On YouTube, the teaser of War 2 has garnered 20 million views in Hindi, 3.1 million in Telugu, and 374K in Tamil — adding up to a total of 23.47 million views.
This is, in fact, a low number compared to other films of that size. But these numbers are genuine, and this is the actual result when the views are not bought.
On the other hand, suspicion has emerged with the Hari Hara Veera Mallu song “Asura Hananam,” which amassed over 10 million views within just 12 hours of release.
Many believe this could be a case of artificial inflation to create hype.
Industry observers point out that even global music icons like Taylor Swift usually attract around 10 - 20 million views on the first day of a release, with numbers growing organically over time into the hundreds of millions or billions. In that context, a regional Telugu film song racking up 10 million views in just 12 hours seems almost laughable.
A similar case was with the The Paradise teaser that was released some time back, garnering unbelievable numbers of views within hours, which was again a case of artificial inflation.
Here, the makers of War 2 didn’t focus on any artificial hype for the film by buying views. Though this genuine appeal is commendable, it causes problems for stars who rely on their stardom.
This situation brings up a pointed question — why didn’t NTR’s team focus on boosting views for the Telugu version of the War 2 teaser, especially since Telugu is his home ground?
The relatively low 3.1 million Telugu views are being used by anti-fans to troll the actor, suggesting a lack of local star power.
In today’s digital era, where public perception often outweighs reality, many feel that engaging in the views game — ethical or not — has become a necessity to maintain an image of stardom.
Without such efforts, organic performance could reveal the actual, perhaps more modest, popularity.
