Evolution of Marketing in Bollywood

MC – II | Report

Submitted to : Dr. Neera Jain

SUBMITTED BY

15P152 Manish Maharaj15P156 Nitish Gupta15P161 Rahul Malani15P166 Sambhav Jain15P168 Sankalp Madaan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Neera Jain for her continued guidance and advice during the course of the project. Her classroom teachings and case studies have been instrumental in execution of this project. We thank her for her ideas, guidance and encouragement at various stages of the project. We would also like to thank our parents and classmates for their support in the project.

ContentsIntroduction...............................................................................................................................................3

Methodology.............................................................................................................................................4

Film Promotions Before 1990s...................................................................................................................6

Film promotions after 1991.....................................................................................................................11

Marketing in Bollywood in the 21st Century.............................................................................................17

Limitations of the Study:..........................................................................................................................30

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................31

Reference................................................................................................................................................33

IntroductionThis report deals with the evolution of Advertising of movies in the Hindi Film Industry. With a very humble beginning with a first silent feature film Raja Harishchandra directed by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913, the Mumbai based Film Industry has evolved to become a $1.6 Billion industry in 2012. Now days, Bollywood movies are marketed on various platforms of Advertising like Television, Newspapers, Radio, Social Networking websites, blogs and also through stalls or various displays in malls and various strategic locations.

To understand this evolution in detail, the history has been divided into 4 phrases since 1896. An in-depth analysis has been done by selecting a few movies from each era. In earlier times, colourful posters were used to promote movies. Legendary movies of 1970s like Anand, Mera naam joker, Zanjeer were promoted through this medium. Then came the Television era of 1980s.This saw some decline in the Indian Film Industry revenue. Television acted as another source of entertainment for Indians. But, it also acted as a medium of advertising films to a greater number of the Indian population. The remarkable films of this era included Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayange, Roja, Raja Hindustani, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, Jeet, Saajan Chale Sasural etc.

In the current era, films are promoted through a lot of mediums. Apart from the conventional mediums like Newspapers, Television and posters, a lot of Internet based mediums like social networking websites, movie promotion websites, blogs etc are widely used. Movie makers also collaborate with gaming companies to coproduce games based on the movie themes to create a buzz around the movie. Mobile phone mediums like SMSs, caller tunes etc are also widely being used. Movie stars are often seen on various reality shows to promote their films. This is complemented with visits to various malls and shopping centres in numerous cities to create awareness about the movie. The marketing campaigns of movies like Ghajini, Raw One, 3 idiots, Dabangg, Om Shanti Om, Dev D and Mary Kom are worth mentioning.

Through this study we have concluded that advertising forms a very big part of film making. Producers spend crores of rupees to create a buzz around their movies. In this process they use all sorts of mediums available at their disposal, hire special marketing companies and involve their cast into it.

Moving forward we see that the focus of advertising the movie is going to increase. With the large number of releases every Friday, it’s very important for the promoters to create attraction for the movie. Moreover, with the decreasing shelf life of movies on the screen, it’s very important to advertise the movie for getting maximum returns within a short time span.

Our research has been limited to the famous movies. We have not included the nuances of marketing a movie within a small budget. Moreover, because of the long divisions in the

timeline, we have also not been able to understand the shift in the movie marketing within a particular era.

The future scope of this report would be to get into a detailed analysis of the way movie advertising has transformed within a particular era. This can be done by further segregating the eras into small parts and then understanding the shift in that specific time period.

MethodologyPrimary research is defined as factual, firsthand accounts of the study written by a person who was part of the study. The methods vary on how researchers run an experiment or study, but it typically follows the scientific method. One way you can think of primary research is that it is typically original research.

Secondary research is defined as an analysis and interpretation of primary research. The method of writing secondary research is to collect primary research that is relevant to a writing topic and interpret what the primary research found. For instance, secondary research often takes the form of the results from two or more primary research articles and explains what the two separate findings are telling us.

Primary Reserch:

We conducted a survey having 107 respondents from varying age groups. We used digital marketing, social marketing and E-mails to collate data. We also did field study by getting research questionnaire filled by respondents in Gurgaon.

The purpose of primary research was to understand how marketing has touched the lives of the citizens. It aimed at understanding how marketing has evolved over time, how this evolution took place, how effective are current marketing techniques followed by companies.

1. What is your age group?2. What is your Gender?3. What do you do?4. How often do you watch movies?5. Does the presence of famous actors affect your choice of watching movies?6. Does the presence of famous actresses affect your choice of watching movies?7. Does the presence of famous directors affect your choice of watching movies?8. Though which medium do you know about latest movie releases?9. Do you watch documentaries?10. Do you follow stars on twitter?11. Is your choice of movies affected by advertisement on social media?

12. Do television ratings affect your choice of watching the movies?13. Does the pre movie publicity done by stars affect your decision?

What we concluded:

1. From questions one, two and three we do the the profiling of our candidates. We take information about their age, gender and job. It helps us build a database. Also, as there is a subjective bias always involved in any response, the profiling would help us identify the reasons for any incoherence in results.

2. Question 4 helps us identify whether the respondent is a regular movie fan or not. The respondents might be a movie buff or can be an occassional movie watcher. In order to help us qualitatively sort our response it is essential that we learn about the movie watching habits of our respondent.

3. Questions five, six and seven help us understand how much the popularity of stars and directors affect the choice of the movie watching public. Media houses and directors sign up famous actors based on their popularity. It is the same reason that old actors are paid crores because their popularity has market value. Salman Khan is paid crores as his movies are guaranteed to bring in much more. Same goes for famous actresses like Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma. Directors like Anurag Kashyap and Christopher Nolan are known for creating masterpieces. It is just the name of these celebrities that bring in crowd. It was our goal to analyse to what extent does name affect marketing and public perceptions.

4. Question eight helps us understand the channel which connects the most with the public. With the age of digital media it is likely he consumers learn about movies online. Also we get to understand the ratio of effectiveness of online & offline techniques.

5. Question nine helps us understand the popularity of movies which are not so heavily marketed. Thus, we learn the how the public reacts to products although high on substance but low on marketing

6. Question ten helps us understand the role of online marketing medium like Twitter which have recently become very popular. Twitter can help media houses engage lifelong fans.

7. Question eleven aims to understand the role of social media in today’s era. Social media has evolved from a social networking tool to a marketing tool nowadays.

8. Question twelve helps understand the behaviour of consumers regarding another marketing technique - Ratings. Before watching movies we are deeply affected by others opinion about the movie. The ratings given by critics deeply affect consumer choice. We seek to understand the depth of the importance of ratings.

9. Stars nowadays do a plethora of publicity stunts before launcing a movie. Question 12 aims to find out the public opinion of the effectiveness of such a pre-planned marketing gimmick.

Based on our primary research we came to the following conclusion:

1. Majority of our younger respondents are deeply affected by social marketing techniques. From movie reviews shared by friends on facebook to opinion of Friday night show watchers, everything shapes the opinion of these respondents.

2. In terms of choice of actors/actresses, respondents belonging to the age group 18-25 are far more comfortable with experimenting with new actors/actresses. People from higher age groups have developed liking to certain stars and follow the trends.

3. Regarding the medium after crowd perceptions we came to realise that it’s not a single medium that is very effective but a combinations of various mediums which give a multiplier results. The first ad be it on television/online helps in inception of interest of movie in the minds of the consumer. If they come across more advertisements over time they are more likely to be influenced towards watching the movie.

4. On segregating our respondents based on age we came to know that people from older age groups are affected by more by traditional marketing methods showing that modern marketing techniques are more effective for younger generations. Thus, marketing has evolved from with time but some principles are still sound.

