HOT: Box office figures fudged?

The next time you come across a film promotion ad which says super hit, think twice. It doesn't take a hit film to put up ads because whether a film is a hit or not this is all part of a planned promotional campaign.

There may be ads that say a film has collected Rs 100 crore but does it really matter to the movie buffs?

"Sometimes producers publish super hit posters even before the film has released. It's clear that some producers play with the audience when their film is not working," filmmaker Supran Verma said.

DON'T MISS: The Kambakhht Ishq movie review

A case in point is the recent release Kambakhht Ishq. Considering the high profile star cast, a flamboyant producer and Sylvester Stallone as an added attraction, this film was expected to be a big hit at the box office but destiny had different plans for the film.

It has been over two weeks and the film is far from recovering its cost. It has reportedly made Rs 62 crore but the ads in the papers insist that the film has already collected Rs 100 crore. So the facts obviously differ.

In the past too there have been many filmmakers who have claimed a lot more than their films have collected. For a long time the producers of the biggest flop of 2009 Chandni Chowk to China claimed that the film is running to packed houses but even there the reality was something else.

Only later when the theatre owners started to pull out the film from the screens a week after its release that it was clear that Akshay Kumar was not able to draw the crowds this time.

The ads of last years biggest dud Love Story 2050 also said that the film at some point was running successfully. But this never happened. Even Yashraj studios claimed that their film Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic performed well at the box office but the film was a complete washout.

Though, we have reached the multiplex age, the Indian box office remains disorganised and some producers clearly take advantage and tamper with box office figures.