Movie Marketing – The Telugu Cinema Way
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iView Author: SETHUMADHAVAN (Chennai/Vijayawada, India)
Email: sethumadhavan.n@gmail.com
Movie Marketing – The Telugu Cinema Way
I’m just back home after watching a recently released, successfully running Telugu movie called Nachchavule. On the way home I kept thinking again & again about the movie. Well yes the movie is certainly decent enough to be thinking about, but more than the movie I was thinking more from the angle of the movie’s marketing. As a keen follower of Telugu cinema that’s when I realized that while at large Telugu movies are still caught in the trap of the so called stars and the big producers & directors with some few small film makers trying to also keep themselves afloat, but in terms of movie marketing, Telugu cinema seems to be heading in the right track.
I would hereafter discuss the same with the help of two recent movies as examples. Let’s take the case of Vinayakudu. Released on 22nd Nov, the movie is still going strong in most centres. Starring Sonia & Krishnudu, the movie had the story appearing very clear to the public in all the publicity aids used. Everybody knew the movie was a love story between a fat guy (Krishnudu) and a good looking girl (Sonia). So much so that the movie in line with the distributor’s (Big Cinemas) name made a bold tagline as A Big Fat Love Story.
As it is the movie directed by Sai Kiran Adivi, was fairly risky due to the concept. The only other instance of a hero in Indian movies being played by a fat character ( and which is still in public memory ) is Mohanlal’s Uncle Bun in Malayalam ( Rajendra Prasad did the telugu version ) and no I wont even discuss Anil Kapoor’s silly fat man act briefly in Badhai Ho Badhai. But to actually flaunt the concept proudly in the sweet & simple hoardings and posters was a brave attempt by Sai Kiran, Big Cinemas and the producer-Prem Kumar and it seems to have worked in their favour.
The movie has appealed to the youth and the family audience and has reached across to all sections of viewers. Today as the movie nears 50 days of its run, Sai Kiran Adivi has announced that he’s planning a sequel to the movie with the same lead pair. Now that’s certainly reaping the success which can be strongly attributed to the marketing done for the movie. Coming to Nachchavule the movie I saw a few hours back, it’s produced by the well known Usha Kiron Movies and directed by Ravi Babu.
Before the movie released posters of the movie were splashed all over A.P. But surprisingly the posters did not feature the lead pair- debutants Tanish and Madhavi Latha. In fact the public were completely in the dark about the lead pair. The posters had depicted either a cute pair of monkeys with ear phones or a couple of puppies. The posters did raise the curiosity of the people and they did throng the theatres in the very first week. Once the movie was accepted by the people in the first week, Usha Kiron Movies then unleashed the lead pair in all subsequent publicity aids including posters and trailers.
Another interesting aspect about Nachchavule is that the movie has been released with limited prints unlike the trend of flooding the market with a large number of prints as is the norm in the telugu film industry these days. This strategy has also worked in the favour of the movie makers, as the curiosity levels have only been increasing. It is now expected that Usha Kiron Movies will be slowly increasing the number of prints.
What is common to Vinayakudu & Nachchavule apart from the fact that both are small movies? Given below is the response to the question-
A very good product- at heart both the movies are simple romantic flicks which has the appeal to reach out to all sections of viewers. So a good product can be helped further by good marketing but expecting marketing alone to do the trick is not right.
Marketing focus- people associated with both the movies knew that their product was good but it was a small movie. Hence they needed to connect to the audience and believed in the benefits of marketing.
Clear Communication- they either had a strong tagline or communication aid and used it to the hilt in communicating the essence of the movie.
Respecting the boundary- while both the marketing teams knew they had to have a strong promotional campaign for the movie, they knew that they shouldn’t go overboard and stuck to the boundary very well. They knew what would work for a Ghajini in hindi would probably not work for them and hence they didn’t go overboard.
With these two movies in the recent few weeks showing what good marketing can do a good movie, I hope Telugu Cinema takes the cue and looks at utilizing marketing in the right way for their movies.
Tags: Big Pictures, Krishnudu, Movie Marketing, Nachhavule, Prem kumar, Ravibabu, Sai kiran Adivi, Sonia, Telugu Cinema, Usha Kiron Movies, Vinayakudu
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regional marketing is impossible …..these guys could have made a better dark knight if they had the budget…have some sense
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Interesting article Sethu…
I would like to quote few examples of small movies making mullah @ box office..
Chitram
Jayam
Happy Days
Dil
Anand
Allari (Ravi babu’s first film)
Nuvve Kavali (Usha Kiron Movies)
Hyderabad Blues (It ran only in one theater sangeet in secumderabad for few weeks then they increased number of prints)
Angrez (Same as hyderabad blues…it started out from ramakrishna 35mm)
Usha Kiron Movies have been in the industry for long time…my only complaint with them is they need to make more movies..they got a brand and they need to use it more aggresively..
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Gondipuntra- dude who says regional marketing is not possible? How did a Dasavatharam or a Sivaji make money then? Please check your facts before you just shoot off…..
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Varun- thanks for your feedback.I do agree that
Usha Kiron Movies should be making more movies.Hopefully the success of Nachchavule would help them in that direction.
You’ve mentioned some good movies but among them only Hyderabad Blues and Happy Days had good marketing.The Angez became a cult movie in Hyderabad movie inspite of the marketing & not due to it.Strong WOM was helpful in its case as also for the other movies like Jayam,Chitram etc.
