Which movies destroyed the actors’ or actresses’ career when they're at their peak?

Macaulay Culkin was paid $10.5 million (all figures in this answer have been adjusted for inflation for ease of reference) for his role in Home Alone 2 (1992). And thanks to a contract that secured him 5% of the net profits and 15% of all merchandising revenue (including the Talkboy toy that was a hit product that Christmas) it is estimated that he earned at least $46.2 million for that film alone.

To put this in perspective, this is more than Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo were paid combined for The Avengers (2012) despite that movie making far more money ($800 million for Home Alone 2 to $2.12 billion for The Avengers).

I bring this up because a lot of people forget just how successful Culkin was. He was absolutely on top of the world in 1992. He was the Hollywood celeb that other Hollywood celebs dream of one day becoming.

And then came ‘’Richie Rich’’ in 1994 that made $83 million domestic on an $87 million budget. After the marketing budget and cinema cut are added on (which is generally considered to be 50% on top), we are talking about a huge box office bomb.

So what changed in only two years?

The film itself did not help. The script was widely panned. The characters derided as boring. And even back then, no one really wanted to sympathise with a boy who had absolutely everything but felt a bit lonely. It is hard to feel sorry for someone who literally has his own branch of McDonalds in his mansion.

But a lot of the blame does also unfortunately fall onto Culkin’s shoulders. He was beginning to age out of that ‘’cute child phase’’ and needed to find his footing as a young adult actor. ‘’Richie Rich’’ was not that film. He was still being cast as the precocious child despite being well into his teens at this point. And unfortunately as the Nostalgia Critic pointed out, Culkin’s voice had broken, so it made him seem even older than the character that he was portraying than it already did.

This was effectively the end of his career and his many personal problems did the rest. He has been in nothing of real note since, although he has made somewhat of a comeback in recent years as an internet celeb.

It would be interesting to know if he could have eventually shaken the typecasting. Many child actors unfortunately do not.

Which Bollywood actress had a very short career span and then disappeared?

Ayesha Takia - 9 years

Much before she entered Bollywood movies, Ayesha was known for her appearances in a few music videos, and ads as a child actor (remember the Complan commercial with Shahid?). Her most memorable acting projects in Hindi cinema are Dor (2006) and Wanted (2009).

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Ayesha Takia - 9 years Much before she entered Bollywood.

Udita Goswami - 9 years

Udita, who is currently living a happy life with her husband, director Mohit Suri, and daughter, debuted in the Hindi film industry with the 2003 film Paap. In her career spanning nine years, she's worked in 14 movies including Zeher and Aksar.

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Udita Goswami - 9 years Udita.

Esha Deol - 9 years

Esha, unlike her mother Hema Malini, wasn't a successful Bollywood actress. We saw her in movies like Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe, Tell Me O Khuda, Naa Tum Jaano Na Hum, Yuva, Dhoom, and Kaal, to name a few. The actress got married in 2012 and, soon after, gave up acting to focus on her personal life. Around the end of 2017, her husband Bharat Takhtani and her were blessed with a baby girl, who they named Radhya.

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Esha Deol - 9 years Esha.

Asin - 7 years

She was already a star in the Tamil and Telugu industry when she debuted in Bollywood with Aamir Khan in Ghajini, but she didn't have as successful a run here. Apart from Aamir, the actress has worked with industry superstars like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Ajay Devgn.

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Asin - 7 years She was already a star in the Tamil .

Shamita Shetty - 7 years

We saw her for the first time on the big screen in Mohabbatein. Shamita then went on to do movies like Zeher, Bewafaa,and Cash as the female lead, which weren't a success at the box office.

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Kim Sharma - 6 years

After featuring in a few ad films, she, just like Shamita, debuted in the Hindi film industry with SRK-Amitabh starrer Mohabbatein. Post this, she acted in a few movies like Tum Se Achcha Kaun Hai and Tom, Dick, and Harry. While her acting skills weren't really appreciated, the actress stayed in the news for quite some time for her relationship with cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

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Kim Sharma - 6 years After featuring in a few ad .

Twinkle Khanna - 6 years

She may now be a popular author, interior designer, and columnist, but there was a time when she struggled to prove her mettle as an actress in Bollywood; and she's now frank about the fact that she was a terrible actor. Her first film was Rajkumar Santoshi's 1995 romantic drama Barsaat, opposite Bobby Deol, and her last one was Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega in 2001.

