This is one of the discussions about corporate bookings in Indian cinema. Here, companies buy mass tickets for marketing purposes. Some consider it deceitful, and others as marketing.
The problem gets worse when it is referred to as “self-booking,” where producers buy mass tickets to deceive the public and give a false feeling of demand.
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According to trade analyst Ramesh Bala, corporate bookings in films that claim ₹500 crore can bring in as much as ₹30-40 crore. But it does not end there.
A film like Adipurush or Bade Miyan Chote Miyan has been accused of self-booking, in which the producers bought tickets for themselves in order to inflate the number of attendance during the opening weekend.
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Corporate bookings are unethical and self-bookings involve actual sales. According to trade expert Sumit Kadel, such practices generate false hype, misleading audiences and making them lose faith, especially when the film does not deliver as it is expected to.
Inflated statistics say Ramesh Bala, make audiences lose their trust. He adds that there is more buzz than information sought. False counts can have short-run effects on demand but when found they eat away at credibility over the long haul.
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The tactics can only be stopped if the box office reporting is transparent. A way of regaining confidence and integrity is through focusing on true success and brilliant stories rather than hype.
