Bollywood on a Promotion Spree

Before the debaclous fate of HumShakals became public, Sajid Khan was being reprimanded for his over the top claims which also generated some negative remarks from the industry wallahs. Right from his comments on Housefull- Akshay Kumar to Himmatwala-Ajay Devgn. Arrogance was the word for him!

But is Sajid really one of a kind? Do directors, producers and actors not go overboard when promoting their films?

Contrary to the lakhs of mullahs they spend on promotions, producers make sure word of mouth is used to its optimum. So visits to TV shows, reality shows have become a must in the recent past. Earlier, only a handful of reality shows existed and the number of films releasing per Friday was handful. Now, festive Fridays and weekends have become tough commodity, and for a lone Friday as many as seven films commence their box office journey. Each of these films make as many reality show rounds as possible. Obviously, top of the list is Comedy Nights with Kapil. Just to promote their film, some of them who are not so good at jokes also try their hand in the show. Not to forget, Kapil’s humour which at times goes overboard for the celebrities, though the audiences enjoy every bit of it.

 Then any dance or singing based reality show currently on air- the fun part in such shows is that actors and directors who are hardly good at these crafts are asked to comment on performances. The highlight of such appearances is when these celebs open their mouth all you hear is words like I am speechless or mind-blowing. For someone who is still not well versed with 1-2-3-4 steps his choreographer gives, asking to comment on professional dancers is hilarious. You can scarcely imagine what happens in singing reality show.

The only show they probably fit in is the till date Salman Khan hosted Bigg Boss. I mean, what do they have to comment on really. Half of the people inside the house are TV celebs, who have bumped into Bollywood celebs in some party, or know them through common friends. If nothing B-town celebs’ mother must have watched the only soap opera that made these TV stars. I remember Kareena Kapoor once said this on Bigg Boss. It can be hilarious to witness that a star of the big screen conversing like this to someone who hopes to give her competition someday.

Sidharth, Alia and Varun while promoting SOTY

Next up in the promotions list, is not a cheaper task really. These are called meet and greet event. A mall serves this purpose the best; if possible one can tie up with a brand inside the mall and have the film’s merchandise sold in the shop. It is a give and take thing for both the apparel brand and film. Also fans are allowed to meet their stars in an SMS battle. The fan who submits the best slogan gets to meet the star. Funnily these meets which the fanatic hopes will be a one on one with the actor and can convince the star to marry them or probably go on a date turns out to be just a few minutes of hi’s and hello’s that the PR could manage from the already tied up schedule of promotions. But a lot of these fans also get happy to meet and just greet the stars, and have one selfie with them, it keeps them in news in their college classrooms and canteen for more than a week and they get a good profile photo for Whatsapp and Facebook. Who cares what happens next!!



Bottom line is that every person who's many is at stake in a film, make sure everyone knows about the film, even at the cost of investing more money for it. Why pinpoint just one person who's using the only formula he has ever used- public.