Secondary Reserch:

To study the marketing strategist of Indian movies in detail and the way they have reached such great heights, we have divided our report into different phases. These phases are based on the changes which have taken place in technology, cinema making, its advertising etc collected through different sources. Following are the divisions according to the era:

1) 1896 to 19602) 1960 to 19803) 1980 to 2000, and4) 2000 to current

Film Promotions Before 1990sThe first Indian film show occurred in July 7, 1896, a few months after the Lumiere brothers introduced the art of cinematography in Paris in 1895. Filmmakers in the west soon started using India, its scenery and exotic culture in their films like Coconut Fair (1897), Our Indian empire (1897), A Panaroma of Indian Scenes and Procession (1898), and Poona Races ‘98’ (1898). The very first Indian film by an Indian Filmmaker was Wrestlers in 1899 by Harischandra S. Bhatvadekhar, popularly known as Save Dada. He was a stills photographer, an equipment dealer and a cinema exhibitor. This was followed in 1900 by Splendid New View of Bombay and Taboot Procession, both by F.B Thanawala.

In 1905 J.F Madan established the Elphinstone Bioscope Company, which showed mainly showed Western movies. Madan was the first businessman who envisaged the great business opportunities for Indian filmmaking. The first Indian feature film, Pundalik, was made in 1912 as a result of growing demand for audiences to see Indian characters and experiences on screen. However, it was shot by an Englishman and never really received the acclaim of being an independent feature film. Instead, the honour of making the first indigenous feature film goes to Dhundiraj Goving Phalke for Raja Harishchandra released in 1913. It was a completely Indian production and was shown as a self-contained work in its own right. Between 1917 and 1931 several more Indian silent films were shot. They were in Hindi as well as other regional languages. Their content was inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata, two of India’s most well-known epics.

In 1931 Alam Ara, the first Indian talkie, was made. It was a costume drama full of fantasy and melodious songs and was a stunning success (Gokulsing & Dissanayake, 1998). Subsequently, music and fantasy came to be seen as vital elements of filmic experience. Sometimes the use of music was overdone. For example Indrasabha in 1932 contained 70 songs. Since this era, music became the defining element of Indian cinema.

The popularity of a new medium for mass entertainment encouraged filmmakers to explore new ideas for filmmaking. The 1930s saw a fascination for social themes and, subsequently, interplay of tradition with modernism that included questioning aspects of the feudal patriarchy. By 1940s cinematography played an important role in Indian movies. There remained a great deal of western influence on Indian popular cinema along with the song, dance, and fantasy staples. The economic and political environment around this time was also undergoing changes - India was moving towards capitalism and modernism amidst political unrest and religious diversions. It was against this background that film directors and actors like Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, V Santaram, Mehboob Khan made films which became popular (legends) both in Indian and abroad. By the 1950s Indian popular cinema had established itself as a form of art, entertainment and industry. Film historians call this period

the golden age of Indian cinema. During this era, movies like Awara (1951), Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Shree 420 (1955), Mother India (1957), The Apu Trilogy by Satjyajit Ray consisting of Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and Apu Sansar (1959), were made. The international popularity for many of these movies and film actors like Raj Kapoor made the Indian government recognize the revenue-earning capacity of the film industry. The subsequent government intervention resulted in censorships and heavy taxation, which made life difficult for filmmakers.

Talking about the first Indian Sound film Alam Ara:

Alam Ara (The Ornament of the World) is a 1931 film directed by Ardeshir Irani. The first Indian talkie was so popular that police aid had to be summoned to control the crowds.

It was not just a talkie. It was a talking and singing film with more singing and less talking. It had a number of songs and that actually set the template for the kind of films that were made later". In fact, the 1932 film ‘Indar sabha’ had an overwhelming 71 songs in it.

In 1935 we witnessed Devdas which had many adaptations in the upcoming times. Devdas is a Bengali film directed by Pramathesh Barua and based on the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaynovella, Devdas. It stars Barua himself as Devdas. This was Barua's first of three language versions of the story, the second being in Hindi and the third in Assamese. This classic masterpiece sensitively criticises the feudalistic society that prevailed. The film has been made in multiple languages including Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam.

1950s witnessed many of the blockbuster and legendary movies like 1955: Do Bigha Zameen (B/W-indi) 1956: Shree 420 (B/W-Hindi) 1957: Mother India (B/W-Hindi) 1957: Pyassa (B/W-Hindi), 1959: Kaagaz Ke Phool (B/W-Hindi). These films are talked about even these days and they set an altogether different level of the Bollywood industry.

In 1960, the Film Finance Corporation, which later formed the National Film Development Corporation, for financing and exporting films, was established and in 1961, the Film Institute of Pune was started. Around this time Indian state television, Doordarshan, became a daily service programming for an hour. The broadcast was restricted to Delhi (Rajadhyaksha & Willemen, 1999). In 1973, the Directorate of Film Festivals was started which organized annual

International Film Festivals in India, opening doors for the common people to see world cinema. In 1976, Doordarshan, still the only television station in India, separated itself from All India Radio and later, in 1985, became fully commercial selling prime slots to private sponsors and TV soaps. Some of the box-office hits during this time include Aradhana (1969), Bobby (1973) and Sholay (1975). While movies of the 70’s were influenced by the political and social trends, the 80’s saw an emergence of violence in cinema. The audience was also changing – the introduction of colour television in 1982, the availability of VCRs and the numerous soaps on kept more middle-class people at home (Dwyer & Patel, 2002) (Rajadhyaksha & Willemen, 1999). The theatres became more decrepit, being more a refuge for the lower-middle class than the middle class. In order to cater better to their audience, filmmakers increased the level of violence in their films with revenge dramas becoming more popular. Some of the popular movies of this period included Naseeb, Coolie, Hero, Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Sagar.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Indian cinema was making really good stuff, but in the late 1960s and 1970s there was a gradual decline and the late 1970s and 1980s, things could hardly have been worse. Finally, in the late 1980s, some better films started being made again, using music, but using it with some sensibility.

The legendary movies of 1970s:

1970: Anand (color-hindi)

1971: Dastak (B/W- Hindi)

1971: Mera Naam Joker (Hindi)

1972: Zanjeer

Mera Naam Joker (translation: My Name is Joker) is a 1970 Hindi drama film directed by Raj Kapoor. The screenplay was written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. This film was the debut of Rishi Kapoor. Mera Naam Joker is a film about a clown who must make his audience laugh at the cost of his own sorrows. The film is considered to be one of the lengthiest films of Indian cinema. After Sangam became a blockbuster, Mera Naam Joker was highly anticipated as it was six years in the making and was heavily publicized to be loosely based on Raj Kapoor's own life.

From marketing point of view we see more colourful posters and pamphlets being printed as compared to 1930s. The use of media and newspaper was more prominent for the awareness about the film. The movie was released at various international levels. These steps were taken to globalize the reach of Bollywood movies and the effect of globalisation and liberalization was prominant. By this time many award functions were also in the scene which helped the other films of this era for a better marketing and have a better exposure to the audience.

1970s was also a phase where the trend of action movies was on a rise and the rise of the angry young man Mr. Amitabh Bachchan was very evident. In 1969, he debuted in Saat Hindustani. His role in 1972's Zanjeer made him an action movie star. The shift from the love story and sentimental movies to action movies was evident in 1970s. In 1975 we see the movie Sholay by Ramesh Sippy which is hailed as the best movie ever even today. It was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time. In 2005, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards named it theBest Film of 50 Years. The film drew heavily from the conventions of Westerns, and is a defining example of the masala film, which mixes several genres in one work. Scholars have noted several themes in the film, such as glorification of violence, conformation to feudal ethos, debate between social order and mobilised usurpers, homosocial bonding, and the film's role as a national allegory.

