'Jaani Dushman' Has the Most Scathingly-Brutal Wikipedia Article Written for a Film: Plagiarised, Career-Ending and the 'Worst Ever'

An ensemble cast far from guarantees the commercial success of a film, let alone critical. One of the best examples of this is a 2002 Bollywood film that you probably haven’t even heard of: ‘Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani’.The Rajkumar Kohli-directorial featured a constellation of stars, such as Akshay Kumar, Sunny Deol, Suniel Shetty, Manisha Koirala, Arshad Warsi, Aftab Shivdasani Armaan Kohli and even Sonu Nigam—replacing Salman Khan as a second-choice actor due to his unavailability.Jaani Dushman is a (counter-) classic in its own right. Aside from the actors, the movie is also remembered for its pioneering special effects and a negative reception—so much so that a strongly-worded Wikipedia article about it continues to raise eyebrows.The page, brought to social media’s attention by an X user, is one of the most scathingly-brutal pieces of encyclopaedic film entries ever written.

The guy who wrote the Jaani Dushman wiki had a personal grudge against the makers. pic.twitter.com/BWuoRvY21K

— rocky hiranandani (@IndieKnopfler) October 19, 2024

"[Jaani Dushman] received overwhelmingly negative reviews and was a box office failure,” says. “Critics cited a poorly executed story, illogical scenes, and miscasting, notably the use of older actors as college students.“Several scenes were plagiarised from Hollywood films, including The Terminator and The Matrix. The film is widely regarded as one of the worst ever made. Following its failure, director Rajkummar Kohli retired from filmmaking."The writers also described Nigam’s acting debut as being “poorly received”.Jaani Dushman didn't just mark a forgettable start to the singer's career, but also the ending of many, including Kiran Rathod, Pinky Campbell, Siddharth Ray and Rambha.“Over the years, Jaani Dushman achieved cult status in the ‘so bad it's good’ genre due to frequent television re-runs,” the article states further.Sharing a screenshot of the Wikipedia entry, the Xer, , said, “The guy who wrote the Jaani Dushman wiki had a personal grudge against the makers."The film's box-office collection barely recovered its budget of Rs. 18 crore, going down as a "flop".