The benevolent love for bollywood amongst Indians is seen worldwide and there lies no doubts that the Indian audience is mad behind bollywood to such an extent that a child dreams of being like Shah Rukh Khan.
Out of the 200 Hindi films made in India each year, around 150 are made in Bollywood. These Bollywood films are released throughout India on both big and small screen formats, with several of them being screened overseas as well.
The major regional film industries are Tamil and Telugu, which together earn around INR 15 billion, followed by Malayalam, Bengali and Punjabi. With increased viewer exposure to a plethora of entertainment options on satellite television, the number of regional films produced annually has fallen from around 800, three years ago, to around 650 currently. The movies in India have been broadly classified into following categories for publicity purposes.
A: Gentry movies.
B: Mass movies
Gentry movies are the ones which are made for the audience with special tastes.
Movies for kids, college students, young couples etc fall in this category. These movies have done well recently due to the advent of multiplexes. Mass movies are made for audience who are interested in pure entertainment value of the movie. These movies appeal to a broad set of audience in the middle class and lower class of the society like the daily wage workers, rickshaw pullers etc.
Teasers
In the world of entertainment branding and promotion, where promos and trailers create viewer perceptions, teasers play a very vital role when it comes to films and their marketing.
A teaser is all about illusion and aura. It is about creating that ‘glimpse of mystery’ about the film just before its theatrical release that will eventually attract more audiences to the theatre with a motive to demystify the perception created.
A teaser for a film is essentially created to drive in the maximum number of viewers to the theatre in the first week of the film’s release. This is because post week one, the fate of the film at the box office completely depends upon its content. Thus, by using effective teasers, producers seek to drive in maximum viewers for the film during the first week and generate maximum revenue.
Creating a teaser for any film involves huge financial risk. Hence, creating it effectively becomes a must. An effective teaser needs to create a lot of anticipation. It needs to mock, annoy and arouse. Ideas need to be spinned off differently and effectively. A well knitted teaser should not steal any scene from the movie; however it has to get the core idea right. The teaser of the low-budget American horror film “The Blair Witch Project”, released in 1999 showed an “absolute black” screen powered by a strong voice over. The voice over was filled with “intense fear that generated post the completion of a summer project.
The teaser does not speak anything about the film. It only throws a punch of fear at the audience, thus encapsulating the core idea of the film - fear. This is what an effective teaser is all about. It creates a mystery about the film thereby calling the viewers to watch the film and demystify the mystical.
As aptly summed up by Frame by Frame creative director Anita Olan ,“Teasers are always the best way to engage the curious viewer; and to tempt, engage, and create anticipation amongst the viewers, one need to build effective teasers. Also remember, it’s always ok to mislead. In fact deceive the viewer first, only to leave him with a surprise at the end.”
However, sometimes messages that arouse sentiments in the audience are also used. Lagaan and Gadar are good examples of successfully using the audience sentiments to their advantage.
Lagaan
The theme of the movie was a tightly guarded secret. Posters and teasers gave no hint of what the movie was about. The movie music was promoted. The music was very successful. This generated an enormous amount of curiosity for the movie among the audience. The movie was released all over the country at the same time. This generated a big initial week collection. However since the length of the movie was 4hrs, only 3 shows per day could be screened. This resulted in some losses. After the first weekend the marketing strategy was changed and the cricket match in the film came into focus. India is a cricket crazy country. How can Indians ignore an India vs. England match set in the British raj era?
Gadar
This is a good example of how the public sentiment can affect the fortunes of a movie. The advertisements aroused public sentiments by highlighting Sunny Deol’s rhetoric on Pakistan and showcasing partition riots in graphic detail. This movie of the masses used the lay man’s sentiments of patriotism to its advantage. The Music of the movie was an added advantage.
Both Lagaan and Gadar enjoyed great success after the first week because of the good quality of the movies. Mouth to mouth publicity played a major part in the success of these movies. It is said that people in villages travelled in trucks and tractors to the cities to watch Lagaan and especially Gadar. We can safely conclude from these examples that if a movie successfully appeals to public emotion, then it is sure to generate a good mouth to mouth publicity.
To analyze various messages and styles used by film promoters, attributes and factors relevant for promotion of 3 different films of different genres were analyzed from promotion and publicity point of view.
Film 1 - JODHA AKBAR
Period film and a love story
Sole release of that week.
Star cast of Hritik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai.
Hrithik - aishwarya chemistry after success of Dhoom 2
Ashutosh Gowarikar is the director with a great track record.
Good music and meaningful lyrics.
Larger than life portrayal with grand jewellery and costumes.
Tie up with Tanishq for Jewellery.
Extremely lengthy narration of the story. (4hrs)
Controversy surrounding historical facts created buzz
Film 2: HANUMAN
Animated movie with an Indian mythological character as the lead.
Kid’s movie. The cute face Bal Hanuman and his pranks appeal to child audience.
Brand Hanuman used for merchandising.
Hanuman fighting with devils in new Hollywood styles (Matrix)
Movie making a statement on current state of affairs.
Hanuman is already known to the Indian audience.
Film 3: OM SHANTI OM
Shahrukh Khan
Catchy music.
Recreation of the 70s setting.
Expectation and curiosity generated for the debutante Deepika Padukone
Promotion on TV shows – all music reality shows like Koffee with Karan
Promotion in cricket matches coinciding with the release.
Director Farah Khan - Reputed for good Choreography
Sharukh’s Six pack Abs hype
Multi star song sequence - “all hot girls” created a hype
Released during Diwali – audience looking to kill some free time
Controversy related to Manoj Kumar created hype.