Word you are looking for.... is MARKETING !!!!

You've got to be living on another planet if you haven't heard of the two mega movies releasing this Diwali weekend. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus 'Saawariya' and Farah Khan's reincarnation drama 'Om Shanti Om'. The marketing of both the films has almost gobbled up the entire media space, be it television, print media or the hundreds of hoardings around the city of Mumbai. Seriously....check out the huge hoarding of 'Saawariya' at Juhu and you'll know what I mean. While I am personally waiting eagerly for both the films, what concerns me is that the publicity of both these films has taken over in such a way that all the other films releasing around the same time as them will have to pull up their socks just to get noticed and make the audience aware of their existence.


These include Imtiaz Ali's Shahid- Kareena starrer 'Jab We Met' , Pradeep Sarkar's (Parineeta) Rani Mukerjee-Konkona Sen starrer 'Laaga Chunari Mein Daag'. Both the films are expected to cater to the family audience with clean wholesome entertainment and need to make their presence felt by some aggressive last minute marketing as both the films are by directors whose first films (Imtiaz Ali's 'Socha Naa Tha' and Pradeep Sarkar's 'Parineeta') showed a lot of promise and I feel both their new films are potential winners at the box office if they manage a good enough initial opening, because thats what will seal the deal for them. The Ramzan period will be over around the release of these films and the holiday of Dusshera could add to the opening figures but the importance of a strong marketing campaign cannot be ruled out.


While the only film that seems to have gotten its footing perfectly right in this game from the word go is Priyadarshan's comedy drenched horror film 'Bhool Bhulaiya'. From the very first teaser to the song promos to the recent dialogue promos, the film has been marketed excellently and the audience interest has been raised with every passing day. While Laaga Chunari Mein Daag's promotion started with a bang with its 2 minute first look being released in Yashraj Films ' last big release- 'Chak De India'. The marketing campaign of the film after that has been surprisingly tepid especially because its a Yashraj release and the people at YRF are known for mind boggling expertise in the marketing department. Another weak link affecting the promotion of the film is its lack of popular music which is an important factor in promoting any film these days. Even the latest promotional video of the title track lacks the punch that one would expect from the powerful lyrics with the fiery vocals of Shubha Mudgal and an incredible recital by Meeta Vashisht. The illustrious production house had kept the marketing of its last release 'Chak De India' low key as well, but this strategy might just backfire this time as its not a Shahrukh Khan film they are dealing with, rather, its a women centric film where they need to pull in the huge female segment of the audience who really need to be wooed into the theatres with some aggressive promotion targeted just at them.

Why else do you think packets of 'bindis' were handed free with tickets at small centers at the release of Sooraj Barjatya's super successful 'Vivah'. Special shows were arranged for women where there were lucky draws to be won....the big prize being 'sarees' and 'bangles'. Box Office report - 'Vivah' was one of the biggest hits last year.
And it captured the hearts of college goers in Mumbai to Basanti didi, my maid back at my home in Gwalior, a small town in Madhya Pradesh. Oh and by the way, Basanti didi had not ventured out to watch a movie in a theatre since Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Devdas' in 2002. So what got her to spend the 30 bucks per ticket for her and her family to watch a movie that didn't have huge sets or big names like Shahrukh Khan or Madhuri Dixit !!!!




Well I hope all the above discussed films get a brilliant response at the box office.... They've got a lot of money riding on them and a lot of careers hanging on them. But most importantly.... all of them seem to be well made, decent entertainers and it would be a shame for someone's hard work go unnoticed just because of the lack of appropriate marketing. Yup.... Thats the name of the game in today's blink and miss extremely short attention span of the audience....Marketing !!!!