Wikipedia:WikiProject Film/Indian cinema task force/ICTF FAQ
This reference page provides an overview of the Indian cinema task force community's attitude toward sources used in Indian cinema articles. Wikipedia's general content guideline for reliable sources can be found at WP:RS. When contributing to articles about Indian cinema, it is crucial that only resources with established reputations for fact-checking and accuracy be used, and that we use sites with clear editorial policies. This almost always excludes blogs, and sources of that nature. If there is a question about whether a source qualifies as reliable or not, choose a more mainstream, known authority.
Constant updating of box office figures is a relatively fruitless endeavor, and one that is often influenced by corruption, unfortunately. Paid editors, promoters, and fans often inappropriately use Wikipedia to inflate some film finances and deflate the competition's. This manipulation is not limited to Wikipedia, as even Times of India discontinued their box office column after they grew weary of corruption.Archive A real-world example is found here, where some trade analysts express skepticism about box office claims reported by producers of Mammootty's The Great Father. A good example of why we should be circumspect, and why we should avoid primary sources for controversial content like film finances. Other examples can be found here and here, where some sites express skepticism at the box office figures released by producers of Kabali, figures that were also widely reported in otherwise legitimate mainstream sources like Indian Express.
With no central, organized reporting of box office data, it is impossible to establish 100% accurate data about box office figures. Gross values are considered by this task force to be estimates, and as such should be marked in the film article's infobox with the template {{Estimation}}. (See community discussion here) Each reliable site that reports on box office gross is using their own proprietary methods for arriving at this number, and some, like Bollywood Hungama disclose this fact to readers. So when news site A posts an estimate of a film, then news site B posts an estimate an hour later that is ₹1 crore higher, the latter number is no more valid than the first. Generally speaking, it probably makes more sense to wait until the film has settled for a few weeks before fussing over box office values.
Please keep in mind that some of the popular Indian sites have copied content directly from Wikipedia without attribution, which creates a problematic reference loop, i.e. we reference them, but they're actually referencing us. This is very difficult to prove, but astute editors should be cautious that 100% infallible truth is impossible, and we should be circumspect. For a real-world example, see this post, which demonstrates that business-standard.com (17 Feb 2016), hindustantimes.com (16 Feb 2016), timesofindia.com (16 Feb 2016), and daily-sun.com (17 Feb 2016) all seem to copy the plot summary from this 3 Feb 2016 version of Raees (2017 film) verbatim.
Sources generally considered reliable edit
| Source | Website | Rationale | Discussions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABP Live | abplive.in | From their About us page: "ABP News is a popular Hindi news channel from ABP News Network Pvt. Ltd (ANN), the channel was formerly Star news which was rebranded as ABP News on 1 June 2012." Appears to have some editorial oversight from two men who are fond of their chins. Archive | 1 | — |
| Bollywood Hungama | bollywoodhungama.com | — | — | — |
| Box Office India | boxofficeindia.com | Per BOI's About us page, "The figures on the website are not taken from producers or distributors of the respective films but independent estimates from our sources and then cross checked through cinema collections." If true, this suggests that they're not acting as mouthpieces for the production companies (i.e. acting as a primary source by proxy). Archive In mid-2019 we discovered that BOI's budget figures included print and advertising costs. (See this discussion) Worldwide, when people reference a film's budget, they mean the production budget, i.e. the cost of making the film, not the cost of marketing it. So we should try to find a better source for budget than Box Office India. If we have no choice but to use BOI, then we should include notes that clarify that the budget figure is not consistent with other figures. Ex: "(Note: this figure includes print and advertising costs.)" or similar. |
1 | There is a different Box Office India at boxofficeindia.co.in |
| Catch | catchnews.com | The site is owned by the Rajasthan Patrika group. Shoma Chaudhury was an editor at one point.[1]Archive | 1 | — |
| CNN-News18 | news18.com | — | — | — |
| DNA (Daily News and Analysis) | dnaindia.com | — | — | — |
| Firstpost | firstpost.com | — | 1 | — |
| The Hindu | thehindu.com | — | — | — |
| The Hindu Business Line | thehindubusinessline.com | — | — | — |
| Hindustan Times | hindustantimes.com | — | — | — |
| India Times | indiatimes.com | — | — | — |
| India Today | indiatoday.intoday.in | — | — | — |
| The Indian Express | indianexpress.com | — | — | — |
| Mint | livemint.com | — | — | — |
| Mumbai Mirror | mumbaimirror.com | — | — | — |
| NDTV | ndtv.com | — | — | — |
| The New Indian Express | newindianexpress.com | — | — | About page |
| The News Minute | thenewsminute.com | — | — | About page |
| Outlook | outlookindia.com | — | — | — |
| Pinkvilla | pinkvilla.com | Generally reliable for film-related content | 1 | Avoid celebrity gossip |
| Rediff.com | rediff.com | — | — | — |
| Scroll.in | scroll.in | — | 1, 2 | About page |
| Sify | sify.com | — | — | About page |
