Salaar box-office scam allegations hit social media, netizens share views

Days after the release of the much-anticipated cinematic marvel titled Salaar: Part 1 - Ceasefire, the makers of the Prashanth Neel directorial have been accused of engaging in dubious practices and manipulating box office numbers, claiming 'house full' shows even in theatres that are shut down.

On 28 December, the film's X handle put out a post claiming the film had crossed a massive Rs 500 crore at the global box-office.

Sharing a video on X, however, a user wrote a day earlier, "Malls are closed at 6 am and open only after 8 am but all shows are sold out before 8 am."

According to media reports, several social media users have claimed that the production house has deleted posts on X about the film's box office collection.

Surprisingly, a cinema which was closed six years ago in Bihar is showing sold out shows for Salaar, claimed an X user.

Another used wrote, “Ye #Salaar ka kya scene chal raha. I cross checked, something fishy is for sure happening, Bengaluru ke Inox Garuda Swagath Mall ke Hindi 2D shows me same time pe 3 shows and teeno housefull. Similar situation in many other cities where morning shows are housfull for Inox and PVR and the show after that is not even fast filling.”

In overseas collections, the Prabhas-starrer was behind Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki despite surpassing the Rajkumar Hirani film by a large margin at home, at least on paper. Dunki managed to cross the Rs 100-crore mark in overseas earnings in five days, according to a Mint report.

The makers are now facing allegations of significant box-office manipulation with claims that they inflated box-office collection figures by nearly Rs 100 crore!

The controversy came to light when the film's official poster indicated a global business of Rs 402 crore within three days. However, several entertainment websites reported the actual figure to be Rs 304 crore.