Bollywood goes over the top with marketing

Mumbai : While the city is abuzz with the latest news about Saif Ali Khan and a South African businessman, Iqbal Sharma's fight at Taj Mahal hotel recently, it is interesting what kind of reaction this altercation has evoked.

While followers may be cleaved into the for-Saif, against-Saif camps, there are the skeptics who believe this may be a publicity stunt for Saif's forthcoming movie, Agent Vinod. While this may sound incredulous, it shows the trust deficit created by the huge hype and the publicity-ke-liye-kuch-bhi-karega tendency these days.

In Bollywood today, if the box-office is King, then marketing is the Queen. The big bucks as they flow into promotional tours, ad campaigns, corporate tie-ups and television appearances sometimes add up to more than the budget of the film that is being promoted.

As Hema Malini recently realised. The 'Dream Girl' went through a nightmare situation when she had to complete, promote and release her daughter Esha Deol's film 'Tell Me Oh Khuda'. Shudders Hema, "I had no idea marketing a film had become so expensive. Our budget for promotion and marketing was just not enough. We found ourselves at a loss no matter how hard we tried. I feel nowadays marketing a film is becoming a battle, in fact it is a bigger battle than completing a film. In my heyday, we did a film, and then forgot about it. Very often I didn't even know when my film was released. Today, you can't afford to be oblivious. You have to be right up there hardselling your product."

That's exactly what Shah Rukh Khan did with his much hyped, a lot of people within the industry say over-hyped, 'Ra.One'. The marketing blitzkrieg left nothing to chance. 'Ra.One' had to click.

Compulsory

Producer Harry Baweja who last made 'Love Story 2050' to launch his son Harman in 2008, is yet to survive the stunning budgetary blow dealt by the film's failure. Harry Baweja thinks marketing is a must. But it can't sell a bad product to the public. Says Baweja, "Today marketing has become more important than making a film! You make a good film and it goes to waste if no one comes to see it.

At the same time, no matter how much marketing one does one has to make a good film to make it work. But yes, even a not-so-good film can scrape through with good marketing. Hence, to secure one's investment the magic mantra is marketing. Money spent and the awareness created about a film is proportionate to the cost of the film's production. The more expensive the film is, the more number of prints are needed to rake in collections, so more awareness is needed and therefore more money spent on marketing. 'Ra.One' did just that. It spent on marketing what was required."

Experts

Subhash Ghai has a theory on why marketing has become a cyclonic ritual during the release of every film. "The number of marketing experts in our film industry is ten times more than content writers. Their voice thunders louder than the products. 'Dabangg', '3 Idiots' and 'Bodyguard' were advertised for their content rather than the stars promoting the films everywhere."

Ghai feels the film industry needs to create a balance between the product and the expectations built around it. "Over-promotion by stars can kill a reasonably good product. On release, audiences rush in and feel cheated if a bad product is aggressively promoted. That's the initial draw. But true success of a movie is measured on Monday and Tuesday. In the 1980s and '90s Tuesday's afternoon show was the true barometer of a film's

success."

Saturation

Mahesh Bhatt too agrees that the opening weekend is all-decisive. "In a landscape saturated with entertainment product marketing is crucial. The opening weekend is the be-all for films the world over. If you over-promise and under-deliver you're bound to end up with egg on your face."

Bhatt feels marketing has benefited 'Ra.One'. "In spite of an orchestrated smear campaign, it has managed to hold its own." Producer Bunty Walia who suffered a serious financial setback with his film 'Lamhaa', feels marketing is about intelligent marketing. "That's what you need to lure audiences into theatres. How much a producer dedicates to marketing is an individual decision. To each his own!"

Promise

Entertainment analyst and Chairperson of Reliance Entertainment, Amit Khanna believes marketing is really important for a movie. "However Indian film producers tend to waste money by trying to impress each other rather than target their target-audience. Most star appearances on television are of no help. Over-promotion rather than clever marketing is the norm here." Former UTV executive and now co-owner of the newly-formed film company Phantom, Vikas Behl feels marketing is a necessary evil. "You aren't just competing with other films.

You're also competing with everything and everyone who is screaming including your wife. Marketing is a promise that needs to be heard, believed and delivered. Over commitment and non-delivery are unpardonable."

Shailendra Singh, CEO of Percept Pictures feels stars are getting snarled in the myth that hype leads to big openings. "In the process, content is getting marginalised and audiences are shortchanged. Market investments are increasing because of the over-competitive over-saturated Friday releases. There is no defining capping on expenditure.

Tactical marketing and distribution are important." Ramesh Taurani of Tips feels marketing is compulsory. "We release in all centres on the same day. A film never suffers due to excessive marketing. It suffers only when the content is a letdown."

Sustain

Ramesh's brother, producer Kumar Taurani cites the example of 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'. "Despite its impressive cast it didn't become hot until a few days before release when they came out with a new strategy of city-to-city promotion. Marketing takes lot of time and is a huge burden on those who are involved in it."