Monday, 18th November 07:00 PM IST
First it was the critics who were blamed for all kind of unfair practices while rating a film. Then, in the last few years it is trade experts who are under the scrutiny. In the last couple of years, the trade figures and producers'' figures started differing. In case of films like ''Ek Tha Tiger'' and ''Chennai Express'', this difference was less than 10% of the total figure i.e. in region of 8-12 cr nett. But ''Krrish 3'' became the center of debate where this difference is in excess of 50 cr nett!
Eyebrows were raised and hard core box office followers cried foul. We got numerous messages from our readers asking which one was the right and reliable figure. So, we tried to dig deeper and investigate about the whole circus of reporting the figures and manipulating these to break the records.
Distributor Figures Vs Producer''s Figures
First, we need to understand about different ways of reporting the collections in Bollywood. There are few like us, who purely go by the producers'' figures which is one way of looking the things.
We can always compare this with other way of reporting which is the distributor figures. Few sources blindly follow distributors who are scattered all over country, and also under report or over report at times for various reasons.
For example, if a film gets a huge overflow,then under reporting is a natural phenomenon i.e. ''Aashiqui 2'' and ''Grand Masti''. If a film is a big flop, then a bit of over reporting never hurts. The distributors will get adjustments from producer in the next film, so he will go to any length to make others believe that at least he recovered investment in a film which is actually a flop.
Widening Gap Between Figures
Bigger the film bigger the difference due to more number of screens. But actually what happened with ''Krrish 3'' which caused such a huge difference between numbers of producers and distributors.
The whole doubt arises in our mind only when the film entered in the 3rd week. On the 3rd Friday, the film supposedly collected 2.44 cr nett followed by 3.02 cr nett on Saturday and 3.76 cr nett on Sunday - taking the 3rd weekend total to 9.22 cr nett. With only 700 screens, this kind of total is possible only if the film had great occupancy. But if one checks the leading ticket booking portals online, then the situation is almost reverse. It is tough to believe that film collected anything in excess of 7 cr nett. Despite several attempts, no territorial breakdown was made available to us.
Things look more doubtful when you look into details. All PR and online marketing of ''Krrish 3'' was done by a company which handles Hrithik Roshan and incidentally the most popular trade expert is also associated with the same group online. Now this indication and connection should be good enough for your grey cells.
''Chennai Express'' overtook ''3 Idiots'' record with some distance, but ''Krrish 3'' just surpassed''Chennai Express'' records which seems was the most important point.
No matter how much you dwell over this, one thing is true that ''Krrish 3'' is a huge blockbuster and the film is the biggest hit for Hrithik Roshan. How big is the hit will always remain under cloud and we keep our faith with the makers but to answer that important question - what is the real box office collection of ''Krrish 3''? We have only one answer that truth falls somewhere in between. The film will touch 192-195 cr nett including all versions by end of the run for sure.
