By indiabroadcast
Friday Nov 9 8:15 AM
Crores have been spent on promoting the two most-awaited Bollywood releases of Diwali season, Om Shanti Om and Saawariya. Advance tickets for the two films were sold out days ago and the stars of the two films have been all over TV — all that hullabaloo without the movies being released.Friday Nov 9 8:15 AM
Content be damned; good marketing has ensured that the two films will be hits at least on the first day of screening. Is clever marketing the key to a film's success or is it just an adjunct to content?
CNN-IBN’s Bhupendra Chaubey asked this on Face The Nation to film critic and columnist Mayank Shekhar and Manish Mathur, who represents the marketing agency for Saawariya.
Shekhar was one of the lucky few that got to watch both the films before they were released. Did the hype match the reality?
“At some level there was lot more hype and expectation to a point that it was impossible to meet them. The audience expectation would be impossible to match,” said Shekhar.
But when there is huge ‘hype machinery’ working for the films does the content matter? “It does matter,” said Mathur. “Look at the time the films are being released. You have the Diwali weekend, you have the Indo-Pak cricket series going on and then you have these two movies—the customer is spoilt for choice. For a person who is going to the movies, the content matters.”
Marketing movies is plain business—the cost of tickets matters but so does that of popcorn and cold drinks. But does it give it any thought to content and creativity?
“The moment we speak of event movies, be it Spirderman or Saawariya, they are less movies than products. The dynamics in the Indian movie business has changed—so long as you can get as many bums on movie seats for the first three days the producer makes money. It’s all about the first Friday or Saturday, but if the film is not good the next time they try the same thing with the same cast or filmmaker people are not going to get excited by the hype.
SMS poll on: Is clever marketing the key to a film's success
Yes: 67 per cent
No: 33 per cent