LANDMARKS IN BOLLOYWOOD INDUSTRY (1910-onwards)

1910: Dadasaheb Phalke attends a screening of the The Life of Christ at P.B. Mehta's America India Cinema.

1911: The Durbar of George V in Delhi is the first film extensively filmed in India. .

1912: Pundalik, directed by Tipnis and probably India's first feature film, is shot.

1914: Phalke shows his first three features, Raja Harishchandra, Mohini Bhasmasur and Satyavan Savitri in London

1917: Baburao Painter starts the Maharashtra Film Co. in Kolhapur.

1917: Dadasaheb Phalke makes How Films are Made, a short on the filmmaking process

1918: Phalke's Hindustan Cinema Films Co. is founded.

First talking film Alam ara launched in 1931.

1940: Film Advisory Board is set up by the Government of India

1948: Raj Kapur founds R.K. Studios.

1952: First International Film Festival of India held in Bombay

1952: Filmfare is launched as a fortnightly.

1958: The Indian Copyright Act comes into force.

1959: Kagaz ke Phool, the first Indian cinemascope film, is made by Guru Dutt and shot by V.K. Murthy.

1961: Second International Film Festival of India in Delhi.

1964: The National Film Archive of India is founded in Pune.

1971: India becomes the largest producer of films in the world with 433 films.

1976: Doordarshan is separated from All India Road and is allowed to take advertising.

1979: Malayalam cinema overtakes Hindi Cinema in volume of production.

Film promotions after 1991India launched its market-oriented economic reforms in 1991. The economic reforms of 1991 have been evolutionary and incremental in nature.

Indubitably, since its beginning with the film Raja Harish Chandra (1913), the cinema has remained the most powerful media for mass communication in India. Cinema in fact, presents an image of the society in which it is born and the hopes, aspirations, frustration and contradictions present in any given social order. In a single word, cinema is the mirror of the society. Hence, the effect of it is enormous.

A cinema may become a topic of debate and sometimes even riots as had happened in the case of 1995 film Bombay by noted filmmaker Mani Rathnam (caused considerable controversy upon release in India and abroad for its depiction of inter-religious relations and religious riots. The film was banned in Singapore and Malaysia upon release). After the release of the film Shiv-sena not only vehemently protested against the screening of it but also vandalised few theatres for screening of it, or how can we forget about the ban of the 1975 film Aandhi by Indira Gandhi and it only released after the fall of Congress Govt during 1977 elections.Cinema is not just mere showcase of coeval society; it also depicts hope, aspirations of human life.However, generally, the concept often identified with the recognition of concepts like total quality management, just-in-time, process re-engineering etc. The birth of new marketing strategies often betoken the emergence of new tiger nations

from the Pacific Rim in the 1970s, scholars of buyer-seller behavior started to identify alternative marketing models based on achievement of performance goals by confrontational competition and instead adopting a philosophy of building collaborative relationships within industrial sector.

Like any product in the market, a film is also a product which makers of it generally want to sell and make profit from it. Now, a very pertinent question will come, whether and how much does it make sense economically to make films for urban viewership which constitute only 28% of the population of India.

Now, it has become necessary to find out answer of the question, what are the reasons behind growth of films, made for urban viewership?

Before moving onto any further discussion, let’s discuss about this urban viewership that made this stark division among viewership of films. Generally, by urban audience we mean people:

1. Are not very good at disassociating farm animals from pets.

2. Idealize animal agricultural practices of the past and the rural lifestyle

3. 3-4 generations removed from the farm

4. Less motivated by scientific reasoning than ethical/ moral reasoning

In India, films made for urban viewership is not at all new. If anything is new, it is the inclusion of viewership of others. Films that have been made during golden era of Indian Cinema i.e. 1950s,

1960s and 1970s primarily made in accordance with urban taste. The villages of India, on that time neither had any theatre or any chance to see every film released on Friday. Once in a while or perhaps on every month, they did have a chance to see a film through movie projector, which perhaps released months ago in cities. Viewership of films on that time, primarily constrained within urban and township people and films made during this period had a strong script mostly adapted from literature , like, Bandini, Amar Prem, Bimol Roy’s Parineeta, or Kabuliwala, Charulota, Jotugriho etc.

In fact, people in villages of that time, did not have any choice regarding films. They had to see the film which came to their village whether they liked it or not. Indeed musical theatres based primarily on epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana or other folklores about

God and Goddesses were far more popular than films in villages of the then India. But with the arrival of video parlour, in India, they gradually got the choice and the whole scenario of films of both Hindi and regional films has started to change rapidly since mid 1980s.

The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a decline in the fortunes of the industry. In 1982, colour television was launched in India, giving millions of Indians the choice of popular entertainment at home. TV was soon followed by video, and over a 100,000 video libraries mushroomed across the country. Not only did these libraries circulated pirated video copies but they also spawned illegal video parlours- small holes at a nominal fee, one could watch the latest release on TV hooked to a video recorder. Rampant video piracy led to a fall in cinema-hall attendance without a corresponding rise in income from video rentals.

There was no longer a set formula that would guarantee success. Stories of social interest, love, family life and fantasies- all tumbled out of the film-making machine. Social evils like rape- the trauma and the humiliation, the callousness- were the subject of many films notably. In fact, the whole transition of films in India could have been easily the subject of a whole separate research paper because the first division among viewership of films was created on that time. While on the one hand, film makers like Govind Nihalini, Mahesh Bhatt, Ketan Mehta were making films like Ardh Satya, Arth, Saransh, Mirch Masala , on the other hand, film makers like Subhash Ghai, N.Chandra were making what we often term as out and out commercial flicks like Karz, Tezaab etc. Although, it is true that the journey of modern Indian cinema had began even four decades ago with none other than Satyajit Ray and thereafter, with Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan but the division between realistic parallel movies or later termed as art films and commercial films had never been reached its acme before 1980s.

The set rules of 1950s and 60s, the strong story with good music accompanying with Star cast completely transformed in 1980s. Most of the stories during this period came up from stories with doze of emotions; execution of films songs had become more important than music. Words like Star Power or Star Aura had become obsolete. Instead the formula to make a film hit had become a rainy songs featuring the main heroine or leading lady of the film with skimpy raiment, the hero of the film had to have a sister who would be raped by the villain and hero later sought for villain inorder to finish him.

As a result, urban middle class people gradually stopped to go to movie theatre and instead would prefer to watch television. Occasionally, they would borrow the VCR from nearby video parlour only to watch some Hollywood movies or some good movies made by Yash Chopra or art films of noted film makers. National Award in this time almost became only source of middle class people to know about good movies. In fact National Award winning films only released theatrically after winning the award.

The discerning audience virtually stopped going to cinema halls. These cinema houses were ill kept and had outdated technology.

But scenario gradually began to change since the 1990s with the advent of another bunch of maverick film makers like Mani Rathnam who successfully brought back urban middle class to the theatres. Roja, a Tamil film released in 1992 again re-opened the market of urban viewership. The Hindi dubbed version of the film became one of the highest grossing films of 1992. It was a perfect blend of political drama and romance with soulful music of A.R.Rahman. The movie got rave reviews, fetched three national awards, made instantly the lead actors star and most importantly, re-discovered the old blend making successful films. But the transformation was not at all smooth. Roja soon became an exception, a Mani Rathnam film which would come just like other noted directors (Yash Chopra or Gulzar) once in a year or biennially.

