Even though The Kashmir Files, a movie made on exodus of Kashmiri Hindus by Vivek Agnihotri is beginning to gather steam, IMDb, the website that carries ratings and reviews of films and series from across the world, changed its method of calculating ratings of the film citing “unusual voting activity.”
The move has been described by the maker Vivek Agnihotri as “unethical.”
The IMDb page for The Kashmir Files currently shows a rating of 8.3/10 which is the film’s “weighted average” vote as per the website.
Anupam Kher was most recently seen in the latest Vivek Agnihotri directorial, The Kashmir Files which has been doing exceedingly well at the box office since its release. In a recent development, IMDb, the website that carries ratings and reviews of films and series from across the world changed its method of calculating ratings of the film citing ‘unusual voting activity’. The issue was then brought to the attention of the director, who called the move ‘unethical’ as he reacted to it. The Kashmir Files stars Anupam Kher alongside Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumar, Pallavi Joshi, Bhasha Sumbali and many others. The website now shows a note to users that reads, “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.”
According to the IMDb site, here’s what weighted average ratings mean:
“IMDb publishes weighted vote averages rather than raw data averages. The simplest way to explain it is that although we accept and consider all votes received by users, not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system. To ensure that our rating mechanism remains effective, we do not disclose the exact method used to generate the rating.”
A Twitter user brought the latest development to the attention of the film’s director and accused the rating platform of reducing the film’s rating. The director then responded saying the move was ‘unusual and unethical’ and several fans and netizens rallied behind him in support.