But I would rate Ashta Chemma as another movie which owes its success to a large extent to its good marketing.
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Usha Kiron Movies have been in the industry for long time…my only complaint with them is they need to make more movies..they got a brand and they need to use it more aggresively..
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@ Sethu:, my filmi brother from another mother, liked ur artikle. wut gets my goats abt south indian cinema is the way they worship the stars… the huge cut-outs, the ridiculously gross garlands… sometimes they put agarlands of kokonuts!!! thats the biggest marketing gimmick they employ, or so i think…
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Magik bhai- yes its all loud worship that happens in T.N & A.P especially.Apart from whatever you’ve mentioned there’s one more thing-
on the day of release the fans do abhishek of the hoardings and cutouts with milk & even beer
( not joking I am serious)
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@ sethu..”on the day of release the fans do abhishek of the hoardings and cutouts with milk & even beer
( not joking I am serious”
and Blood..i have seen that…
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@ OM & Sethu: Yikes, whaddya sayin… beer n blood…? OMG!!!
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@Magil…at beer and blood at the same time? GHANTA!!!! lol!!
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Magik,OM – blood I haven’t seen but yes beer is
the in thing- milk has become routine now.
and with big flicks like Sivaji& Dasavatharam all this got captured on the news channels too
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sucess is a mere conincidance…and please dont attribute it to marketing or gimmickery.
Movie got to be like a life, u gotta live with it with the viewing experience for 2 hrs.
Telugu cinema doesnt exite me in any sense, der is no connection, even a 1 single frame or a dialogue? it all fake? its all stupidity.
Look at tamil cinema, im not that well verse with the language, they r incredible especially in artistic sense.
SOUL-STORY-MOVIE: Telgu makers only know to makes movies and leave it to public who r like known shit better than unknown
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Just imagine beer loving fans standing under the cut out licking the beer dripping from their fav hero’s pants
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Srikanth Redddy-
Have you seen movies like Anand,Godavari,Happy Days,Ashta Chemma,Gamyam,Anukakonda Oku Roju,
Aithe,Grahanam etc ? Yes on a majority scale most of the movies arent too great but there are exceptions that I’ve listed here.Also the movies that I’ve written about in my article are good movies basically which have also taken the benefit of good marketing.
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Gajendra- your description sounds extremely funny-
actually tried imagining it lol
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@Sethu
I am quite disturbed with so called new market mantras and santras…
Its quite disturbing to see, corporate india celebrating christmas (BPO, KPO n IT) and not even acknowledge “Ramzan” as holiday.
I know dis is irrelevant, but my point is marketing is irrelevant too atleast for movie industry.
A good cinema itself a marketing tool to promote sanity, happiness, inspiration so on depending on genre of it.
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@ Srikanth-16
I dont quite agree with ur view. I know many good movies that did not get their due, because of poor marketing.
see if ur taking a movie made by a banner like Yash Raj or Suresh Productions, even if they dont go out all the way to promote their movies, people will still flock to see their movies, because those banners have some tradition, some history, some reputation.
But you have a really good movie made by a director who is not too well known, and a cast which does not have any big names in the list. Now unless the audiences have some idea of the movie, they wud not watch it. And this is where marketing cud play a key role.
The reason why movies like Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday cud be succesful this year, was because UTV marketed these movies well, releasing the promos, the trailers before the actual movie release. They did manage to generate some curiosity, to make people see the movie.
And i honestly hate some marketing tactics, like focussing on the hero’s 12 pack abs, or the heroine’s 0 size waist, or some hot scenes. That is a dishonest marketing IMO.
But that itself is no reason to actually say marketing is irrelevant.
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@ Srikanth-16
Also in earlier days, movies were the only form of entertainment for the junta, so they wud watch every movie that came out in theaters. But nowadays, with the Net, TV, DVD’s there are many other options available. I mean why would I want to go to a theater to watch a movie, about which i have no idea at all, when i know i cud catch it on TV or maybe DVD later. In this case marketing cud be an effective tool, to bring such undecided viewers to the theater.
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@Srikanth – I do agree with what Ratnakar says.Marketing is essential for the movies like
Vinayakudu & Nachchavule that I’ve written about in the article.How do you expect people to throng the theatres for such movies anyways?awareness has to be created first & only then will people come in to watch the movie.
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@why would I want to go to a theater@..better ask fans who watched magnum flopopus jhonny on 1st day 1st show paying 2K..eg are to many including rajni’s Baba.
My only concern is the “over doing” culture we are blessed with.
I totally agree with you and quiet impressed with your pysche…
On the flip side perfect eg is Bala’s Seethu..Did it need any marketing..i dont even rem trailor being showed on TV during its release.
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Srikanth-
My article has nothing to do with hyping of movies.The hype created for a Johny or a Baba is not something that I’m talking about.I’m talking about marketing the right way for a right movie.
Yes overdoing it is not something that I am in favour of.Bala’s Sethu had no budget for doing any marketing.The movie was lying in the can for more than a year & was even struggling for a release.After the movie released it was good WOM that helped the movie.Exceptions would always be there in case of movies succeeding inspite of not having any proper marketing.But that cannot be the norm for all others to follow.
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sethu – good post. the subject matter is close to my heart. will respond in detail in a bit. need to organize my thoughts before i articulate.
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wb- thanks,will look forward to your detailed feedback.
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