Roja was indubitably a milestone movie in the history of Indian cinema not only because of its content, execution which vehemently attacked the division of art house and comerical cinema but also because it convinced producers to finance on good films again. Machis, 1996 film on sikh insurgency by poet, lyricist Gulzar also became a phenomenal hit and also received rave reviews with two National Awards.

The situation began to change since mid 1990s with films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jainge or popularly known as DDLJ, Border, Rangeela, Virasaat, Satya and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. In fact, since DDLG and Rangeela, directors became the significant brand to promote a film. Films began to promote as director’s picture or film like Satya A Ram Gopal Verma Picture or Viraasat filmed by Priyadarshan.

But if from the above discussion, anybody would begin to believe that films like Roja or Machis suddenly came to market and started to make profit more than films like Beta or

Raja Hindustani, I must that was not at all the scenario. In fact these films were successful but if we would see the figures of Box-office collection, we would see that films like Raja Hindustani or Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi or Jeet or Saajan Chale Sasural did greater business than those films. Then, what was the reason behind gradual augmentation of making such films?

If Roja reinstated predominance of the urban viewership, DDLJ clearly showed the way of making phenomenal profit from such films by acknowledging the urban Indian viewership of the world not just within India. Earning over 2.72 million US dollar in the overseas the film became an epitome of expression of British South Asian culture on celluloid.

In 1998, Dil Se another film of Mani Rathnam flopped at box office of India but became a major success overseas, made it first Indian Film to enter the top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts. In fact after two months of its release, the film was still screened on five screens, five times per day with an average of 3000 spectators a day for each screen alone in the 14-screen Cineworld complex in Feltham, West London

Within a year in 1999, Subhash Ghai’s Taal repeats the same history of Dil Se. Despite its below average performance at the box-office of India (because it distributed on three crores per territory and it recovered only 4.5 crores per territory.), it became the first Indian Film to reach the top 20 on Variety’s box office list. It also made the list of top ten grossing films in the United Kingdom that year.

Film makers have found a new market which is profitable and would easily fetch recognition too. For instance the 2002 movie Devdas, by Sanjay Leela Banshali which screened at the Cannes Film Festival marked for several reasons not only because it was the most Bollywood movie ever produced but, because it released in six alternative languages like English, French, German, Mandarin, Thai and Punjabi. It was the perfect Bollywood musical which made Aishwariya Rai an international star and fetched several awards including ten Filmfare awards, five National Awards and an esteemed BAFTA nomination in the category of best foreign language film.

With Generation Next taking over the reins in showbiz, a new professional approach is visible. To cater to a largely young, urban audience across the world, winds change are blowing fast and furious through musty studios of Mumbai. Bollywood has discovered new

mantra of success: multiplexes, merchandising, marketing, multinational audiences, insurance, institutional finance, corporatization and listed companies.

In fact, not only Bollywood, other regional film industries too soon found the greater market for their films which is even more profitable than domestic market. The only requirement is to change the 80s and early 90s film making style. Moreover, with the rising number of multiplexes in cities, the domestic market would also have become more profitable than previously because of the higher rates of tickets.

Now, Bollywood movies not watched in south Asian regions but also in Africa, other parts of Asia, Europe especially in Germany and United Kingdom, Northern America, Australia and in parts of Latin America.

Similarly, now for instance Bengali movies are distributed in Northern America and United Kingdom but when we talking of regional films in overseas market, it is imperative to talk about Tamil films. Tamil films are not only very much popular in Sri Lanka and Malaysia but immensely popular in Japan and North America.

Therefore, the whole reason to cater to urban viewership got the meaning and reason.

Today, all that has changed. Govinda, Anil, Mahesh and a host of other actors and directors of the nineties have almost faded out.

In 1990, the pace of globalization in India suddenly accelerated as the Indian economy opened. Within a decade, satellite television and Hollywood movies became widely available. The notion of designer cinema became very much clear to the urban viewers of India. They gradually wanted to see something more than a good story telling and actors. What they could not say was that they indeed wanted to have something like Hollywood production and sometimes better than that.

Most importantly, the whole notion of sudh culture of Bharat changed instantly into Asudh culture of India. The new urban gen x culture has become a potpourri of western and eastern culture. In a global village the uniqueness of culture soon vanished with a trend of embracing everything whichever and whatever is being liked and loved.

The advent of globalization has introduced new cultural celebrations of autonomy and individual choice. The idea that young people’s love for each other should be the basis for marriage is reasserted by cable television’s American serials e.g. Santa Barbara that show young people in pursuit of the “right one”.

As a result hindi rom coms also dared to depict the hero had slept with several women but stills searching for his true love (Hum Tum), or live in relationship (Salam Namaste),or a married heroine slept with a married man and broke his home or Heroine too slept with several men before understood her true feeling for any particular one (Cocktail) or in Dev D, the modern adaptation of Sarot Chandra Chattopadyay’s Devdas where modern adaptation of Paro did not feel ashamed to satiate her sexual urge by her butler or what about Cheeni Kum, Amitabh Bacchan fell in love with a woman thirty years younger to him and in shop he was buying condoms? The examples are interminable. And I do not think we should be surprised to find out that all these films became super hit.

The whole concept of holding your chastity before marriage (1950s and 1960s) or even before finding the true love (1970s) has completely changed. Now, such depiction on film has become quite normal and media also did not find the urge to make any hue and cry on it because people are accepting it. In fact, the word accepting might be little bit of underrated; rather I should say did not even notice such trivial issues.

In fact, in here, it is imperative to mention about Dil Chahta Hai, a 2001 film directed by Farhan Akhter. The urban audience for the very first time got the taste of true designer film in this remarkably fresh, marvellously vivacious film. It is about a set of rich, young, urban characters, but the film does not succumb to escapist temptations. The three love stories that the narrative revolves around involve real people and tangible emotions. It is the “global” Indian- he dons imported clothing, flies to foreign lands at will, drives higher-end foreign cars and sports designer haircuts-who holds centrestage in Dil Chahta Ha; while a section of Hindi film wacthers, especially in the big metropolitan cities, related instinctively to the worldview propounded by DCH, audiences in the smaller towns remained cold to its style and panache.

Marketing in Bollywood in the 21st CenturyMarketing of movies has come a long way from the era of Raja Harishchandra and Alam Ara. Traditionally, marketing and publicity represented only 5 to 10 percent of a film’s success at the box office but today it determines up to 50 percent of a film’s success (Mazumdar, 2003). Now every release has an improved marketing strategy in place. An industry like Hollywood has already mastered the art of movie making and marketing but Bollywood is catching up at a rapid pace (Gill, 2009). Raja Harishchandra used newspaper advertisements, handbills and publicity booklets to market the movie. Early years after Raja Harishchandra saw the emergence of posters as the main source of marketing a movie. Posters were usually hand painted on canvas and then used as the design source for printing on cheap paper (Mazumdar, 2003). Since then, the emergence of television, the transformation of urban space, the expansion of Internet and the arrival of newer technologies have made their mark on

Bollywood, determining both its aesthetic impulse as well as the marketing strategies (Mazumdar, 2003). Here on we will see how Bollywood has marketed movies through different new media tools.

Promotion through Internet

1. Movie promotion websites

Movie promotion on the internet has come up as the most important tool of marketing as the consumer here has more control over exposure to material than they do over television. They can actively choose which website they wish to visit and when, while off-web audience members are at the mercy of media schedules (Gallagher, 2001). Zufryden (2000) conducted research focusing on the development and empirical testing of a variable mathematical model approach for predicting a film’s box-office performance as a function of film website activity, as well as other relevant explanatory variables. The study results support the idea that a film website may provide an effective means to promote and maintain film awareness as well as influence site visitors’ intention to see a new film.

