Feb 06, 2026 6:18pm IST
‘MayaSabha’ Box-Office: Jaaved Jaaferi’s Film Is A Colossal Disappointment
Director Rahi Anil Barve’s “MayaSabha”, featuring Jaaved Jaaferi in a lead role, which arrived last week (January 30) in the cinema halls, has turned out to be a total washout at the box office. The movie has earned around only ₹78 lakh in its opening week, and looking at the current scenario, it looks difficult for "MayaSabha" to cross the ₹1-crore mark in its theatrical run.
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The expectations from “MayaSabha” were certainly there, as Barve’s previous film “Tumbbad” enjoys a cult status and turned out to be a blockbuster during its re-release phase. While the Jaaved Jaaferi-starrer garnered praise for its camerawork and technical aspects, the plot somehow failed to enthuse the audience, which resulted in low footfalls.
Post the release of “Tumbbad”, Barve’s “MayaSabha” took eight years to release due to funding issues, production bottlenecks, infighting, collapsing timelines and the pandemic-induced disruption.
Ahead of the movie’s release, Barve spoke to Variety India about why "MayaSabha" got delayed. “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong—funding issues, creative clashes, collapsing timelines, the lockdown, my own exhaustion, and my commitment to Gulkanda Tales. After Tumbbad’s acclaim, the industry expected my next to be another Tumbbad. Ironically, Tumbbad is a film nobody in the industry believed in when I was struggling to make it for ten years. People think acclaim makes the industry welcome you. It does the opposite. Suddenly, everyone is scared of you doing anything different or smaller. They want you to scale it up. They expect a ₹100-crore “Gulkanda Tales” or “Pahadpangira”, a ₹150-crore “Rakt Brahmand”. A small and unique film like “MayaSabha” is considered a career risk. But for me, every film has always been a risk. And this one had zero industry support,” he shared.
Apart from Jaaferi, “MayaSabha” also features Veena Jamkar, Deepak Damle and Mohd. Samad in key roles.
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