How authentic are box-office figures in India? As a box-office tracker, I find that there are no authentic, transparent methods to obtain box-office numbers here. Unlike in India, other film markets, like in the U.S., have box-office tracking services such as Rentrack, which fill the need for independently verified box-office data.
India has an estimated 11,500 screens, out of which 1,162 are in Tamil Nadu. There is a cap on admission rates in the state, and ticket pricing is among the lowest in the country. The box-office data is largely based on figures reported by distributors, producers and trade sources, rather than being directly sourced from theatres.
The collections reported are mere approximations, as producers fear tax authorities. Producers in Tamil Nadu continue to report gross collection figures, which include entertainment tax, as opposed to Bollywood, where net figures are released after all tax deductions have been made. The producer of the recent Ajith-starrer Vedalam , A. M. Rathnam, when asked about the massive collections reported online for his film, simply said it had taken a good opening and went on to become a hit. However, he refused to talk about the numbers that were being bandied about. The only film for which collections were reported officially was Rajinikanth’s Enthiran , produced by a publicly listed company. In many B and C stations, there is no computerised ticketing, making it even tougher to get clear figures.
Last week, Tirupur Subramaniam, a distributor and exhibitor from the Coimbatore area, lashed out through a Whatsapp audio message about the tendency of producers to hype box-office figures using social media. Subramaniam said, “Some people in the trade have become fan boys of actors. Ram Theatre in Tirunelveli on Twitter posted that they collected Rs. 14 lakh on the opening day of a newly released film. It creates an impression among the lay audiences that the film in subsequent days collected ₹14 lakh per day. There are also theatres which announce higher ticket prices and early morning shows, even though it is illegal to do so.”
Last year, Aamir Khan said that box-office numbers are often inflated by marketing teams and actors. Bollywood stars and directors these days are all striving to reach the ₹100 crore club, and many times, cross it by a huge margin in a record number of days. The collection of a Kollywood film is one-third of a Bollywood film, but even then, there are Tamil films which aspire for the Rs. 100-crore tag.
I think Tamil cinema should celebrate when a film collects ₹50 crore — a more plausible figure.
Tirupur Subramaniam adds, “If a film is a hit, all credit goes to the hero, and if it is a failure, he distances himself from it. A hit film means the star’s salary increases overnight. With an abysmal success rate of four or five per cent, production is not a viable option anymore.”
But pressure from fans on social media is forcing some stars to track the box-office. Recently, a Tamil star stated that his film collected ₹10 crore in each of the first three days of the film’s release. This was a highly inflated figure, presented by the star to prove his box-office mettle.
Rentrack, after a failed attempt, has re-entered the Indian market, and mainly tracking big-ticket Hindi films. But it is finding it extremely difficult to do so due to a lack of transparency.
Whatever be the reason behind hidden or inflated figures, the audiences get an idea of the film’s success based on its quality.