The movie promotion websites are designed to spark interest in two kinds of audience –

(i) Regular movie goers who want basic information regarding the show timings, theatre locations and ticket prices.

(ii) Hard core movie fans who are on the lookout for behind the camera information.

Almost every movie today has an official website launched much before its release. The cost involved in creating these websites is negligible and when we compare its usage to television, newspaper, and magazine ads we realise that websites, once launched, continue to stay forever, even after the movie is out of the market and serve as a continual promotion ground. These websites have attractions like games, downloadable wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, trailers, interviews, trivia and online merchandize sale. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008) a small budget musical romantic comedy targeted at the youth was a major success online. The homepage www.jaanetu.com was very appealing in appearance with youthful graphics. The movie tied up with MSN India and came up with Bollywood’s first eye-blaster technology based advertisement. It used a concept where the male lead comes ‘alive’ to interact with the user. He walks on the website while you work, he looks around then knocks on your screen (asks for attention), dances to the tune of one of the songs from the movie and then walks back into the advertisement. This advertisement ended up having click-through-rate (CTR) of 2.8% when the

average CTR of banner advertisements is 0.8% (Mulchandani, 2008). Such innovative techniques are being used to make the promotion websites more interesting.

2. Blogs

Blogs offer the ability to connect with the audience in a unique and personalized manner where everything from brand promotions to new product ideas can be effectively communicated (Singh, Jackson & Cullinane, 2008). In recent times Bollywood celebrities have turned towards blogging to promote their movies. Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood’s biggest superstars, is credited to start this fad, when he launched his blog www. aamirkhan.com in the year 2007 which became an instant hit. Aamir Khan regularly updates his blog with the mention of his daily incidents and experiences but more subtly, he utilises it to promote and market his movies. Taare Zameen Par (2007) was his first directorial venture and he used his blog to publicize the movie. In one of his pre-release posts, he writes “TZP is a film about children, NOT a children’s film. In my opinion it is THE most important film on children to come out of India. I mean in its content. How you all will like it I have no idea, but what I can say is that it has changed the way that I looked at my kids. And mind you; I think that I am a good father.” (Khan, 2007, Dec 11). Bollywood stars feel the need to connect with their audience to promote their film, which is why blogs are becoming increasingly popular with celebrities.

3. SNSs

The audience is no longer content to be merely viewers and consumers of information provided by the Web; rather they are increasingly taking an active part in creating their lives online (Hof, 2006. A way by which users accomplish this is by participating in SNSs such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com, and Orkut.com. A survey was done by AC Nielson to find out the internet usage habits of Indians between the ages of 13 to 35. The study revealed that users spend an average of nine hours per week on the internet for personal purposes, out of which; approximately 25% to 75% of time was spent on SNSs (Shah, 2008). It has become a major trend in Bollywood to ride the waves of SNSs. Most of the production houses set up official communities for a movie before its release. These communities have promo clippings, song previews, wallpapers and other downloadable materials. SNSs are the best platform for users to exchange opinions and discuss the movie, thereby increasing the awareness. What’s Your Rashee (2009) came up with a very creative application in Facebook that drew a lot of attention. The lead actress in the movie plays twelve different characters depicting twelve different zodiac signs. Hence a horoscope application with twelve zodiac signs was launched in Facebook. The application required the user to answer a set of questions about their personal preferences and choices. On submitting the answers, it showed a list of people who are not in their friends list but had similar preferences. The user could add them if he or she wanted. The application smartly used the theme of the movie to promote it in a widely-used SNS.

4. Mobile Phones

“How big an idiot are you? Log on to www.idiotsacademy.com and register. You stand a chance to meet the Three Idiots for an idiotic dinner.” (A promotional SMS for 3 Idiots (2009)) With the number of mobile subscribers rising each day, mobile service providers are fledging the market with their offerings. Until more recently, the primary ways to market a movie through mobile phones would have involved offering songs, wallpapers or ringtones download but with the rising competition in the market, the consumer is now even provided with movie based applications, games, videos and news alerts. Since, a mobile marketing campaign is directly relevant to consumers, timely, track-able and is a direct response tool; it is proving to be an effective tool in promoting and marketing a film (Dushinski, 2008). When Veer Zaara (2004) released in India, one of the service providers had an application where the automated voices of the stars of the movie were answering calls if you missed it. This created quite a buzz and was generating 400,000 hits a day (Garikaparthi, 2008).

5. Games

When Bollywood entered the gaming industry, it was a step in the direction of making more money. Today, more and more movies are marketed with an official game, mostly on mobile phones. Downloading Bollywood games on mobile phones costs anywhere between Rs 50 ($1.05) to Rs 150 ($3.12) per download. On an average a movie game registers 7,000 to 10,000 downloads with the more popular ones touching even 25,000 downloads (“Bollywood Mobile Game Industry”, 2006, Mar 8). Bollywood stayed away from games being launched on other platforms but when FX Labs Studios, India’s largest game developer, launched a PC 3D game based on Ghajini, new doors opened. The game generated a lot of buzz and provided the additional publicity for the movie. With an even price of Rs 199 ($4.15) it attracted a lot of buyers. To make the game playing experience as authentic as possible, the developers recreated movie locations and scenes in the 3D world and the players got a firsthand chance to play as the main protagonist. With the success of games based on Om Shanti Om, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and Ghajini, the marketers who brought this tool into play are already gearing up for new frontiers. With the rural market still untouched by this phenomenon, there is a positive market waiting to be tapped there. Though, still at a very juvenile stage, experts think that this segment is all set to expand in the coming days

One of the largest money churners in India is Bollywood: the business of making movies. Marketing for Bollywood once meant putting up Eastman Color posters across the streets of Mumbai, but since then it has evolved dramatically. Bollywood producers and filmmakers have realised that their movies are products that need to be branded, positioned and targeted at the right audience. The recent Salman Khan starrer, Dabangg that was made on a budget of 30 cr. had a marketing budget of 12 cr. That is a whopping 40% of the movie budget. The high

marketing budgets are not just the norm for big budget films; Peepli Live a film made on a budget of Rs. 10 cr. had a marketing budget of Rs. 4 cr.

While Bollywood scripts have far from evolved, with the same stale movies being churned out day in and out, the way Bollywood is marketing its movies, would make Kotler proud!

The 5 P’s of Bollywood Marketing

• Product: The entire cinema experience is the product that you as a filmmaker are trying to sell. When a middle class worker spends Rs. 200 to watch a movie, he is paying more for the experience than for the movie itself. Bollywood marketers realise that marketing movies means selling the entire experience of watching a movie to its end consumers. Moviemakers need to understand which category their movie belongs to it and which audience it aims at targeting. Hence, the marketing strategy for a Dabangg and a Peepli Live would be poles apart. While Dabangg was targeted at the masses and single theatre screens, Peepli Live was targeted at the multiplex audience. Hence Dabangg’s promos reflected the masala experience that the masses will relate to while Peepli Live’s promos had sarcasm and black humor which would generate interest among the multiplex audience. UTV Motion Pictures Marketing VP, Shikha Roy says, “Most of the promos were shot separately and not as a part of the movie, to generate a kind of viral campaign and to have the people talking”.

