Innovation fuels Bollywood's publicity drive
Webindia123 - India
New Delhi : Marketing and publicity campaigns of Bollywood
films have come of age. As television promos and
larger-than-life posters become passé, Bollywood laps up the
latest buzzword - Innovation.
"The audience of today have a limited attention span. A movie
has to make an impact on the first day of release. Its fortune
is decided in three-four days," says Tarun Tripathi, the
marketing head of Yashraj Films.
Tarun had head the marketing of "Hum Tum", another Rani
Mukherjee-starrer, for the same banner. The film co-starring
Saif Ali Khan, essaying the role of a cartoonist, was
accompanied by unique promotional stunts - a comic strip in a
popular English daily, a tie-up with a chip brand, and an
appearance in the popular soap "Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin".
According to reports, while a producer would ideally invest
10-15 percent of the total production budget on marketing and
promotions, there are increasing incidents where it is getting
stretched to 20-25 percent.
Here is a string of some such 'innovative' eyeball-grabbing
strategies:
Body beautiful Mallika Sherawat sold tickets of her latest
flick "Bachke Rehna Re Baba" at a theatre in the national
capital.
Actors Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee played pranks on
unsuspecting victims on popular MTV channel show "Bakra" to
promote "Bunty Aur Babli" in which they play cons.
The petite Urmila Matondkar shared her supernatural
experiences on Sony TV's horror series "Aahat" before the
release of her spine-chiller "Naina."
Stripping parties (that did not go the whole hog) were thrown
at major pubs in Mumbai by the makers of "Oops" - a movie
based on male strippers.
Well, though these were just a few of the truly innovative
ways of movie-promotion that filmmakers and producers are
adopting these days, the age-old practice of throwing in a
cameo by a hot star is still going strong.
"Kaal" had Shah Rukh Khan pirouetting with the ever-hot
Malaika Arora Khan. The film, otherwise trashed by the
audience, benefitted hugely from Khan's item number.
King Khan also appears as a storyteller in the new release
"Silsiilay" by journalist-turned-filmmaker Khalid Mohamed,
though the movie's promos fail to highlight this.
Shah Rukh will be seen again in a 'ghostly' cameo in his home
production "Paheli." The promos of this Amol Palekar film are
promoting his presence heavily.
Taking things to another extreme are films that are a product
of market research. B-School dean-turned-film producer Arindam
Chaudhuri's "Rok Sako To Rok Lo" was made after thorough
research, but sank without a trace.
No amount of good marketing, however, can replace the
importance of content. "Often marketing and publicity
campaigns backfire as the success of a film depends on how the
audience accepts it," maintain trade analysts.
-*-
There are no holds barred in innovation, and Bollywood has
probably gathered this lesson well, and profitably too. Tying
up with corporate houses is the latest way to rake in the
moolah.
The launch of Maruti's swanky new automobile Swift, was timed
with the release of "Bunty Aur Babli", and Maruti left no
stone unturned to promote the vehicle. This is considered by
many as a quantum leap from the strategic product placements
in films that Bollywood is so very used to.
Apparently the makers of the Sanjay Dutt-starrer "Plan"
pocketed a net Rs.45 million for promoting Radico Khaitan's
8PM whisky. It's no surprise then that the liquor brand was on
top of consumers' mind for a good six months after the movie's
release.
Reports say Yash Raj Films' senior marketing executive Tarun
Tripathi invested only 10-12 percent of the total production
cost of "Hum Tum" on marketing and publicity. Some
free-of-cost deals got the movie free publicity worth 30-35
percent of its budget.
With such win-win situations for both the producers and the
brands, we're sure to see more of such tie-ups in future.
-*-
While we're going whole hog focussing on careful and planned
publicity strategies, why leave out publicity stunts?
If a Tom Cruise can kiss a Katie Holmes in full public view
just before the release of a movie starring the two, and a
Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie reportedly develop an intense
relationship on the sets of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", do you think
dear ol' Bollywood would be far behind in garnering the fruits
of publicity gimmicks?
The very graphic Kareena Kapoor-Shahid Kapur lip-lock, movie
clips of Ashmit Patel with Riya Sen or threatening calls from
underworld dons to Ram Gopal Varma are all being looked upon
as attempts to get that extra mileage for their films, or in
some cases, media attention to sinking careers.
But hey, everything is fair in love and war!
(IANS) |
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Courtesy: Google News
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