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Tanushree Dutta - 5 years

The Femina Miss India Universe entered Bollywood acting opposite Emraan Hashmi in the blockbuster hit Aashiq Banaya Aapne. Later, we saw her in movies like Chocolate in 2005 and Good Boy, Bad Boy in 2007. Since then, the actress is on a sabbatical and living away from the limelight. In fact, we didn't even see her at her sister Ishita Dutta's wedding that took place recently.

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Gayatri Joshi - 1 year

Remember the beautiful teacher from Shah Rukh Khan starrer Swades? Soon after the release of her blockbuster film, the actress got married to Vikas Oberoi, the chairman and managing director of Oberoi Realty. She then decided to focus on her family life. Gayatri's a popular socialite and is often seen at Page 3 parties.

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Sneha Ullal - 1 year

She was known as the Aishwarya Rai lookalike when she debuted on the silver screen with superstar Salman Khan in the 2005 film Lucky - No Time For Love. Immediately after the movie released, the actress shifted to the Telugu film industry, never to return to Bollywood. Sneha acted in a total of 5 hindi films including Aryan 2006, kaash… mere hote 2007, Click 2010 and one more in 2015. Sneha Ullal - Wikipedia

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Sneha Ullal - 1 year She was known as the Aishwarya Rai.

Who are some Bollywood actors who ruined their careers overnight?

 According to me, the actor who stands out in ruining a successful career, who could have been acknowledged as a Legend but his career turned upside down with a casting couch

Shakti Kapoor

Before: He has featured in more than 700 films

What was the Incident?

In 2005, a certain news channel conducted an explosive sting operation on him. The 'trapped' Shakti into propositioning the correspondent and asking her for sexual favors.

After this incident:

• He was banned by the Film & Television Producers Guild of India.
• The news had evoked sharp reactions from the film industry with some denouncing it and others saying the entire industry should not be stereotyped for acts of some persons

The actress would be, the famous Kaho Na Pyaar Hai lead, Ameesha Patel

The promising actor who worked with the likes of Salman Khan with a stupendous initial hat-trick & then when on to do Humraaz, Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai

What was the Incident?

It wasn't a single incident, but a series of them which slowly deteriorated her comeback chances

~Using the badge of feminism as an excuse as a matter of pride

~Her affair with Vikram Bhatt which ended up in a fallout

~She sued her family & sent a legal notice to her father for mismanaging her accounts and using her hard-earned money amounting to Rs 120 million

~Attitude issues: Every interview she gave screamed of attitude, loads of it and once her filmy graph started going down she started blaming other actresses.

After these incidents

She got relegated to second fiddle almost overnight & even the bolder roles didn’t pan out. Now, she is struggling to find roles onscreen

Did Vaishnavi Mahant (Geeta Vishwas of Shaktiman) act in a B-grade movie during her early career?

 Vaishnavi Mahant who has done a lot of work on television is best known for her role of Geeta Vishwas in Shaktimaan.

A low budget movie is also termed as a “B-grade” movie. Vaishnavi worked as a child artist in Ramsay Brothers’ horror film, “Veerana”. She played the child role of the character Jasmine Pratap in the film.

Her first shot involved portraying her character being possessed looking down from the balcony with wide-open burning eyes.

She began acting at the age of eight but her career breakthrough came with the popular Doordarshan show Shaktimaan where she played the courageous journalist Geeta Vishwas.

She has been a popular face on television and worked in serials like Kasautti Zindagii Kay, Sasural Genda Phool, Yeh Un Dino Ki Baat Hai, etc.

Vaishnavi has also worked in a few Hindi and Telugu films. Her first lead role was in the film “Bambai Ka Babu”, opposite Saif Ali Khan. Some of her Hindi films are Maidan-E-Jung, Baabul, Super Nani and Dosti Ke Side Effects.

Her debut film as an adult was “Laadla”, where she played a cameo in the song, “Ladki Hai Kya”.

Image(s) Courtesy: Google

Which celebrity has gone to extremes to boost their career?

 Well there are many:

1)Katrina kaif- It is alleged that Katrina Kaif in the early years of her career (in early 2000s) used to sleep with Salman Khan so that she could get work as salman khan can make or break anyone career in Bollywood. She also debuted in a B grade film with Amitabh bachan BOOM.

2) Amitabh Bachchan - Yes you heard it right, once Amitabh Bachchan when he was broke and was not getting films and had a lot of loan on him agreed to do a B grade film, BOOM and it was super flop.

3) Sherlyn Chopra - The actress admitted that once she slept with a very famous producer( you know him) to get a very big movie project.