| The Telegraph (India) | telegraphindia.com | — | — | — |
| The Times of India | timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ | — | — | — |
| Zee News (Essel Group) | zeenews.india.com | — | — | — |
Sources considered unreliable edit
It is not practical to list every site the community has determined to be unreliable. Unreliable sites far outweigh the reliable ones, so caution should always be applied when using a reference that is not on the list of reliable sites. The site-wide Wikipedia community has determined that sources considered reliable are ones that have an established reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, as well as a clear editorial standard. That is, we do not assume that a site is reliable simply because it has not been challenged—the site must have a reputation for that fact-checking. Blogs are rarely considered reliable and sites with poorly-written articles draw scrutiny as unreliable, because they clearly lack a clear editorial standard like that which a professional journalistic source would have. Below is a sampling of sites the Indian cinema task force feels are unreliable. Please take note of what unreliable sources look like, since often when you encounter a dodgy, bare-bones, hastily-assembled site with poor grammar, you are often dealing with an unreliable source.
| Source | Website | Rationale | Discussions | Guidelines | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Box Office | andhraboxoffice.com | Blog with no clear editorial oversight. No About us page. No indication any seasoned journalists are behind it. Does frequently get cited by sources like IBT.[2] | — | — | — |
| Behindwoods | behindwoods.com | May be used for exclusive interviews | 1, 2, 3 | — | Wikipedia articles for Behindwoods were deleted several times. In 2011 the article was PRODed for failing to establish notability. The article was speedy deleted in 2012 for unambiguous advertising. An AfD was held in 2016 with a Delete result over concerns about notability. |
| Box Office India | boxofficeindia.co.in | Questionable reference. In this article by IndianExpress.com, MSG 2's opening week gross is indicated to be ₹102.88 crore, but IE is smart to directly attribute the source of that information to the film's producer. At BoxOfficeIndia.co.in, they report a week 1 gross of 1,028,830,801, or 102.88 crore. That strongly implies that this site is just parroting what producers tell them, which would mean that we were basically using a primary source for controversial data. Contrast this with BoxOfficeIndia.com's data, which shows a first-week gross of 4.02 c, a massive difference. Note also this source, which claims that MSG2 has crossed 400c. (Archive 1), (Archive 2), (Archive 3) Also odd: they have no search functionality. | — | — | Note: This is not the same site as boxofficeindia.com |
| Dailyhunt | dailyhunt.in | News aggregator. Shortens long articles from multiple news sites for users of its app and website. Does not collect the data themselves, so its better to avoid it in favour of more responsible websites. | — | — | — |
| FilmiBeat OneIndia.com |
filmibeat.com oneindia.com |
— | 1, 2 | — | Oneindia's movie imprint was renamed FilmiBeat in 2014.[3] |
| Idlebrain.com | — | May be used for exclusive interviews | — | — | — |
| International Business Times | ibtimes.co.in | See WP:IBTIMES | — | — | |
| IMDb | User-contributed | — | — | WP:USERG, WP:RS/IMDB, WP:RS | Considered community-wide to not be a reliable source. |
| IndiaGlitz | indiaglitz.com | Blog format with no About us page (as of April 2018) and no indication of who runs it or what their credentials are. Some Indian cinema regulars have defended it, noting that other sources like IBN have referenced it[4] (click articles and manually search). May be used for exclusive interviews though. | 1, 2. | — | — |
| Jackace | jackace.in | Blog. | — | — | — |
| Onlookers Media | www.onlookersmedia.in | No clear reputation for fact-checking or accuracy, although sites like IBT have used it as a reference[5] for their own information. From their About Us page, the site was established in 2010 by some people who became friends through Facebook. No indication that any of the participants had any journalism background or training in standard journalistic practices like fact-checking. Archive | — | — | — |
| The Reporter Times | thereportertimes.com | Blog with no clear reputation for fact-checking. No singular "About us" page. Contact page is vague, only noting an editor-in-chief, John Finley, and a senior editor, Jeff Holcomb, but no indication of who they are or what makes them experts in Indian cinema. | — | — | As of July 24, 2016 the site is blacklisted on en-Wiki (some IP-spam) |
| Republic TV | republicworld.com | Republic TV was criticized for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, the Love Jihad conspiracy theory, and other fabrications and factually incorrect information. See WP:REPUBLICTV. | 1, 2 | — | |
| Spicy Onion | spicyonion.com | Site wants to be a film database, but there's no indication of editorial oversight and as of this June 2017 note, there's not even an About us page. To highlight the lack of editorial oversight, note this "film" which was no doubt submitted to that site by a Wikipedia sockpuppet operator, which shows that even a child can get a phony film listed here. There is no presumption of accuracy at this site. | — | — | — |
Not yet determined edit
These links have not yet been discussed specifically by the Indian cinema task force but should largely be avoided, as many have been collected as examples of really poor sources. Most are blogs or random faceless websites with no clear editorial oversight.
