Filmmakers giving out inflated box-office figures to the media and posting them on social media has become a norm now. A few media people are even bribed to endorse these claims. But there are two sides to a coin and, similarly, social media also has people with ‘For’ and ‘Against’ viewpoints. So, in the end, it is all a futile exercise. People see through them.
Now, even film stars, from Akshay Kumar to Amitabh Bachchan, lament the missing audience in the cinemas. But there are also some irresponsible and foolish actors who make public statements, like “we are not asking audiences to come watch our movies!”
Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Tapasee Pannu and Alia Bhatt went on the record with such comments! Who do you think films are made for? Only for the stars to make money? But where will the money to pay you come from if you tell the audience that you don’t need them?
Coming back to box-office performances, the production houses loved to flaunt the figures of the overseas business along with the domestic figures. It is surprising therefore that no filmmaker or star has boasted about the overseas business of his film recently! Why not flaunt inflated collection figures like the way they do with the domestic business?
Is it probably because all ticket sales are accounted for? That they are available to the public as the ticket sales happen?
All that, but most of all because the overseas business is as poor as it is in India. In most cases, the lifetime collection of recent releases are less than even the opening day collections of films that hit the screens, say, a couple or three years back!
Take a look at the figures of the recent films of Akshay Kumar: ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, ‘Raksha Bandhan’, ‘Ram Setu’ and ‘Mission Mangal’ are way below films such as ‘Good Newwz’ and ‘Kesari’ in the overseas market.
The lifetime collections of ‘Ram Setu’ are $2,26,461, ‘Raksha Bandhan’ $4,83,245 and ‘Bachchaan Pandey’ $6,54,582, against the first day of ‘Good Newwz’ ($13,83,892) and ‘Kesari’ ($12,96,688)! These are collection figures from the UK, UAE, Australia and New Zealand. All figures are in US$.
This falling collection trend is not limited to just Akshay Kumar films. Figures of Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ compare poorly with ‘Dangal’, despite a six-year gap between their releases.
‘Dangal’ opened with $24,51,000 in UAE, as against $6,06,000 in the case of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’! A mere 25 per cent. Even in Turkiye, where Aamir visited the presidential palace, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ could manage just $29,700 opening compared with $56,400 of ‘Dangal’.
–Vinod Mirani