Marketing is all about catering to the needs of the consumers and making profits by satisfying those needs. Who better to know this than filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, most of the recent films made under his banner Vishesh Films revolve around recent controversies. Vishesh Films’s latest offering, Crook, is centred around the racial attacks on Indian students in Australia. Such subjects which the public relates to help gather enough interest and curiosity amongst them.

Bollywood makers are also giving a lot of thought to the naming of their products (movies). Like other products, movie names too should reflect the spirit, genre and feel of the movie. Gone are the days when a name like “Vijay” would sell, Innovative names are the order of the day. Dibankar Banerjee is one filmmaker who gives a lot of thought and importance to the naming of his films. His last offering “Love, Sex And Dhoka”, made on a shoestring budget of 2 cr. caught the eye balls of the youth just on the power of its unique name. The name of the movie was enough to generate curiosity in the minds of the public and attract them towards the movie screens.

• Placement: The timing of the launch of a product is a crucial factor in determining its success. Similarly, the release date of a movie is a significant factor in determining the success of the movie. Over the past few years, the biggest blockbusters released during the Diwali season or during the Christmas. What is the common link between Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini and Three Idiots? Apart from the fact that all these blockbusters star Aamir Khan, the movies have their release date as 25th December. Filmmakers nowadays invest a lot of thought in deciding the right time for releasing a movie. Even a good movie released during the exam season of students or if it is clashing with a major event such as IPL cricket extravaganza may get a dismal opening. Film makers also watch out if any big banner movies are being released during the same time as theirs and accordingly postpone or pre pone their release. Karan Johar, on his show Coffee with Karan once asked filmmaker Farah Khan what she would do if she realised that a Himesh Reshammiya movie was releasing at the same time as her’s. Farah replied with a smile, “I would postpone my movies release date”. That was the time when Himesh had the Midas touch.

• Promotion: No longer are promotions restricted to showing trailers and painting the city with posters of the movie. Bollywood movie promotions have come a long way. The small budget movies try to get referential power for their movies by participating in international film festivals. Winning awards in the international circuit helps in increasing the brand equity for the film, and the audience perceives that it will be a good product. Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut film Udaan created enough buzz and the multiplex crowd was waiting anxiously for the movie to release long before its promos started appearing. All thanks to the many awards and critical acclaim the movie managed to get in the international film circuit.

When it comes to marketing, Aamir Khan is one of the most innovative marketers out there. The way he promotes his movies is a lesson for all budding marketers. During the promotion of Ghajini, Aamir donned the role of a barber, giving Ghajini haircuts to his fans. For Three Idiots Aamir Khan went step further and came out with his own collection of hand drawn Doodle T Shirts, which reflected his own style and the soul of the movie. The T-shirts became a rage among the youth. In addition, the rickshaws in Mumbai were used as an effective way to market 3 Idiots. Aamir had painted stickers of “Capacity: 3 Idiots only” on the back of the rickshaws. The unique strategy created a lot of buzz for the movie at a very low cost.

Seeing the craze that youth of today have for playing games, Bollywood marketers have taken the route of combining movies and games to help promote their films. Yash Raj Films for their latest offering Lafangey Parindey has come out with two games: One a boxing game that reflects the spirit of Neil Nitin Mukesh and a skating game for Deepika Padukone fans. These games help movie fans to relate to the characters of the movie more closely.

Bollywood does not want to be myopic in its view, instead of looking at the television industry as a competition; they have taken it as a facilitator to promote their films. Reality TV shows are used by filmmakers to promote their movie. A few weeks before the release of a movie, you will have the stars of the movie making appearances as judges, hosts, participants on TV shows. John Abraham will be using the popular youth reality show MTV Roadies to promote his upcoming film, Jhootha Hi Sahi. Similar to the character he plays in the movie, John would lie to contestants but provide them with clues to help them win Roadies

• Personalisation: Today’s film makers realise that while marketing a film, they cannot follow a particular template for all films, but need to customise the marketing strategies for each, treating each film as a separate brand entity. So you had an Amitabh Bachchan poster telling you in theatres that, “Do not dirty the theatres or I will tell Paa” to “Switch of your mobiles or I will tell Paa” for the promotion of his film Paa where he played a 13 year old progeria patient. While for Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D you had customised tattoos being done at select parlors and condom shaped passes being distributed for the premiere of the movie. Ashutosh Gowariker’s movie What’s Your Rashee which had Priyanka Chopra play 12 different characters had 12 different flavours of popcorn being sold in movie theatres each corresponding to a different Rashee. The marketing team of Aladdin teamed up with Baskin Robbins to launch three delectable flavours on the characters of the movie: Ringmaster’s Whip, Princess Delite and Choco Aladdin. In another smart marketing move, ticket counter boys, ushers, and the popcorn boys sported the Ghajini haircut look during the release of Shah Rukh Khan’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Therefore, although cine-goers went to watch SRK’s flick the anxiety to watch Ghajini, which was releasing two weeks later, increased manifold.

• People: The filmmakers have now begun to use actors for promotion rather than just using trailers and posters. They want the stars to be closer to the people. So be it Salman riding a horse in the Mahalaxmi race course to promote his action film Veer or Abhishek Bacchan creating a Guinness record by travelling to 5 different cities in a span of 24 hours to promote Delhi 6, the people connect is clearly visible. Bollywood marketers realise that people will feel for the movie and relate to it only when they are able to relate to the stars of the movie. Aamir Khan to promote Three Idiots, went on a disguise marketing trip, in which he went to various parts of India, incognito and understood the people’s problems, aspirations and dreams. The entire campaign did not take long to become viral and created a lot of hype for 3 Idiots.

Actors have also taken to blogging and tweeting to promote their films and to break barriers that exist between them and their audience. From Shahrukh Khan to Genelia D’Souza, you can

find them all present on the social media circuit trying to develop a connect with their audience.

Imtiaz Ali, director of the romantic comedy Jab We Met, who has done a course in advertising and marketing from St. Xaviers, believes in the idea of inclusive marketing. He believes that the opinion of the public is very important for a filmmaker, as they are the final consumers. So when he was confused on fixing a title for his Shahid-Kareena starrer, he held an all India poll, asking people to vote from amongst 3 titles (Ishq via Bhatinda, Jab We Met and Punjab Mail). Jab We Met got the most votes and was chosen as the title for the film.

YouTube is also being effectively as a medium to connect to movie buffs. Recently the critically acclaimed film, Udaan had the lead actor asking the public to share with him their college moments on Udaan’s Facebook fan page. Also, Udaan had a contest in which the audience was asked to share their first adult film experience with the Udaan team on YouTube.

Anjaana Anjaani has a promotional campaign on YouTube in which movie fans can directly ask questions to its stars Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra and get them answered.

CASE STUDIES

1. Om Shanti Om

Om Shanti Om, a blockbuster directed by Farah Khan and starring Shah Rukh Khan was set in the 1970’s Bollywood. In keeping with the Bollywood tradition, this film was a typical family entertainer with action, drama, romance and songs. Shah Rukh Khan is known for his marketing strategies; therefore, the marketing strategy for Om Shanti Om was extremely unique in its approach and successfully used various new media tools.

