Salaar Box Office Scam: Netizens Call Bookings 'Fake'; Say “Home screening in a closed cinema”

Fan wars that broke out due to the clash between them Shah Rukh Khan's 'donkey' And Prabhas''Salarturned ugly after allegations of a “ticket scam” started doing the rounds on social media.
According to reports, Prabhas's film has surpassed Shah Rukh Khan's 'Dunki' by over Rs 300 crore at the Indian box office, while the latter has crossed the Rs 160 crore mark, despite the debut. As both films gear up for another long weekend at the box office, social media platforms are abuzz with discussions and accusations related to their box office numbers and ticket sales.

Days after Salar's release, netizens claimed that the makers may have engaged in questionable practices by inflating box office numbers and offering “full house shows” even in theaters that appeared to have closed their doors. Hashtags like “Scammer Salaar” quickly topped the top trends as users accused the filmmakers of resorting to “booking companies and agents” to artificially boost the film’s box office numbers.

#Salaar Morning at 6 AM and 7 AM showing full house at Krishna Cinema, Buxar (Bihar) which closed 6 years ago,” read the tweet.
“BookMyShow showed all the morning shows in full but in reality, the malls were closed during show time,” another noted.
Another noted, “Everyone talks about the morning shows, but the biggest scam is the night shows. All the evening shows are empty, and suddenly the late night shows are on HF!! And that too on a work day!”

According to Times Now, southern industry expert Ramesh Bhalla revealed that some theater chains have started bookings for 9am shows in Telugu-speaking states without the knowledge of distributors and fans. “No one will go to the shows,” Bala expressed doubts, predicting that such a decision would inevitably backfire.
Bala also highlighted the prevalence of agency bookings in the industry, stressing that such practices were not limited to 'Salaar' and 'Dunki'. He highlighted instances where booking apps wrongly portrayed theaters as “full”, only for moviegoers to find them empty on arrival.

To address the controversy and obtain accurate box office numbers, he recommended relying on the numbers announced by the film's producers, stressing that the ongoing fan wars over inflated or deflated numbers must end.