‘Pihu’ marketing ploy called ‘disgusting’
A random call with a wailing sound from a child asking for help gets abruptly cut. And when you call back, you get the trailer of forthcoming Hindi film Pihu.
While this marketing strategy did not go well with a section of people, director Vinod Kapri says the intention was only to draw attention to a movie which is offbeat and sans ‘stars’.
Towards the end of last month, a couple of people took to social media to share details of the call, slamming it as ‘a horrible idea, inhuman and desperate promotion strategy’, ‘totally disgusting’ and ‘traumatising’.
“There are many people who didn’t like that, but when you do such films — offbeat, out-ofthe-box, unique kind of films, and when you don’t have a superstar, when you don’t have a big director, sometimes we try to get attention. Many people didn’t like the idea, but there are many people who told us that after that particular phone call, they got to know about Pihu and they will watch the film,” Kapri said.
The Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho director has himself worked extensively in the media industry.
“There are many people who wrote on Twitter that they got to know about the film from that,” he said.
Pihu is set for a UAE release on November 15.
—IANS