Promos go gimmicky
Tennis player Leander Paes recently joined a flash mob at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to promote Rajdhani Express. Prabhu Deva can be seen grooving to his dance number Muqabla in ABCD: AnyBody Can Dance. However, director Remo D’Souza says that the song is only for movie promotion.
Imran Khan and his Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola co-star Anushka Sharma were recently spotted employing a unique promotional strategy for their upcoming film.
We speak with experts from the film industry about such unique film promotion strategies and ask them if it ticks with the audience or not.
“What I have been observing is that the mainstream Indian film industry is making some serious efforts at segmentation based on a regional marketing strategy by developing publicity material around regional tastes and releasing films in different languages. Given our varied cultural nuances and linguistic and colour preferences, segmentation is both relevant and the way forward. It is emerging as a growing trend in India,” says Pawan Kumar Mishra, assistant manager, programming at PVR Cinemas.
Ever since its inception, movie-making business has changed in leaps and bounds, and now it is a full-fledged business that requires management, advertising, promotion, operational processes etc. “The biggest and one of the most common promotional strategy is the presence of a Bollywood super-hero. This concept in itself is very unique and has been used widely in the Indian film industry. Roping in very popular filmstars like say Shahrukh Khan, or Aamir Khan in new avatars, catches the imagination of everyone,” says trade analyst Amod Mehra.
Actor Rajeev Khandelwal says, “I believe if the content of the film is strong then the promotions can be kept low-key. One of the smart promotional strategies is to keep the posters of the films really innovative, catchy and relevant, and not mere photoshopped pictures of the actors.”
Most experts agree that so far as the script is the hero of the film, the promotions can be low-key. “Most of the times, the elaborate and well-thought promotional strategies are gimmicks to create a media-hype. It may or may not work with the audience. To connect with the audience, the promotions should have a direct relevance with the film. For me Vidya Balan coming out in public with a baby bump for promotion of Kahaani was a real bang on!” says Yusuf M. Shaikh, distribution, acquisition and IPR management head of Percept Pictures.
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