After Salaar clashed with Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki, viral reports suggested that Salaar’s makers manipulated box office figures, leading to trends like “Scammer Salaar” on X. Industry experts Ramesh Bala, Girish Johar, and Akshaye Rathi weighed in on the matter, though the authenticity of the claims remains debatable.
South Industry Expert Ramesh Bala, in an exclusive interaction with Times Now Digital, disclosed that when the news broke, Telugu sources, the industry, and sections of the media mentioned that PVR Inox opened booking for 9 am shows in Telugu-speaking states without the knowledge of distributors and locals. He added, “On a weekday if you open Salaar Hindi at 9 am in Telugu states, no one will go for the shows. The decision backfired with media and fans starting to question PVR Inox’ decision to do it without the knowledge of local distributors.”
He went on to add that without going into specifics, it is a fact that there were allegations from both camps (Dunki and Salaar), even before the film released that they were doing corporate bookings, or more specifically proxy bookings.
“Proxy bookings is more about misleading the audience. This was going on from before the release of both Salaar and Dunki by rival groups. There was already a lot of heat even before release, with reports of Dunki getting more screening – a lot of ugly things were happening. The situation turned very ugly, with accusations flying both sides. But there are enough screens across India for both movies to survive,” he explained.
Not a fair decision
Producer and Film Business Expert Girish Johar shared that while there have been certain reports on social media and certain incidences which have been reported that collections on ticketing app are showing houseful, but on the contrary theatres are empty, if such instances are sporadic, one can call it a technical glitch.
“But if it is happening on a large scale just to pump up collections, I do not think that is fair. At the end of the day, anyways, it is the Producer who is losing out. Because if they are promoting this kind of activity, they are paying for it, they are booking tickets in advance even when the auditorium is empty,” he said, adding, “Also when there are certain tickets sold to the public from the app where they see that the theatre is houseful, but on reaching find that it is empty – that too is detrimental. It is a lose, lose situation for producers, It should not all happen at all. It is not adding any benefit to anyone.”
The Flaw In The System
Film Exhibitor and business expert Akshaye Rathi however, questioned the entire flawed system. “Trend around numbers is getting convoluted for the heck of it where no one is actually tracking numbers from credible sources on a a cinema-to-cinema basis before being able to put it out,” he said.
Rathi added that in such a scenario, the only sensible thing to do is to count on the figures declared by producers. According to him, that is the second most authentic thing that any one can do. So the ongoing notion around collections being authentic or fake or inflated or deflated really needs to stop, unless somebody takes the efforts to put it out with some credibility.
In Conclusion
However, in conclusion, Bala added that there is in fact, no need for this kind of acrimony and accusations. “When two movies are releasing together, there is always competition. However, for Salaar and Dunki things became very ugly. While accusations flew, we do not know how much to believe in. It seems much like everything being fair in love and war, the same holds true for box office trends nowadays,” he signed off.
As per latest reports, makers of Hombale Films have decided to treat the audiences with a special surprise and have lowered the ticket rates across the nation in the prominent national chains. The aim behind reducing the ticket price is to make more numbers of audiences come to the theatres in large numbers.