# Ragini MMS
**Ragini MMS** is a 2011 Indian found-footage horror film directed by Pawan Kripalani and produced by [Ekta Kapoor](https://www.edgepedia.org/ekta-kapoor) and Shobha Kapoor through [Balaji Telefilms](https://www.edgepedia.org/balaji-telefilms), ALT Entertainment, and iRock Films. It stars [Rajkummar Rao](https://www.edgepedia.org/rajkummar-rao), credited in 2011 coverage as Raj Kumar Yadav, and Kainaz Motivala as Uday and Ragini, a young couple whose weekend at a secluded farmhouse turns into a nightmare when Uday's plan to secretly film a sex tape brings the pair into contact with an entity haunting the house. The film was inspired by the 2007 American film *Paranormal Activity* and drew on a real 2000s Indian MMS scandal involving a Delhi woman.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms) • [2](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms) • [3](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/deepika-mulls-legal-action-if-ragini-mms-not-shown-to-her/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producers | Pawan Kripalani; Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms) |
| Release | Sources give 12 May 2011 (Bollywood Hungama) and 13 May 2011 (Box Office India, The Times of India)[4](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/ragini-mms/cast/) • [5](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/cast_crew.php?movieid=62) • [2](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms) |
| Genre | Hindi found-footage horror blending sex and horror[2](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms) |
| Runtime | Reported variously as 93 minutes (IMDb/JustWatch), 97 minutes (Box Office India), and 1h 40min (Bollywood Hungama)[6](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/ragini-mms) • [5](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/cast_crew.php?movieid=62) • [4](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/ragini-mms/cast/) |
| Certification | "A" (adults only) from the Indian Censor Board, with three scenes ordered cut[7](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/censors-find-ragini-mms-too-hot-to-handle/) |
| Commercial outcome | Called a commercial success in Balaji Telefilms' 2010-11 annual report and "the biggest sleeper hit of 2011" in later company materials[8](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/balajiannualreports/Balaji_AR-2010-11.pdf) • [9](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/mda/MDA_2013.pdf) |
| Franchise | Sequel *Ragini MMS 2* released 21 March 2014, starring Sunny Leone; web series *Ragini MMS Returns* followed in 2017[10](https://balajitelefilms.com/production.php) • [11](https://www.justwatch.com/in/tv-show/ragini-mms-returns) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and format
Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) and Uday (Rajkummar Rao) have been dating five months when they plan a weekend getaway to a friend's farmhouse outside Mumbai. Uday has arranged hidden cameras in the house and intends to make a sex tape and sell it. Instead, the couple encounter paranormal activity in the house: a voice repeats lines such as "I am not a witch" and "This is my house," Uday handcuffs Ragini to a bed and loses the key, and the ghost ultimately kills others while Ragini survives.[2](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms) • [3](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/deepika-mulls-legal-action-if-ragini-mms-not-shown-to-her/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms)
The film's structure is built entirely from video: handheld camcorder footage and the hidden-camera feeds supply all the optics, in a faux cinéma vérité style. The title refers to MMS, Multimedia Messaging Service, the mobile technology through which illicit sex clips circulated in India in the 2000s.[12](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Ragini-MMS-Movie-Review/articleshow/8267180.cms) • [13](https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/ragini-mms/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms)
### Franchise and availability
The film launched a franchise. *Ragini MMS 2*, a theatrical sequel starring [Sunny Leone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sunny-leone), released on 21 March 2014; press coverage of the period calls it a landmark in Leone's Bollywood career and reports an opening weekend of 240 million (24 crore). *Ragini MMS Returns*, an erotic horror web series, ran for two seasons beginning in 2017.[10](https://balajitelefilms.com/production.php) • [20](https://epaper.navhindtimes.in/PageImages/pdf/2017/09/26/26092017-md-ga-18.pdf) • [11](https://www.justwatch.com/in/tv-show/ragini-mms-returns)
The 93-minute film streams in India on Amazon Prime Video and Hungama Play, including a free-with-ads option on Hungama Play; it was removed from Netflix India on 28 February 2023 and is not available to stream in the United Kingdom.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/ragini-mms) • [21](https://in.flixboss.com/movie/ragini-mms-80083930) • [22](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/ragini-mms)
## Real-life basis and controversy
The story drew on the experience of a Delhi woman, identified in press coverage as 22-year-old Deepika, who had been secretly filmed by her boyfriend during intimacy. Producer Ekta Kapoor met her and incorporated her story into the film, and Deepika signed a contract with Balaji Telefilms. Before release she demanded a private screening, saying she would consider legal action if the film degraded her character.[3](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/deepika-mulls-legal-action-if-ragini-mms-not-shown-to-her/)