4) Mamta kulkarni- It is surfaced that she slept with a famous director at that time Rajkumar Santoshi, when the China gate shooting was underway, he even told her to get naked in front of the crew and it is said that she did so that her screentime could increase.

5) Ranveer Singh and Siddharth Malhotra - This is most controversial, once when these both actors were struggling in their careers and not getting films they did a threesome with Karan Johar in order to get som Kalkie good projects🤤. At that time it got a lot of attention.

6) Kalki Koechlin- She made a startling revelation that once a producer with his two colleagues froced her to sleep with them at the workplace but she refused.

7) Chitrangda Singh - She made a revelation that once

on the sets Of Babolumoshai Bandookbaaz she was forced by the director to do the prolonged kissing scene of around 12 seconds with nawazuddin siddhiqui by getting on top of him, actually he did this purposely to fullfil his fantasy.

As we know the Bollywood has many dark secrets and these are just stroies which surfaced at that time so just read it and enjoy…

Which Bollywood actor/ actresses had a promising career but ruined it with bad decisions?

• Rajpal Yadav: Rajpal Yadav is synonymous with humorous acting. He was born in a simple house hold but always wanted to be an actor.

• Training: Well, he has gone through a diploma course in acting from famous Bharatendu Natya Academy in Lucknow, Uttarpradesh. He also studied drama at prestigious national school of drama.

• Praise: He has won acclaim through his talent in various movies-Jungle (screen award for a negative role); Road;Chandani Bar;Mujshe Shaadi Karogi etc
  [1]

• Imprisoned: For reasons best known to him; he got involved in a financial fraud case and spent ten days in prison. 
  [2]
• Then, he was further sentenced to spend three months in prison by respective court.
  [3]
   Undoubtedly, it ruined his good image and career .
• Pic credits: Google

Disclaimer:

It is neither spam, troll nor meant to disparage anyone. It sticks to guidelines issued by Quora. Thanks.

Footnotes

[1] 

Rajpal Yadav - IMDb

[2] 

Rajpal Yadav after his jail term: People misused my trust

[3] 

Actor Rajpal Yadav sentenced to three months in jail in Rs 5 crore recovery suit

Which Bollywood actresses’ careers end after marriage?

 My top 11 actresses who ended their career after marriage:-

1. Asin Thottumkal

“She tied the knot in 2016 with Micromax’s CEO Rahul Sharma. After that, she did not sign any new assignments. She wrote on her Instagram account, “For all my media friends who still have not got the message, I’m once again reiterating that I have stopped taking up any assignments and have wrapped all my commitments before my wedding itself including my brand endorsements. “

2. Amrita Arora

“She got married in 2009 to a businessman Shakeel Ladak. Since then she is enjoying her marital bliss. She is now a mother of two Azaan and Rayaan.”

3. Mandakini

“The people of the 90s only know about the magic spell that she cast on the audience. She married a Buddhist Monk in 1990. She lives in Mumbai with her family and conducts Yoga classes.”

4. Sonali Bendre

“Sonali is a diva, witty and fashionable. She worked in many super hit movies. She married Goldie Behl in 2002. After her marriage, she was only seen as guest appearances in some movies.”

5. Saira Bano

“She won the hearts of the Indians with her charm and skills. She married Dilip Kumar in 1966. She sacrificed her own career so that she can lead a happy married life with Dilip as he was a very famous actor of his time.”

6. Babita

“Babita was married to Randhir Kapoor. Her in-laws did not want her to work as an actress post marriage. After few years the couple separated, and after two decades they started living together again. “

7. Meenakshi Sheshadri

“She ruled the box office during the late 80s. She married an investment banker Harish Mysore and moved to the USA. She is delighted with her family and teaches Indian dance forms there.”

8. Bhagyashree

“She is a sugar syrup. She was the crush of every second guy in the 90s era. She came into limelight after she did her first role in Maine Pyaar Kiya. She married at a very young age of 19 to actor Himalaya. She had said that she sacrificed her career for the most important person in her life.”

9. Twinkle Khanna

“These days she is popularly known as Mrs Funnybones. She left the silver screen after marrying Akshay Kumar in 2001. She has established herself as an interior designer and an author.”

10. Genelia D’souza

“I have adored her ever since I saw her for the first time in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. In 2012, she married actor Riteish Deshmukh and is now a mother of two boys.”

11. Namrata Shirodkar

“She again was a very famous actress of the 90s era. We saw her in popular movies like Vastav, Bride and Prejudice, etc. She married Tollywood actor Mahesh Babu in 2005 and quit the industry. She won the Femina Miss India title in 1993.”