Ranbir Kapoor -Alia Bhatt starrer Bollywood film Brahmastra has been in the news much before it was released on September 9. Initially, when the trailer was released, Hindu groups raised objections because one scene showed Ranbir Kapoor ringing a temple bell with his shoes on. That was the film's first brush with controversies and #BoycottBrahmastra started trending on Twitter.
Next, when the star couple was busy promoting the film, the right-wing fished out a decade-old video of Ranbir Kapoor from the promotions of 'Rockstar' where he said he is a 'big beef fan'. This clip reignited the Twitter trend calling for a boycott of the film. Alia and Ranbir faced protests in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain where the couple had gone for the film promotion last week. They had to cancel their visit to the Mahakaleshwar Temple due to protests from right-wing groups.
Now, when the film has finally been released it has again kicked up a row, this time for the box office collections.
What are the allegations against Brahmastra?
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut has said she refused to believe that the worldwide box office collection of Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva' has reached Rs160 crores in two days since its release on September 9.
Ranaut accused the filmmakers of putting out fake numbers and said that she wants to interview co-producer Karan Johar to understand his 'mathematics' behind the figures. She took to her official Instagram handle and shared a series of stories about Brahmastra's box office collection.
"Released on Friday and on Sunday it's a big hit already and by the way made huge profits also. In ₹250 cr (that also a fake figure). ₹650 cr (reported to be ₹410 cr) budget (including VFX). Just because Prime Focus is co-producer doesn't mean VFX doesn't have any cost. Yeh Karan Johar mathematician ka maths...humko bhi seekhna hai (I also want to learn this maths by mathematician Karan Johar)," she wrote.
While there are different reports that indicate different numbers, what is exactly the box office collection of the Brahmastra?
To understand that, one has to understand how the box office collections of films are calculated. To begin with, it is calculated in a number of different ways resulting in different earnings for the same film.
Did PVR lose hundreds of crores for Brahmastra?
After a Business Insider report claimed that India's largest theatre chains PVR and Inox have cumulatively lost over ₹800 crores in market capitalization because of Brahmastra, the CEO of PVR Pictures took to Twitter to refuting the report.
In a Twitter thread posted on Saturday, he wrote that the film is, in fact, doing splendid business at the chain.
Kamal Gianchandani wrote in his tweets that the news was 'false and negative'. He added, "Is it a lack of understanding or is it intentionally designed to cast doubts? Just so that we don't miss crucial FACTS, I can now confirm that @_PVRCinemas did 8.18 cr Net BO."
How is box office collection calculated?
In her attack on Brahmastra producer Karan Johar, actress Kangana Ranaut raised the question as to why film's gross collections were being shared instead of the nett.
How exactly are the two numbers different? Brahmastra has so far earned Rs 225 crores in gross collections worldwide. The number does not indicate the earnings of the producers or the distributors.
Gross collection of a film is the complete collection of the film from a "specified area of business or the entire released centres." On the contrary, nett is calculated after subtracting rent, government taxes and other bills from the gross collection.
The filmmakers' share in the nett earnings is usually lower given the deductions in terms of taxes and other rents. Collections are calculated differently in different places. While in the US, collections are reported in gross figures, the numbers are reported in terms of nett figures in India. In the South Indian film industry, the figures are in gross. The fact that there has been confusion in Brahmastra film's box office collection could be the varied method of calculation. The film was released in the Hindi belt, Telugu belt and in the US and New Zealand.