Daayra Box Office: Kareena Kapoor Khan Thriller Flops

Daayra, Meghna Gulzar's cop-versus-cop thriller with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, opened on September 18, 2026 and has ended its run with a worldwide gross of about ₹11.9 crore on Koimoi's count. The reviews were better than the box office. All figures here are trade estimates.

The numbers

Koimoi's closing report puts the worldwide gross at about ₹11.9 crore, made up of about ₹9.7 crore in India and about ₹2.2 crore overseas. Koimoi labels the film a Flop. We did not find a verified budget, so we cannot give a recovery percentage, and other trackers may report slightly different totals.

To put the figure in context, Koimoi's top ten Hindi grossers of 2026 by India net begins with Dhurandhar The Revenge at ₹1186.32 crore and ends with Welcome to the Jungle at ₹137.93 crore. Daayra's ₹9.7 crore India figure is a small fraction of that tenth place.

The film

The film runs 143 minutes. According to Wikipedia and the reviews we read, it is a thriller about two police officers on opposite sides of a question: whether the law should be followed to the letter, or whether extra-judicial justice is sometimes acceptable. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran play the leads. Meghna Gulzar, who directed Raazi and Talvar, directs.

The reviews

Reviews were generally more positive than the box office suggests. Filmfare and The Hindu were positive. CNBC TV18 said that Prithviraj outshines Kareena in the film, which is a comment on the performances and not on the film's overall quality. Those three outlets are the sample we verified, and other reviews may differ.

Why a good review does not mean a good opening

We do not have a published explanation from the makers for the result, and any single cause would be speculation. What the numbers show is that the audience was small.

Kareena Kapoor Khan in 2026

Daayra is the Kareena film of the year in our coverage. The cover photograph for this story shows her receiving the Asian Icon of the Year award from Suhail Galadari. The Wikipedia list of 2026 Hindi films we reviewed shows no other major Kareena release this year.

Compared with the year's other flops

Daayra's ₹11.9 crore worldwide is slightly below Haiwaan, which Koimoi puts at about ₹15.05 crore worldwide against a reported budget of ₹130 crore to ₹150 crore. It also compares unfavourably with Mardaani 3, another female-led crime drama, which earned about ₹77 crore worldwide in January. The difference is a reminder that star power alone has not carried every film in 2026.

What the numbers do and do not tell us

They tell us that Daayra's theatrical run was short and small. They do not tell us how the film will fare on streaming, where a thriller with strong reviews can find a second audience. They also do not tell us whether the film cost much to make. For that reason we have avoided a loss figure.

The bottom line

Daayra is a well-reviewed thriller that did not find a theatrical audience, finishing at about ₹11.9 crore worldwide by Koimoi's count. For readers who missed it in theatres, the reviews suggest it is worth watching for the performances and the central question, which it treats seriously.

The streaming afterlife

Films with strong reviews and weak theatrical runs often reach larger audiences later on platforms. We did not find a streaming date or platform for Daayra in the sources we reviewed, so we do not name one, and readers should check the makers' announcements.

Sources

*Cover photo: Mohammed Mustafa Khan, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suhail_Galadari_hands_over_the_Asian_Icon_of_the_Year_Award_to_Kareena_Kapoor_Khan.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suhail_Galadari_hands_over_the_Asian_Icon_of_the_Year_Award_to_Kareena_Kapoor_Khan.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*