In May 2011 the Indian Censor Board gave the film an "A" certificate and ordered three scenes deleted as too explicit: a conversation about aphrodisiac tablets, a scene in which the male lead asks for oral sex, and explicit language used during the couple's intimacy. Several promotional hoardings had earlier been taken down on charges of vulgarity.[7](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/censors-find-ragini-mms-too-hot-to-handle/) • [14](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/ragini-mms-censor-objects-to-3-scenes/articleshow/8186328.cms)
## Reception and influence
Critical responses split widely. The Times of India rated it 3.5/5, praising the realistic performances of the lead pair and calling it "a heady cocktail of sex and horror" distinct from run-of-the-mill Bollywood, while noting that the dim light and grainy video effect grew irksome.[2](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms) [The Indian Express](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-indian-express) gave it 2 out of 5, faulting the film for showing too much where invisibility would have been scarier and for borrowing heavily from the earlier Balaji film *Love Sex Aur Dhokha*.[15](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/movie-review/ragini-mms-2/) The Bangalore Mirror dismissed it as an amateur mash-up of *The Blair Witch Project*, *Paranormal Activity*, and *127 Hours*. A review in *Open* magazine described it instead as a low-budget film so canny it stayed gripping, noting that the Marathi-speaking ghost, subtitled into Hindi, gave the haunting a distinct social and linguistic identity.[16](https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/reviews/an-amateur-attempt-ragini-mms/articleshow/21603603.cms) • [17](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/ragini-mms)
Audience ratings have been middling: IMDb records 5.1/10, and Rotten Tomatoes shows a Tomatometer of 25% from a single counted critic review alongside 50+ audience ratings averaging 2.6 out of 5.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/ragini-mms) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms) The film received Stardust and Searchlight Award nominations in 2012 for Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Actress.[18](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/ragini-mms/2030314325)
Balaji Telefilms' annual report for 2010-11 recorded the film as a commercial success, and later company materials described it as the biggest sleeper hit of 2011. Scholarly work on contemporary Hindi horror places *Ragini MMS*, alongside its predecessor *Love, Sex Aur Dhokha* (2010), among the "low-res horror" films that used cheap digital capture, surveillance imagery, and the MMS-scandal idea to locate horror within technology itself.[8](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/balajiannualreports/Balaji_AR-2010-11.pdf) • [9](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/mda/MDA_2013.pdf) • [19](https://widescreenjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/spectral-pixels-digital-ghosts-in-contemporary-hindi-horror-cinema.pdf)
## References
1. [Ragini MMS, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ragini_mms)
2. [Ragini MMS Movie Review {3.5/5}, The Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/ragini-mms/movie-review/8272923.cms)
3. [Deepika mulls legal action if 'Ragini MMS' not shown to her, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/deepika-mulls-legal-action-if-ragini-mms-not-shown-to-her/)
4. [Ragini MMS Cast List, Bollywood Hungama](https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/ragini-mms/cast/)
5. [Ragini MMS, Box Office India](https://www.boxofficeindia.com/cast_crew.php?movieid=62)
6. [Ragini MMS streaming, JustWatch India](https://www.justwatch.com/in/movie/ragini-mms)
7. [Censors find 'Ragini MMS' too hot to handle, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/censors-find-ragini-mms-too-hot-to-handle/)
8. [Balaji Telefilms Limited Annual Report 2010-11](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/balajiannualreports/Balaji_AR-2010-11.pdf)
9. [Balaji Telefilms MDA 2013, Our Films Business](https://www.balajitelefilms.com/pdf/annualreports/mda/MDA_2013.pdf)
10. [Balaji Telefilms, Past Productions](https://balajitelefilms.com/production.php)
11. [Ragini MMS Returns, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/in/tv-show/ragini-mms-returns)
12. [Ragini MMS: Movie Review, The Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Ragini-MMS-Movie-Review/articleshow/8267180.cms)
13. [Ragini MMS News Archive, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/ragini-mms/)
14. [Ragini MMS: Censor objects to 3 scenes, Mumbai Mirror via The Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/ragini-mms-censor-objects-to-3-scenes/articleshow/8186328.cms)
15. [Ragini MMS review by Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/movie-review/ragini-mms-2/)
16. [An amateur attempt: Ragini MMS, Bangalore Mirror](https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/reviews/an-amateur-attempt-ragini-mms/articleshow/21603603.cms)
17. [Ragini MMS by Ajit Duara, Open magazine](https://openthemagazine.com/cinema/ragini-mms)
18. [Ragini MMS, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/ragini-mms/2030314325)
19. [Shaunak Sen, Spectral Pixels: Digital Ghosts in Contemporary Hindi Horror Cinema, Wide Screen 5.1 (2014)](https://widescreenjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/spectral-pixels-digital-ghosts-in-contemporary-hindi-horror-cinema.pdf)
20. [The Navhind Times, 26 September 2017](https://epaper.navhindtimes.in/PageImages/pdf/2017/09/26/26092017-md-ga-18.pdf)
21. [Where to watch Ragini MMS on Netflix India, Flixboss](https://in.flixboss.com/movie/ragini-mms-80083930)
22. [Ragini MMS streaming, JustWatch UK](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/ragini-mms)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2010s › Hindi films of 2011*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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