The case for Small and Medium movies
Basically over the past couple of weeks, ever since RNBDJ has been released, I have been watching the endless debates between the small and big cinema. Some kind of perception has been floating around that PFC is obsessed with small, medium and indie house art cinema, and is too critical of big cinema. I just want to state one thing, PFC has no official policy, regarding movies, and what kind of movies to promote. None of us here are obliged to promote a certain kind of movie or banners. Anyway this post is basically for my views on small and medium budget movies and why i felt we need to back those movies more than big budget ones.
Now if we take movies as a whole, with regards to Indian cinema, i feel we can divide into 3 groups.
Group A- The prestigious big banner productions, Yash Raj, Dharma.
Group B- The Vishesh Films banner, which does not generally appeal to the multiplex and family audience.
Now when we take Yash Raj or Dharma, every movie of theirs has extensive publicity, covered heavily in the media. So from months before the movie is released, audiences are bombarded with publicity left, right and center.
Vishesh Films, might not get extensive media publicity, people might dismiss their movies as “sleaze n skin flicks”, but they have a dedicated fan base, who watch their movies regularly. That base cares a damn about what the media says about it, they will just go and watch it.
And neither do dedicated Yashraj or Dharma favorites, really let the media affect their views.
But there are movies like Johnny Gaddar, Manorama 6 Feet Under, Dasvidaniya which neither come into Category A or B. To most of the general audience, their movies and makers are an unknown quantity. And this is where media promotion and reviews, play a critical part. Even if Dostana or Raaz II, get extensively trashed in the media, people are still going to watch them, because they have made up their mind to do so, the fact is media reviews really have no impact on Group A or Group B. But when you are speaking of movies in Group C, what the media writes is critical. The fact is that for a movie goer who has no idea about Shriram Raghavan or Navdeep Singh, what the media says counts.
Well anyway with the mainstream media now becomming totally commercialized, one does not really expect much objectivity from either the critics or the reviewers. This is where the blogs and websites can play an important role. People have this mistaken assumption, that those who have love the small and medium budget movies, are some kind of intellectual snobs, who hate mainstream movies. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t hate the mainstream fare, most of us, are the ones who grew up on Masala movies, its not like we were born with Truffaut and grew up with Kurosawa. But we want a space for all kinds of movies to exist. We have no issues with the SIK’s or Rab Ne’s, but we want the space for our kind of movies.
People who are making small and medium budget movies, are people who don’t big marketing budgets to back them. The media is not going to give exclusive interviews of them and their movies. But they are people with ideas, with passion. They need our backing more than Yash Raj or Dharma. Because the fact is Yash Raj does not really mind it whether we back it or not, they have already established themselves in the market. Whether we run a “I love You YashRaj” or “I Hate You YashRaj” campaign, makes the least difference to them. And the same goes with Vishesh films. Because these banners have established a kind of reputation, they have established a dedicated clientele. Mc Donald’s makes the yuckiest food i have ever had, but there are people who won’t eat anywhere else, its because they have had a kind of bonding with Mc Donald’s, good or bad.
And thats what we need to do for the Manoramas, Davidaniyas and Johnny Gaddars, we need to start creating a dedicated fan base, a dedicated clientele. The fact is there is an audience for these movies, there are people who are willing to watch it. There is an audience for abstract movies, there is an audience for dark and stylish thrillers, there is an audience for fantasies. Get that audience into picture, build it up. And why restrict it only to Indian audiences. Let us market it every where by DVD’s, by online viewings. I think to date we have been restricting the small and medium cinema, only to Indian audiences, make it reach out to non Indian audiences. Old Boy was a success not just with the Korean Americans, it was a major hit with the average Americans too. I really am not sure about how the movie viewing works out in US, UK and Australia, but am sure people staying there can come up with some ideas.
The small and medium cinema in India needs to be backed, needs to be promoted aggresively. Sure we can’t match the marketing budgets of the bigger movies, lets not even get into that act. But even on a smaller scale, it could be marketed effectively. There was an art house movement in the 70’s and 80’s, but it died out, as T.V. ensured audiences who patronized such movies, stayed away from cinema halls. Let us not do it this time. Small and medium budget movies make more sense even from an economic view point. Even if the movie is not a commercial success, the loss is much smaller than what you would get for a big budget dud. This could be done through effective costing and proper marketing. Honestly speaking i am not very good at financial management, but am sure there must be brains, which have ideas on this front.
People like myself are not against the big budget movies, but they have enough avenues and resources for promotion of their movies. It is the smaller and medium movies that need to be backed more. I am not saying treat it like a Holy Cow, and don’t criticize it. Give the right way of constructive criticism, make sure that helps them to do better in the next one. But just don’t try to compare these with French New Wave or American indie movies or 70’s Beatnik movies, and then say, Oh no these movies are not even as great as that. That is because those movies are made in societies where individualism, free speech and dissent is taken for granted. Here you are speaking of a society where dissent is frowned upon and conformity is welcomed. We need to look at their efforts in that context. These movies may be good, bad or rotten, but first of all give them a space, let the audience see it, and then decide. Just writing off their efforts, being cynical and smart alecky, is not going to help things at all.
