Ever since ‘The Kashmir Files’ was released, the film has been a hot topic for netizens to debate openly. Vivek Agnihotri’s film earned mixed reactions over time. Despite all of it, the movie rose to fame and broke all possible records at the Box Office. However, the movie’s IMBD rating has raised several eyebrows.
Manipulated IMDb ratings?
During the release of the film, the movie was given a 10/10 rating on the IMDb website which created huge confusion in the minds of viewers. In a series of Tweets, Twitter users alleged that IMDb ratings are bene manipulated.
To be noted, IMDb ratings are based on the votes by its registered users. People cast their votes from one to 10 on a particular film. Later, these votes are aggregated and restated as a single IMDb rating.
This Twitter user explained how IMDb ratings are manipulated, and how many stars and filmmakers use it for their benefit.
Rejoicing an Indian film winning IMDB's GOAT rating?
As someone who studies these things, we only won the population war.
You can go watch Kashmir Files to confirm if it is the greatest film ever, or I can explain with data, if that does anything for you, why @IMDB is broken pic.twitter.com/4F2l49INhX
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
Kashmir Files has a near total top end rating. Films don't get rated as magnificent universally. Usually there is a spread of people who love, hate, and most importantly, have moderate opinions.
See for instance comparison with Godfather and Dark Night, high rated films on IMDB pic.twitter.com/iIXhyMveNp
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
The biggest loser of this is @IMDB. One can safely assume that its rating system is largely useless for any Indian film/star, which activates a vocal minority w/strong opinions & experience gaming platforms (read Twitter trends).
Gainers include @RottenTomatoes & film critics
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
The win of Kashmir Files on IMDB is a great case study of misinformation, in technical terms 'astroturfing' or a flood of activity presenting as reality something is the narrative of a small but very loud minority.
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
Pointing out the false play in the rating of the movie, he said that earlier several South superstars in Tamil & Telugu cinema have profited with such tactics.
And this of course is about the nature of what gets going on IMDB — big popular blockbusters do much better than smaller independent films. It does not offer the critic/viewer nuance of @RottenTomatoes (except if you dig)
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
He also suggested that those depending on IMDB must look at the “top 1000 voters” under the rating section.
If a film crosses 4/10 on the IMDB top 1000, its probably worth a shot.
Over 5/10, probably very worth watching.
Over 6/10, it is a fantastic film.
This rating system unduly prefers drama over comedy/masala, though even the best among Satyajit Ray's films barely cross 7/10
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
Such a metric likely downgrades Indian film and narrative style of filmmaking, but a much safer metric if you are choosing what to watch and don't want to try again after five minutes after starting a film.
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
Now back to Kashmir Files, its top 1000 voter rating on @imdb is…… 1/10. The lowest rating possible.
This in a nutshell is how the information environment, especially around major products with wide consumer uptake, is verifiably muddy in India. pic.twitter.com/wp5NDVU0Ea
— joyojeet pal (@joyopal) March 13, 2022
As IMDB ratings were showing 10/10 ratings, the online database company stated that they have noticed ‘unusual voting activity on the film. Hence, they used an ‘alternate weighting calculation’ and dropped the rating to 8.3 stars.
On catching this change in the ratings, the director of the film Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, termed it ‘unusual and unethical’.
THIS IS UNUSUAL AND UNETHICAL. https://t.co/Iwcc7yQCGk
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) March 14, 2022
