Like a swarm of locusts, they buzz into drawing rooms, cyberspace, TV monitors at malls and the multiplexes. The good ole trailers, once confined to the movie halls — now called promos — can make or break the biggest of blockbusters.

Indeed, if a sneak peek on YouTube doesn’t go viral, the cockiest of filmmakers sense deep trouble. Get the promo right, make the product garam, or the weekend queues at the cash counters are likely to shrink from hordes to a trickle. Aah, here’s yet another New Millennium phenomenon at the movies. Millennium did I say? Reason: The promo fever set in around 2000. A film’s budget would reserve `2-5 lakh for satellite channel-friendly promos, ranging from 30 seconds to two minutes. Today, the budget ranges from `10-50 lakh for those come-hither “sneak peeks” (hate the term really, for its juvenile voyeuristic connotation). The more high-minded filmwallas, or those dipping into the Hollywood lexicon, call it “the first look”.
These are frequently accompanied by lavish media-seducing events from Mumbai, London and Dubai to New Delhi and Indore (where the audience is considered to be commercial savvy). The paparazzi goes haywire, whether the celebrity in attendance happens to be Rajpal Yadav and Kashmira Shah (by the way, where’s she?) or Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha. At the New Delhi airport, I’ve even seen the World Wrestling Entertainment champ-turned-actor “The Great Khali” mobbed by hysterical housewives and baggage loaders.
Much more than individual personalities, nowadays the movies need to tickle the public curiosity. Logically, a director should cut his film’s promos. Nope, the privilege is assigned to specialists. And ever since I can remember a pair of brothers — Ravi and Binny Padda — have been cutting promos. One is a chatterbox, the other’s as silent as the Sphinx. And from their track record of over 500 (at the time of going to press), their promos worked big-time for Lagaan (any reference to cricket was omitted to prevent spoilers), Rang De Basanti and Rajneeti (Ajay Devgn didn’t quite smile at the priority given to Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif though). Since the brothers’ cuts for Dabangg enticed a national craze for those heart-shaped glasses worn by Salman Khan, they’ve sustained their super-lucky status. The Padda Bros had even announced that they would take to film direction (hearsay claimed it would be a comedy titled Chilled Beer Sold Here) but that’s it.
Now, I don’t know who has cut which promo, but quite clearly the dominant one right now demonstrates that Chennai Express boasts of loads of aerial helicopter shots. Shah Rukh Khan states loud and clearly that he is 40 years of age (47, no?). And Deepika Padukone puts on a pidgin’ “Southie” accent which I hope doesn’t persist throughout reels and reels.
Everyone I know in the trade believes that Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara is hot, because of Akshay Kumar’s dialoguebaazi. Er... but the very same trade trackers had gone bananas over John Abraham’s menacing act in Shooutout at Wadala, hadn’t they? Abraham’s Madras Café looks ultra-cool though. Given the fact that it’s directed by Shoojit Sircar, a semblance of quality and political wallop can be expected. As for the teen flick, Sixteen, which vanished faster than summer alphonsos, perhaps it shouldn’t have gone through the promo ritual, at all. Because countless peppery words went “bleep” “bleep”. Who needs that?
Meanwhile, the next downpour of those promos is about to be unloaded, as right as rain, lashing showbiz city.