saturday took to Instagram to congratulate Kartik and Kiara on the success of their film. She wrote, “Congratulations to Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 for ending the dry spell at Hindi box office…congratulations to the entire team of the film.” Kangana tagged both Kartik and Kiara in the post. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, directed by Anees Bazmee, also stars Tabu and Rajpal Yadav, among others.
Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared on Twitter that Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 has received a “fantastic” opening at the box office with a total business of ₹14.11 crore in India. He also noted that the film has become Kartik Aaryan’s biggest opener.
Whereas Kangana’s last few films such as Thalaivii, Panga, Judgementall Hai Kya, and now even Dhaakad, have failed to make a mark at the box office. Kangana will now be seen in Tejas, which is scheduled to release in October this year. Apart from Tejas, Kangana has Emergency and The Incarnation – Sita lined up.
Kangana has started work on her next project. She shared a glimpse into her prep for her first solo directorial venture, Emergency. She wrote, “Marching on… pre production day in the office.”
The film is based on the life of former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Talking about the film, Kangana had said in a statement, “Pleased to wear director’s hat again, after working on Emergency for more than a year I finally figured no one can direct it better than me. Collaborating with fabulous writer Ritesh Shah, even if it means sacrificing on various acting assignments I am determined to do it, my excitement is high. This is going to be a tremendous journey, my leap to another league.”
The actor had also clarified that Emergency is not a biopic, but a political drama. She said, “It is not the biopic of Indira Gandhi. It is a grand period film. To be precise, it is a political drama that will help my generation to understand the socio-political landscape of current India.”
In 2004, in a palace in Bhawanigarh, Rajasthan, a group of priests perform a ritual in a palace. An angry spirit wreaks havoc and pulls a woman by her hair upto a room on the third floor. Before the spirit can take her, the priests successfully trap it inside the room and secure it with holy threads and an ornate lock. The family living there abandon the palace.
In the present day, Ruhan Randhawa meets Reet Thakur in Himachal Pradesh on his trip to Chandigarh. He helps her and tries to convince her to miss their bus to attend a music festival in an attempt to woo her. She agrees and goes with him. On returning to the Bus station, they find out that the bus they were supposed to take had an accident and fell into a ditch and all passengers died. Reet's family thinks that she died and in an attempt to call them, she finds out that her cousin is in love with her fiancé. In order to get them married she convinces Ruhan to accompany her to her home and convince her family to get them married. They reach Bhawanigarh and stay in her ancestral home to hide from everyone, where the spirit of Manjulika is trapped.
Chhote Pandit notices that the lights to the palace are on and informs everyone. Reet's family come to the palace to investigate and find Ruhan there. They confront him and Ruhan pretends to be a psychic. He claims that he can see and talk to Reet, who brought him there. He convinces her family by telling stories of her childhood and informs them that Reet's final wishes were to stay in the ancestral home with her family and to see her cousin get married. Through a bunch of happy accidents he manages to convince the villagers as well and becomes famous by the name of 'Rooh Baba'. Meanwhile, three priests whose business is affected because of Ruhan try to convince the villagers that he is a fraud. Ruhan and Reet continue to fall for each other and secretly start going out on dates without being seen. One night, while drinking, Ruhan and Reet's uncle try to open the door of Manjulika's room and are caught by Thakur and Anjulika. Anjulika reveals Manjulika's backstory.
Manjulika and Anjulika, Reet's sister-in-law, were identical twins who came many years ago from Kolkata to the palace with their father who was an accountant. He was well versed in classical music and dance and taught the same to his daughters. His favourite child was Anjulika whom he praised and loved more than her sister. Because of this, Manjulika grew jealous of her sister and started hating her. With time she grew apart from them and started practicing dark magic. Manjulika started loving Uday Thakur but Uday Thakur chose Anjulika over her for marriage, she decided to kill her. She left the palace at night to perform dark magic but was followed by her father. When he confronted her she killed him their and proceeded to kill her sister. But Anjulika ended up stabbing Manjulika in defense killing her instead. Manjulika's spirit continued to torment them even after death and pushed Anjulika's husband from the balcony, paralyzing him. They called a priest to lock Manjulika's spirit in a room and left the palace. Since then she is locked inside the room. The family believes that they are under Manjulika's curse as a result of which 8 members of their family have died.
One night, while returning from their date, Ruhan and Reet are caught by Chhota pandit who informs the other priests. They barge in the palace to tell Thakur that Ruhan is a liar and that Reet is alive. They demand a search of the palace to find Reet and prove it. The duo run and hide from the search party and go to the third floor. As a last resort, they open Manjulika's to hide inside, freeing Manjulika's spirit.
In the following days, the wedding's preparations are disrupted by Manjulika's spirit. People see her walking on the walls, who is later revealed to be the priestess walking with ropes in order to fool people and instill fear thinking it will expose Ruhan. One night, Anjulika is attacked by Manjulika's spirit and finds out about Reet. Upon confrontation Reet comes out and explains their actions to Anjulika. Anjulika reveals that Manjulika's spirit wants revenge and has threatened to kill every member of the family. In order to get help they go to the same priest who locked Manjulika, eighteen years ago. He assures them of their family's safety by chanting for 3 days and sends them home. The same night, on their way to the palace, the priest gets possessed by Manjulika and kills his disciples and runs away.
On a usual visit to a family aiding as 'Ruh Baba', Ruhan finds out about the act of the three priests and confronts them to teach them a lesson. The three priests encounter Manjulika and run. Ruhan finds Manjulika and thinking it to be the priestess comes to confront her. On finding out, he himself runs away and is then pushed off a fort.
Lights of the palace go out as Ruhan returns singing the song of Manjulika. The family members find him dancing in the hall, speaking Bengali and acting strange. Ruhan is revealed to be possessed by Manjulika's spirit and threatens Anjulika in front of the family. The family members find Reet and she is revealed to be alive. As Ruhan gets closer to Anjulika, she pulls Reet and holds a knife to her throat and mistakenly reveals her true identity. Ruhan reveals that he was pretending to be possessed as he knew the truth. He informs everyone that she is actually Manjulika and that Anjulika has been dead for eighteen years. Anjulika's spirit appears and saves Reet. It is unveiled that Manjulika had controlled her sister by dark magic on the night of her marriage and exchanged places with her. Under her spell, Anjulika came to stab her but got intentionally stabbed. Anjulika's husband found out about the truth but was pushed off the balcony by Manjulika so he couldn't reveal the truth. Manjulika admits to everything and tells that she pretended to be her sister in order to live her life and that she killed the 9 members who found out about her true identity.
Anjulika's spirit then drags Manjulika the same way she did last time upto the third floor and traps her in the same room she was trapped eighteen years ago. She talks to her family and asks them to forgive Reet, as it was because of her, that her innocence was proven. She thanks Ruhan for understanding her pain when no one could and telling her story so she could talk to her family again. Manjulika screams to be let out. Anjulika asks the family to leave as she has unfinished business with her sister and proceeds to enter the locked room after which Manjulika's scream is heard. The family leaves the palace like they did the last time.
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