| Source | Website | Rationale | Discussions | Guidelines | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123telugu.com | 123telugu.com | — | — | — | — |
| *.allindiansite.com | — | — | — | — | Website not reachable |
| Andhra Cafe | — | — | — | — | — |
| Andhrakaburlu.com | — | — | — | — | Website is dead |
| Bollypedia | bollypedia.in | No About us page. No indication it's run by journalists or industry professionals. | — | — | — |
| Bollywood Break | bollywoodbreak.in | — | — | — | — |
| Box Office Collection | boxofficecollection.in | Blog with no established reputation for fact-checking. As of March 2016, their About us page was very poorly written, implying lack of editorial oversight. Nobody is named as an editor either on that page or on their Our team page. The chief "content writer / manager" on the Our team page is Ankita Gairola, who writes, "I am pursuing my final year of graduation ... Talking about the age I am in my 18+." Clearly not a seasoned journalist. | — | — | — |
| The Boxofficecollections | theboxofficecollections.com | Blog with no reputation for fact-checking or clear editorial policy | — | — | Looks like it may be trying to win accidental traffic from Box Office Collection; Website is not reachable |
| Box Office Hits | boxofficehits.in | Blog with no established reputation for fact-checking or a clear editorial policy. No "About" page, no indication that qualified writers and analysts are involved. | — | — | |
| Indiglamour | indiglamour.com | — | — | — | — |
| Indian Movie Stats | indianmoviestats.com | About Us page indicates blog was established at the end of 2014 making it unlikely that a reputation has been established for fact-checking. Page also doesn't indicate who runs the site or what their credentials are. Archive | — | — | Wants to provide box data for Tamil and Telugu films; Website not reachable |
| Industry Hit | industryhit.com | — | — | — | — |
| Jackwack | jackwack.com | Blog with no clear reputation for fact-checking or accuracy. | — | — | Website is dead |
| KeralaDaily | — | — | — | — | — |
| Kolly Insider | kollyinsider.com | Blog with no clear reputation for fact-checking or accuracy. | — | — | — |
| Kollytalk | Kollytalk.com | — | — | — | Website is dead; redirecting to possible phishing |
| Metro Masti | metromasti.com | Blog with no obvious named writers[6][7] or clear editorial standard | — | — | Website is dead; redirecting to phishing |
| News Bugz | newsbugz.com | — | — | — | — |
| NowRunning | Nowrunning.com | — | — | — | — |
| Radio Sargam | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ragalahari (Tollywood Boxoffice) | ragalahari.com (tollywoodboxoffice.com) | — | — | — | — |
| SKJBollywood | skjbollywoodnews.com | — | — | — | — |
| The Cinemaholic | thecinemaholic.com | — | — | — | — |
| Top Movie Rankings | topmovierankings.com | No clear reputation for fact-checking or accuracy. No indication on their About Us page to suggest that experienced journalists and trade analysts are on staff. Film rankings appear to be user-generated. No indication where box values are coming from. No clear editorial policy. Archive | — | — | Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages are their focus. |
| Track Tollywood | tracktollywood.com | — | — | — | — |
| Upperstall | upperstall.com | May be used for exclusive interviews | — | — | — |