On November 19, 1959, the Ford Motor Company finally gave up on its costliest ever mistake, the Edsel. This quiz is about flops and failures, big and small.

Those that failed

1This novel was its author’s first bestseller, the film version was a huge hit, but the musical made in 1978 was one of the biggest flops in Broadway history. Not unexpected, considering a horror novel about a girl with strange powers is hardly easy to replicate on stage. Name the novel and the author.

2In January 2007, Jonathan Burnham of HarperCollins paid a million dollar advance for an acclaimed work by an Indian author set in Mumbai. While the book was well received, it sold just a shade over a fourth of its initial print run of 200,000 copies. Name the novel, which has just been made into a television series and might just enjoy a second run at success.

3Rarely has an actress showed up for a Golden Raspberry award ceremony where she was voted best actress. This actress turned up to pick up her award for this super-flop film, carrying the Academy Award she had recently won. Identify the actress and the film which flopped.

4With which monumental flop in history is a city also named Devagiri associated?

5The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain was started by Stephen Pile to bring together people of ‘notable ineptitude.’ The club’s handbook was The Book of Heroic Failures . According to Pile, why was the Not Terribly Good Club closed?

6In 2010, an acclaimed south Indian director made an expensive flop about a bandit named Beera Munda. Exactly a year later, another Hindi film was released whose name was a homonym of the 2010 film. Name the two films, both monumental flops.

7In 2006, Microsoft finally came out with a portable media player to counter the iPod. It proved to be one of Microsoft’s most expensive flops ever. Name the product.

8The tagline for this product, which debuted in 2001 was, ‘The Leader in Green Transportation.’ The brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen, this was one of the most-eagerly awaited products. Nowadays, it’s seen mostly in malls in the US. Name it.

9Rarely has Aamir Khan delivered a turkey. Yet, even his endorsement could not save this 2009 product from Parle which, despite the huge marketing push, sank without a trace. What was the product?

10In 1983, one of the most-eagerly awaited games on the Atari 2600 platform was based on the biggest Hollywood hits of 1982. This game proved to be the biggest flop in gaming history and more than 700,000 game cartridges were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. Name the game which nearly caused the end of the nascent gaming industry.

Answers

1.Carrie , Stephen King

2.Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

3. Halle Berry and Catwoman . She won the Oscar for Monster’s Ball

4. Muhammad Tughlaq’s attempt in the 14th century to move the capital from Delhi. Devagiri was the original name for Daulatabad. Tens of thousands people died in the move, and the capital was shifted back after eight years

5. The club received over 30,000 applications for membership, making it a complete failure as a failure

6.Raavan by Mani Ratnam and Ra. One directed by Anubhav Sinha

7. The Zune

8. The Segway Personal Transporter, the two-wheeler battery-powered vehicle

9. Monaco Smart Chips

10. ET, based on Spielberg’s film of the same name

Joy Bhattacharjyais a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup

Follow Joy on Twitter @joybhattacharj

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