Jaaved Jaaferi says Salman Khan's stardom or Urvashi Rautela's 70 million followers don't translate into a ticket-buying audience

Jaaved Jaaferi is gearing up for the release of his upcoming web series 'Oops Ab Kya' and recently opened up about the ongoing debate surrounding social media influence in the entertainment industry. He shared his thoughts on how social media presence doesn’t necessarily translate to box office success and cited Salman Khan and Urvashi Rautela as examples.
In a conversation with Humans of Bombay, Jaaferi disagreed with the notion that a massive online following can determine an actor’s star power. He acknowledged that while social media can provide an initial boost, the real test lies in whether millions of followers can convert into ticket sales.
“Urvashi Rautela has 70 million followers; do her followers translate to a ticket-buying audience? Let’s take 10 million of her followers, which is 1 crore people—if those 1 crore people had bought Rs 250 film tickets, the film would have made Rs 100 crore. It doesn’t work like that,” he remarked.

Jaaferi further stressed that promotional activities and social media buzz alone don’t guarantee a film’s success. According to him, it’s the film’s trailer that plays the key role in drawing audiences to theatres. He believes that if people like the trailer, they will go watch the film, and it has nothing to do with the number of TV shows or dance programmes the actor appears on.
Jaaferi cited the example of Rajinikanth, often hailed as one of South India’s superstars. He pointed out that despite minimal promotions, Rajinikanth’s films often perform well purely because of strong content and audience connection. He added that the movie will perform well if the content has quality.
“A Salman Khan film can get a Rs 10–15 crore opening and can also get a Rs 50 crore opening. It’s what people sense from the trailer. Not all Salman Khan films get Rs 50 crore openings,” Jaaferi emphasised, adding that everything relies on the trailer of the movie, not on the number of social media followers.