India, April 7 -- "Please don't quote me, or don't write my name if you do," was the one common thing we heard as we reached out to a number of trade insiders to make sense of the performance of Salman Khan's recent release, Sikandar. Such is the state of disarray behind the scenes of Bollywood's ticket window that very few people want to put their face and name on the line. (Also read: Is Sikandar a hit or flop at the box office? Decoding what the collections of Salman Khan's film say)

Ever since Sikandar released a week ago, there has been buzz about its performance. There is no doubt that the film has not performed as well as a Salman release on Eid ought to. But the narratives thrown around are extreme - with some claiming the film i...