Aamir Khan ’s Dangal might not be seeing as high footfall as reported. (Official trailer)

Dangal box office collections: Aamir Khan is currently grabbing headlines for breaking a new record with each new day since the film’s release. As of Tuesday evening, the film’s earnings reached a staggering Rs 155 crore, knocking MS Dhoni: The Untold Story off from the second spot on the highest grossing films of the year. With such figures, you’d expect theatres to be packed – even on weekdays, since the earnings on both Monday and Tuesday have been over the Rs 20 crore mark. Yet, Sucheta Dalal recently raised the issue of Dangal not seeing the expected occupancy in theatres.

In a tweet today, she posted, “How come this happens with #aamirKhan movies? Cannot be a co-incidence. Last time, half of Regal was empty for PK on Christmas Day colaba.” Her statement came in response to a Dangal viewer’s observations, “@suchetadalal available.Still booked 2 tickets.When entered theater,around 15% seats still empty. Same strategy for promotion like #Pk 2/2.”

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At the end of the day, figures/stats can maniplated at will, sans a credible watchdog – there is no stock market-type SEBI to keep people honest. And considering the hundreds of crores and huge reputations at stake, a lot of fixing is always alleged – it is all a part of the larger Bollywood game in which the industry looks to keep its hierarchy in place. Dangal is not an exception, but we should remember this is all alleged, there are interested parties who want to bring the high flyers to ground, and no proof is ever presented or even asked for.

It would hardly been the first time a story that made amazing headlines had next to no basis on true facts. And according to the tweet, PK already seems guilty of this. Is Aamir guilty of fudging numbers of his film’s performance at the box office? The idea awes and shocks fans. The performance records also adversely impact the work of all the other filmmakers and actors that come in second, third, fourth and so on to Dangal or for that matter Sultan, or Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Because for all we know, these films aren’t playing second fiddle to the movie after all. They may well be the real gems of 2016 box office. Maybe.