A day after he used movie earnings to counter arguments on economic slowdown, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad withdrew his comment on Sunday, 13 October, stating that although his remark was factually correct, it was taken “out of context”.

Earlier on Saturday, Prasad had said that revenues earned by recently released movies like Joker, War and Sye Raa were indicative of how well the Indian economy is doing.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai’s BJP headquarters, Prasad said, “As I was the Information and Broadcast Minister during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's term, I had a certain liking towards movies. There's a huge business by movies.”

Issuing a statement the next day, he alleged that his comment was completely twisted out of context.