Hindustan Times (Patna) - Hindustan Times (Patna) - Live
IT’S ALL IN THE PROMOTIONS
Rishabh Suri
Merely making and releasing a movie is no longer enough today. Whether actors love it or loathe it, each film needs to be promoted extensively, to make it stand out, more so because the number of films being churned out has also grown massively.
And apart from innovations such as teasers and twin trailers, there are numerous gimmicks that makers and actors resort to. Many Bollywood films in 2019, take War, for instance, came up with out-of-the-box ideas. Throughout the promotions, the film’s lead actors — Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff — didn’t share the stage together, reflecting the on-screen rivalry they shared in the film. Even for his earlier release, Super 30, Hrithik especially visited Anand Kumar in Patna, the mathematician on whose life the film is based upon, on the occasion of Guru Purnima.
The team of Housefull 4, comprising a huge cast of Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, and Kriti Sanon, among others, travelled in a train to Delhi from Mumbai, all to create buzz around the film.
To promote Gully Boy, Ranveer Singh along with the rest of the cast performed at a concert which was organised keeping in mind the theme of the film, revolving around the life of underground rappers in Mumbai. Ritesh Sidhwani, coproducer, reveals, “Concerts had been done before, too. We did it for Rock On 2 (2017). Here, it was important to make people understand that Ranveer is the guy who has actually done the hip-hopping in the film. And then, for the music launch, we thought what better way to do it among a crowd? We wanted people to relate and identify with the actual experience.”
Ayushmann Khurrana’s Bala revolved around a guy dealing with premature balding. Talk of actors going the extra mile to create a buzz, Ayushmann himself sold tickets for the film, at a Delhi theatre on the release day.
Director Amar Kaushik, on whether such large-scale promotions are the need of the hour, says, “We live in the era of smart technology, tougher competition and reducing attention span. Marketing trategies are developed eeping in mind all these and he changing consumer behaviour — the same goes for films as well. Movies have a limited time frame nd every Friday is a fresh est. So, suitable and ometimes, even quirky arketing becomes critical for filmmakers to grab eyeballs.”
On their part, round the clock promotions could get exhausting for the actors, too. Boman Irani, who has had multiple film releases in the last few years, says, “There are [bigger] budgets that are allocated for the media spendings. I don’t remember doing such promotions for more than a day or two earlier, an interview here or there. Now you have magazines, TV, social media, digital, etc. You put out stuff on YouTube, create content, and do gags, so they put out little snippets.”
Trade expert Atul Mohan explains, “We need to understand where to draw the line. The promotion should convert the anticipation for the film. You can’t do without promotions either. Today, the budget for promotions is equal to making a small film. You've to spend as much money. Say, if you were making a ₹3 crore film earlier, ₹3.5 crore would be the recovery amount. Now, if you are making such a film, ₹3 crores is the promotion amount, too, apart from the budget. It totals to ₹6 crores! It is similar for big-budget films. Otherwise (makers think) they won’t get visibility.”