Shivaji Surathkal 2 distributor claims box office is far more than reported; netizens say, ‘reveal all’

The Ramesh Aravind-led film was brought to theatres by KRG Studios, run by Karthik Gowda, who is also an integral part of Hombale Films

Ramesh Aravind in a still from 'Shivaji Surathkal 2'

Reporting box office figures in Kannada cinema is a dicey matter, what with barely any trade trackers in the game and production houses not forthcoming with official numbers. In the last few years, there’s been an effort to put the spotlight on box office numbers, with a few trackers presenting figures on social media, which, most often, remain uncontested, as they are supposedly close to the truth. Yet, at the same time, audiences also have to believe whatever inflated figures big productions do reveal, which, industry insiders claim are often massively disproportionate to the actual numbers.

If KRG Studios founder Karthik Gowda’s recent tweets are anything to go by, the box office numbers of some of his production and distribution ventures are being under-reported. Not long ago, when a box office tracking handle tweeted that Gurudev Hoysala’s first week domestic gross was in the range of Rs 2.6 crore to Rs 2.9 crore, Karthik had responded saying, “Much more, sir”, but offered no further information as to how much more the “official” numbers were. At the time, Karthik found a lot of support from netizens for ‘destroying’ a handle that claims to present authentic news from Sandalwood.

He's done it again with the same handle, albeit, this time it is for a film that he’s distributed. When a tweet about Shivaji Surathkal 2’s week 1 gross being between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 1.8 crore came, Karthik yet again tweeted, “Much more, sir”. This time, though, netizens demanded that the filmmaker substantiate his claim. There is no point in just saying much more without providing actual figures, they reckoned. One user pointed out that Karthik has been appreciative of how well box office trackers operate in other industries and suggested that if filmmakers like him were to be transparent about box office collections and share said data with trackers here too, it would help them.

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