1. Online marketing :

Om Shanti Om launched a website-www.omshantiom.erosentertainment.com - with story details and cast and crew information. In addition, there were several wallpapers and screensavers to be downloaded and quite a few trailers to be seen. Various other viral websites, such as www.omshantiomfilm.com and www.omshantiom.org were also launched. Though the release date of the film was Nov 9th, 2007, trailers and videos of the film were uploaded in YouTube as early as August, 2007. The hype had undoubtedly made the film “the most awaited release” of the year. It was also for the first time when the music album of a Bollywood movie was available for full downloads in mobile handsets and digital media, including iTunes across 23 countries (Sheikh & Shinde, 2007). Facebook and Orkut communities

were made to capture the net-savvy audience. The member-count in the Om Shanti Om community in Facebook is 41,703 (as of 19 June, 2010)

2. Mobile phones: Om Shanti Om collaborated with Nokia enabling a user to exclusively watch selected movie clips and behind the scenes videos on their handsets. They could also download ringtones and exclusive wallpapers (“Om Shanti Om on Your Mobile”, 2007, Nov 7). Nokia created a special Om Shanti Om ‘Crazy Mobisode’, an animated character of the protagonist, Om Prakash Makhija, which was available for download exclusively on all Nokia GPRS enabled handsets from www.nokia. co.in/oso, a special website created for Nokia and Om Shanti Om association. Shah Rukh Khan added, “This unique platform represents the blend of two of the fastest growing sectors in India - entertainment and mobility. The association with Nokia has been great and the team at Nokia has created some truly amazing fun animations of the character of Om Shanti Om” (“Om Shanti Om on Your Mobile”, 2007, Nov 7).

2. Dev.D

Many consider Dev.D as a trend-setting classic directed by Anurag Kashyap, known for his off-the-beaten-track film making. A modern adaptation of a classic novel, Dev. D was described as “adrenalin fuelled, vodka laced, cocaine injected, and emotional roller-coaster ride.” (“Thoughts on Dev D”, 2009, April 6) Given the bold theme and extremely moderate budget of the film, Kashyap very well knew that the target audience for the film has to be the youth, who likes innovative cinema and hence Dev.D cashed on the segmented marketing

1.Online marketing

The website of the film was launched prior to release but keeping in mind the adult theme of the film, a user had to confirm his or her age before proceeding. The website was a riot of bold colours and eye-catching graphics which arrested the user’s attention pronto. An interesting section in the website was the ‘Lustline’. One of the two lead actresses in the film is a sex worker and one could hear her husky, lusty voice seeking sexual favours in the ‘Lustline’. Uncensored videos and trailers were also posted, which soon found their way to YouTube. The trailer of the film was uploaded in YouTube and within three weeks, it was viewed more than 59,000 times. Other viral footages and 549 videos created a buzz that was unprecedented for a film of such a budget. Deleted scenes from the movie were also uploaded on YouTube. The

film’s music was also available via streaming at www.bollywoodhungama.com. The unique soundtrack quickly became a rage and the songs were listened to more than 25,000 times, two months before the film’s release.

www.passionforcinema.com is a blog site for cinema buffs, film makers and actors. Anurag Kashyap, being one of the avid contributors, not only wrote his blog to keep everyone updated with the progress of the film, bus also religiously replied to almost all the queries. His posts received several replies which in turn, stirred more interest amongst viewers. An official community of Dev.D was created in Facebook and Orkut, which now has 28,525 and 6,091 fans respectively (as of 19 June, 2010). Many videos and stills were also uploaded. Other SNSs like Orkut.com, hi5.com, and bigadda.com that are popular in India, followed suit.

2.Mobile phones: To catch the attention of the mobile-using consumers, Dev.D used a gimmick where, upon dialling a number, the user is met with the same husky, seductive voice from the official website’s ‘Lustline.’ The user was asked to press a button upon which he would hear “to get an autographed CD of the film, visit the official website of the film” or “to get a movie poster of the film, go to www.devdthefilm.com.” Though it was a gimmick, one can’t help but admire the creativity behind the concept.

3. Ghajini

Ghajini, directed by A.R.Murugadoss with Aamir Khan in the lead was loosely based on Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller Mememto (2000). It was a romantic-action thriller in which the protagonist develops anterograde amnesia following a violent encounter in which his love interest is brutally murdered. With the help of Polaroid camera photographs and tattoos on his body, he starts his hunt for the killer. The marketing of the movie was noteworthy and it extensively exploited the new media tools.

1. Online marketing

The official homepage- www.rememberghajini.com - was a website with a dark and murky feel. It featured the regular song videos, movie trailers, stills, cast and crew news, and other information. Interestingly, it also had a list of all the international theatres where the movie was releasing. This was quite a marketing move as it highlighted the grand-scale release of the film. Based on the theme of the movie, the users who logged onto the website would automatically be directed from the page they were on to the homepage after every fifteen minutes, since the protagonist forgot everything after fifteen minutes. This was an innovative

approach. The website also involved print and electronic media. Once Aamir finished an interview with a journalist, the journalists had an option of logging into the media section of the website and then upload his or her personal photograph to which Aamir would leave a personal note about his interaction with the journalist. This repository assisted in creating a buzz among the journalists. Other than the official website, two viral websites, www.wallofsuspects.com and www.findghajini.com were also launched. www.findghajini.com used the viral gaming application where the users got a chance to play the protagonist and find the killer using the provided clues. Ghajini too extensively used SNSs to promote the film. A large number of users became members of the communities and word spread. The official community of Ghajini at Facebook has 85, 575 members (as of 19 June, 2010).

2.Mobile phones

Tata Indicom, one of India’s leading mobile phone subscriber tied up with Ghajini to create a one-of-a-kind mobile campaign. The outbound dialler service had Aamir’s pre-recorded voice where a Tata Indicom customer got a call in Aamir’s voice, asking if he was Ghajini and finally reminding him that the movie was releasing on 25th of December, 2008. This service reached out to 10 million customers (“Brands Pump Marketing Ghajini”, 2008, Dec 23)

3.Games

Ghajini was the first Indian movie to launch a 3D game based on the movie (“Bollywood Inspires Videogames”, 2009, Jan 22). FXLabs Studios Pvt Ltd came up with this game on the tracks of Hitman, where the protagonist had to clear levels using martial arts, weapons and plenty of artefacts. The game was priced at Rs 199/- ($ 4.10) to combat piracy and could even be purchased online at the website dedicated to this game, http://ghajini.fxlabs.com. It registered more than 25,000 sales within two weeks of its launch (“Ghajini – The Game”, 2009, Jan). Not a very high number in terms of the gaming market but considering this was a first Bollywood movie game, the figures were remarkable. www.indiatimes.com, a mobile gaming application website in India, launched four games and one application based on the movie. Games such as Ultimate Workout, Memory Revival and Brain Trek struck a right chord with the mobile gamers and soon became a fad.

4. Mary Kom Case:

Mary Kom is a biopic film about Mary Kom, a well known female World Boxing Champion and Olympic bronze medalist This movie is produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and directed by Omung Kuma.

This movie narrates the story of Mary Kom, right from her childhood life in India to the victory at the 2008 World Boxing championship. Sewing Quadras has written the storyline and

screenplay of this movie and the popular Bollywood actress Priyanaka Chopra played the lead role as the boxer Mary Kom.

Mary Kom was premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival before it was released on 5th September 2014. This 150 million budget Bollywood movie was a huge box office hit and received praise for its superior direction and the overall performance.

The film has made a gross collection of 17 million US dollars at the box office. This was a huge commercial success. Social media channels have played a key role in popularizing the movie through the campaigns.

Flarepath, the marketing agency outsourced to promote this movie, has used social media channels extensively in their marketing campaign keeping the following objectives in their agenda.

To popularize the movie amongst the fan of actress Priyanka Chopra, who played the lead role in the movie.

To intensify the engagement levels amongst the fans and offer a unique opportunity to interact with the actress Priyanka Chopra in real time.

To enhance the bond between the actress Priyaka Chopra and her fans so as to keep them well with the launch of the movie using Facebook, Twitter, Vine and YouTube.

