Is Thamma The Costliest Maddock Horror Comedy Universe Movie? Here's A Budget Comparison With Stree 2, Munjya And Bhediya

Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna starrer Thamma is all set to storm cinema halls on Diwali. This is the fifth movie in the superhit Maddock Horror Comedy Universe (MHCU) and audience expectations are high. Thamma is expected to take the franchise in a new direction by introducing vampires. There are reports circulating ahead of the film's release that peg Thamma as the most expensive MHCU movie by far.

Maddock Films goes all in with Thamma

Thamma is a follow-up to his MHCU's blockbuster Stree 2. A report in Bollywood Hungama states that the film's budget is a whopping ₹125 crore. An additional print and publicity cost of ₹20 crore pushes the film's budget to over ₹145 crore. A good share from the reported budget has gone into the VFX work of Thamma.

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What is the budget of other MHCU movies?

Till Thamma, Stree 2 was the costliest MHCU movie, with around ₹125 crore invested by the makers, including print and publicity costs. The Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao starrer minted ₹857 crore worldwide, becoming the franchise's highest grosser. Before Stree sequel, Munjya emerged as a sleeper hit. The Sharvari and Abhay Verma starrer was made on a reported budget of ₹30 crore. It collected ₹125 crore worldwide. Director Aditya Sarpotdar also shared that 50% of Munjya's budget was spent on VFX work.

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Bhediya (2022), starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, was made on an estimated budget of ₹60 crore and collected ₹94.91 crore worldwide. Bhediya is also the lowest grossing film in franchise so far and a sequel is also in the works. 

Meanwhile, Stree (2018), which kickstarted the MHCU, was made on a modest budget of ₹30 crore and collected ₹182 crore worldwide. Stree 3 and an animated film Choti Stree are also part of the upcoming MHCU slate.