Blur Hype, Focus Substance

Cinema-making and viewing has undergone a sea change since its dawn in India. So has been promoting and publicizing it. During early days too, films were promoted but their ways and tools were far more primitive and extremely limited. 

Previously, films’ posters and other outdoor media were the major tool used for promoting any film. Another means popular during those days was mobile promotion through auto rickshaw in which there used to be an announcer visiting every localities promoting the film and invoking the public to watch it. 

Among the mass media, occasional and rare stories in print medium and infrequent promotion in radio were the only ones to reach out to masses. Also, focus was more on pre- production and production stages of the film with less attention being attributed to the promotional activities.

Today, the face of promotion has transformed completely. Actually today, Cinema as an art has been lost somewhere and the concept of a commercial version instead and show business has stepped in. 

Today, largely, films are made and promoted in the name of actors and stars, rather than script and direction. It has become an indispensable fashion to promote every film through its lead pairs. The most sought after promotional medium, nowadays, is Television, and particularly, the most popular TV show- ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ and the alikes. It has become the obvious rostrum to promote the upcoming Bollywood films.

However, this new trend is itself questionable. The statistics show that even today films become hits and fair well in box office only when they have tight script, intelligent direction, over- the-top- presentation and powerhouse performance of the actors. 

There can be innumerable examples where films which have been heavily promoted everywhere, of course, through the actors, faired very badly and incurred huge losses. Some prominent examples from the recent times could be RA.one, Kites, Aaja Nachle, Jai Ho, Zanjeer (new), among others. 

All the mentioned films had superstars who have huge fan following, but still, they could not attract public to the theatres resulting in financial failure at the box office.

In contrast, films like Kahani, Vicky Donor, Madras Café, and Lunch Box turned out to be box office marvels, despite their normal promotion.Thus, the bottom-line is that substance is the heart of any movie. Of course, promotion is necessary as things have changed today. 

Still, what has not changed is the reason for success and failures of the films. There could be certain exceptions in this regard, but exceptions, however miraculous they may be, can’t be generalized.

Hence, film- makers need to introspect and think twice before investing enormous bucks in the promotional activities. Rather, they should invest more in creating quality works that includes in- depth study and research and creative visualization before presenting it on silver screen.