Approach / Strategy Adopted By Mary Kom

The marketing agency has introduced a pre-launch contest on Twitter. In this contest, few lucky winners were given a chance to meet Priyanka Chopra in person and watch the movie with her.

Besides this, they had introduced a #PCEntourage winner contest as well. In this contest, interested fans were instructed to email their entries to get participated. One lucky winner was selected who could get a chance to share the stage with Priyanka Chopra, interview her and shoot the episode on Vine videos.

Vine videos were widely used in the trailer launch activities to engage the fans well with their favorite star Priyanka Chopra. Fans who were present in the trailer launch got a chance to see Priyanka Choptra in her ‘Mary Kom’ outfit. In addition to this, a Question and Answer session was also organized with the actress.

Post trailer launch was carried out on the same day. This enhanced the trailer views and the winners of this contest were presented movie posters signed by Mary Kom.

Overall, the trailer received a huge response- (almost 3,825,356 views!) and some trending on Twitter.

Results Achieved By Mary Kom

The unique promotional activities have played a major role in this movie’s success at the box office. Promoters used all leading social media channels that include YouTube and Vine to

make this campaign more appealing and engaging. Following are the results achieved by this campaign.

Received 7087 more followers. Able to reach out to 688472 people online and received up to 20254782 impressions. Received 700 tweets during the contest.

Learnings

Promoters of this movie have successfully used the celebrity status of Priyanka Chopra- actress who played the lead role in the movie – and made it a success. This social media campaign study shows the effective use of celebrity popularity to get better engagement level and interactions that eventually made this movie launch a success.

Limitations of the Study:The report covers how the marketing has evolved from a meager handmade poster to digital advertisements using websites, mobile apps, games, blogs etc. Also, how the movie stars have themselves become the messenger for movie marketing. The study also covers the 5Ps of movie marketing and discusses in detail the marketing strategies carried out for various entertainment movies like DevD, Om Shanti Om to the strategy used for Mary Kom a movie based on the life of famous boxer Mary Kom. This report although tries to cover various topics based on consumer choices and factor affecting those choices. But there are certain limitations and studies can be further extended on the following lines in future:

Our studies are based extensively on how marketing is done in Bollywood. Studies can further be carried out to understand the marketing strategies used in other film industries like Hollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood etc.

The scope of the report is limited as it analyzes the audience of mainly tier1 and tier 2 cities like Delhi, Gurgaon etc. Choice of movies and attraction towards different marketing styles may vary in rural and urban areas and with various age groups

Case studies discussed in the report are mainly limited to the modern era movies and can be extended to closely analyze movies of different eras like that of 1970s to 1990s and then in 1990s. And also how the transition took place from one marketing style to another.

After independence, the movies were made mainly on the patriotic theme. Gradually the the themes were changed to various social stigmas and how they have been affecting the society Further the movies evolved to romantic ones and today there is an upcoming trend of movie making based on true stories like “No One Killed Jessica” and on various biographies like that of Milkha Singh, Azhar and MS Dhoni. Hence, the study can be carried out by classifying movies based on genres of the movies. Movies of different genres like romantic, comedy, thriller, biopic can have different marketing strategies based on their target audience

Most of the cases discussed in the report are from the best selling movies, we could have analyzed some failed marketing tactics to analyze what can go wrong during the marketing of movies

The cases discussed were from the most reputed movies and stars like that of Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra etc. Study can be done to analyze the marketing of movies with entry level stars playing the lead role

Apart from genres, stars of the movies, we can analyze the strategies varying based on the movie directors. For e.g. strategies varying from that of Karan Johar to that of Imtiaz Ali or Sanjay Lila Bhansali

ConclusionHence, the aggressive marketing followed in Bollywood could well be due to the influx of companies like UTV Motion Pictures and Yash Raj Films that work in true corporate style in branding movies. In today’s time, a movie might be great but sans an aggressive marketing campaign, it would be very difficult to have it make an impact at the box office. I would like to end here by quoting a few lines that super star Amitabh Bachchan has written on his blog, “Good marketing has produced good results at the box office. That old belief that the merit of the film shall eventually emerge victorious has long since been overridden. By the time you wait for the merit to show its face, five other films have shown their merits.” The Bollywood industry has advanced a lot in these years of entertainment. Marketing of movies in the earlier era was mainly through hand-painted billboards and posters. M.F. Hussain the highly renowned painter was also a poster painter in his heydays. Labour used to be cheaper at that point in time when compared to print and colour dyed posters. But with the advent of globalisation and technology advancement the print media became cheaper than the labour force. Today computer-printed vinyl is the cheapest and most used form of publicity material.

The analysis of various movies and the eras in which they dominated the audience perception and fascination proved that there was no specific formula to a successful blockbuster, no specific tactics or medium can be a sure shot formula for a chartbuster. The only way out to progress in correct direction is to understand the target audience, their taste, their thinking procedure and many other parameters. To start with they can apply general rules of marketing of segmenting, targeting and positioning in an appropriate manner. Film promotion results vary across these parameters as they are influenced by the behavioural aspect of these target groups. With the amplification of marketing practices in India at present it is fascinating to note that the field has become increasingly interesting, innovative, competitive and challenging. With the new emerging model of global entertainment it is an advantage to India where the numbers of movies produced per year are unmatchable, mass appeal is mind blowing and increasing technical finesse, not to forget our song and dance tradition and the unmistakable religion of Bollywood.

In the current tough time, it is really very important to take up the promotion and training task with added amount of creativity and innovation. We see how the promotion of movies like ‘Ra One’ and ‘Roy’ were done. The thinking procedure and instruments employed for the marketing were out of box and they did create an impact on the audience. These days even the actors are the part and parcel of these marketing and promotional events for their films. The protagonists use their charisma to their good and leverage their image for the success of their upcoming movies. It is not about producing any movie but selling out the product that counts after all how well you are able to sell the movie is the key. The saying that “Any publicity is a good publicity” stands valid in the case of Bollywood industry.

Bollywood and marketing go hand-in-hand and would reach newer avenues and create many milestones in creativity. The digital age is changing the traditional model of marketing and distribution for independent films. For every opportunity it presents there’s yet another challenge. Its time now for everyone in Bollywood to sit up and take marketing more seriously as marketing creates magic!

On an end note what is clear evidently is that formal marketing rules are applicable to films as well and the campaigns planning depend on many factors like the plot of the movie, the stars involved, the channels and mediums available, competitions with other filmmakers and movies, release dates, budgets among other factors. What might work for one movie may not work for the other or can be a much better hit than the movie it is already implemented in. Another factor that emerged was that in youth- centric movies like “Ra-One” and “3-Idiots” an unconventional approach would work and that in more massy movies, conventional techniques would work better. This is a wrong notion. To conclude we would bring out a point that there is no linear approach to whether conventional mediums should be deployed or unconventional. What needs to be understood are the factors in consideration and saying the right thing at the right time with streamlined objectives.

Reference

1. http://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/bollywood-movie-mary-kom-leveraged-social-media-to-get- a-reach-of-more-than-6-5-lakhs-dmblog-0702/

2. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 258047916_New_Media_Marketing_of_Bollywood_Movies_Making_a_Difference

3. http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Entertainment_economy_of_India/$FILE/Indias- Entertainment-Economy_Oct_%202011_.pdf

4. http://www.ibscdc.org/case-catalogues/Marketing_Case_Studies_Catalogues.pdf 5. http://www.academia.edu/4251791/E-

marketing_of_Bollywood_movies_A_case_study_of_movies_with_net_earnings_above_INR_100_crore