Previously, only makers and industry people in the know bothered about box-office collections. But now, the audience’s interests are piqued when a film enters the Rs. 100 crore, Rs. 200 crore or Rs. 500 crore club. It also becomes a factor in their decision to watch a film in theatres.

Not too happy by this, actor Gulshan Devaiah says, “Some publicists thought of advertising film collections. Now, even the number of views a web series garnered on a streaming platform makes news. That’s the age we are living in. We can complain or get on with it. Nobody gave two s*** about the numbers before; it used to be about the films’ cultural impact and how it made you feel.”

The 45-year-old, who was appreciated for his roles in the web shows Dahaad and Guns & Gulaabs (both 2023), believes that things can only change if the entire film industry makes a “radical change”. He adds, “People like me cannot do anything about it unless everybody [in the industry] unanimously decides to not publicise the numbers.”

However, Devaiah isn’t too optimistic that something like that will happen, and says, “I don’t think that is going to happen. Everybody sees their own advantage. Unfortunately, this is a metric and that’s the game it has become now.”