Merit over marketing
If Bahubaali 2: The conclusion's success has taught filmmakers anything, it is that they don't need to go all out and promote their films.
S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion making waves at the box office was a foregone conclusion. With the film rapidly climbing the ladder of success, what is it that made the film an instant favourite of fans, eventually crossing the gross of Rs 1,000 crore worldwide?
On Sunday, filmmaker Kunal Kohli had a theory that made sense. The director took to Twitter to take a dig at Bollywood’s obsession with marketing movies on TV and pointed out that none of Baahubali’s stars or crew made an appearance on any reality or comedy shows to “make an a** of themselves, doing silly things and answering silly questions (sic).”
When contacted, the Fanaa director explained that he doesn’t see any correlation between the film and the TV shows that Bollywood stars go on to promote their upcoming movies.
“What has a singing reality show or a comedy show got to do with the premise of the film? Is the film based on any of these themes, is the film about any of these shows?” he questions, adding that such promotional gimmicks do not help the film gain an audience. “Both Baahubali 2 and Aamir Khan’s Dangal — two of the biggest hits recently. The teams did not feel the need to promote their films, but they did well based solely on merit,” he explains.
The filmmaker further points out, “Queen, both the Munnabhai films and Kahaani — didn’t open to great collections on day one, but went on to become blockbusters purely on merit.”
However, most of the industry assumes that promotional gimmicks can make or break a film. Before their theatrical releases, the actors usually visit the sets of reality shows, television serials and host other promotional stunts.
Filmmaker Rohit Shetty says that one should take a cue from the team’s promotional strategy. “The film’s team did not go an extra mile to promote it in malls, trains or all over cities, like the Hindi film industry does. The BB team did not bother much about promoting their film, yet people thronged the theatres to watch it. Ultimately, a film runs due to its script and direction and we need to give technicality its rightful place.”
While film historian S.M.M. Ausaja agrees that films work only on merit, he also thinks that these gimmicks help the film gain an audience. “People who are affected by the film’s promotional tactics show up only on the first day of collections. After that, the film moves ahead because of its storyline and merit,” he explains. Avinash Das, who directed the critically acclaimed Anarkali Arrahwali, says that promoting a film is a must. “A little promotion is necessary to let the audience know that there is a film to be soon released,” he says.
Meanwhile, Ausaja draws parallels with a few films to reiterate how they work solely on merit. “When Baghban was released, it was a lean patch for Amitabh Bachchan and the film opened to quite a dull day one. However, through word of mouth, the film did extremely well and soon became one of the only films during the early 2000s to complete a Silver Jubilee at the box office,” he recalls. Anubhav Sinha, director of the Tum Bin franchise, explains that promoting a film is a hit or miss effort as the audience is an unpredictable bunch. “We still do not fully understand how to bring the Indian audience in to theatres. The marketing teams of our films are still grappling with this,” he says. He further explains, “Sometimes a lot is done to sell the film, but the audience won’t show up. Sometimes, nothing is done, but the audience comes in housefulls. There is no foolproof formula of promoting a film.”