Christopher Nolan, made his impact with indie features like Memento, Bryan Singer cut his teeth on a small scale thriller The Usual Suspects, but today these directors are recognized as the foremost mainstream directors in Hollywood. Small and medium budget movies, bring certain things to the table, strong scripts, tight screenplays, deft editing, production cost cutting. The fact is that in the longer run, its the mainstream movie that benefits out of small scale cinema. Maybe the movie industry should take a look at the IT industry. When Open Source and Linux, began to make their impact on the IT market, it was not taken too seriously. But the Open Source model had advantages of better security, more robustness, better scalability, and right now most of the Big IT giants like Google, IBM, HP have enthusiastically embraced the Open Source model. Well actually there is a lot to learn from it, guess maybe will come out later with an article on Open Source and the small, medium range movies.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I think one can always justify their position as you have done but the fact remains that for many people on this forum Yash Raj films ARE a punching bag.
Critics and reviewers seem to have no yard-stick when they comment on big main-stream films. I have noticed a maliciousness to their comments depending on the source of the film i.e producer, director and main actors. Very many thought that SIK was simply great (because Akshay is in the ascendency) whereas a Golmaal Returns was dismal and an insult. Both went onto do fantastic business. Now I didn’t watch either film because “slap-stick” is not my “cup of tea” but I respect the right of others to do so without somehow implying that they must be lacking in intellect to want do so. This is the very problem with “many but not all” PFC contributors. That’s why I often accuse them of “artistic snobbery.
I personally feel that this forum should be a positive place, where stress is placed on the type of cinema you would like to see flourish instead of belittling cinema that gets in the crowds. Whether you admit it or not, lately this forum has seemed a very spiteful place full of envy and jealousy at the success of films which it despises. How else can you explain the preoccupation RNBDJ. Did it really deserve all that attention. It reminded me of that phrase “you protest to much”.
If a “small movie” is good it will succeed no matter what.
There are many reasons for going to watch fims in the cinema. For the majority of our Indian audience it is about “wanting to feel good, to be entertained and to forget their woes and hard living conditions” for three hours. They don’t have the luxury or the inclination “always” to admire films that are “thought-provoking” beyond those Three hours (though not because they lack the intelligence to do so). That is an indulgence for people who live “comfortable and safe” lives. Those are the people in need of introspection and stimulation though I generalize a bit. That is not to say that we should not try to widen their palette just not “get cross” in the time that it is taking (perhaps for the majority of Indians it may never happen).
I am as smart as any of you lot but I will watch a film for many reasons i.e because I like the actors in it firstly and because I like the genre. My expectations for Indian films is different from my expectations from Western films but in the final analysis who can say what we should watch or not, what we should like or not. No need to get so stressed about it if many people loved a film which you hated i.e RNBDJ.
@ Ratnakar
Well I’ve already agreed with your feelings on some other post in the same context.I feel similarly too.I’ve grown up on mainstream cinema but discovered the “middle of the road” cinema long ago.Today as much as I watch a RNBDJ or a Ghajini I’ll be happy to watch an Aamir or a Dasvidaniya.Yes we can use our energy to better effect on this forum by talking more about the middle of the road or smaller films which need more encouragement.But we can do it without bashing the mainstream cinema.I think cinema is a very wide spectrum- there’s as much space for a CC2C as much as there’s for Dev D.So lets support good cinema.Viva Cinema!!!
Sethu and Sasha, please check and re read my post again. This is not about Mainstream Cinema. This is about backing small scale cinema. I am not talking about destroying Mainstream Cinema here, i dont have such fanatical ambitions. Yeah its another matter that of late 90% of the mainstream cinema, has been utter rubbish. I am talking about giving support to small and medium cinema, It needs it more than Yash Raj or Dharma, period. Today even if PFC totally boycotts CC2C, it wud not make the least bit difference to that movie, because the entire media is going to market and promote it anyway. Mainstream cinema has enough avenues to promote it, and i am not much bothered. Yeah sure we could pick up some of their techniques.
hav always wonderd if its possible to get an endorsement from someone whom ppl listen to……is it possible to get an actor/director who likes the film and then get him onboard for 4 weeks promotion (2pre n 2 post) of the film…he will endorse the film as a must-watch. ofcourse the actor/director can be paid some amount as endorsement fee like it happens with other stuff. if he can get the audinces, why not ? say aamir khan likes a film and then m sure if he endorses the film, it will make big differenc….media,public,buzz,publicity…everything will be there. only factor is how much aamir will charge for four weeks promotions ?
phoenix i very much agree with what you said
a big reason for me wanting to watch mumbai meri jaan was aamir khan/vishal bharadwaj endorsing it
but clearly most actors/directors in bollywood very rarely praise and appreciate good cinema
tooo much enimity or whatever
Phoenixnu: I think that’s a great idea, but I highly doubt that any actor/director would dedicate 4 weeks to promote a film they are not directly involved with. That’s sort of the idea behind “item numbers” and “guest appearances”, whereby an actor is a part of that project and that way can justify the time/energy spent promoting it. Otherwise, there have been instances where an actor casually remarks “Yeah, I saw Dasvidaniya and thought it was great. Go watch it”, and that in itself is a great gesture.
As for the topic at hand, I can definately see your point Ratnakar, that small/medium budget films need our support more so because they don’t have the promotional muscle behind them. But then, is it really all that simple?
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There are many small budget films which go completely un-noticed. Granted these films don’t have the shocking premise of an “Aamir” or “A Wednesday” or the hakte treatment of a “Mithya” or an “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye”, but then going by what you’re saying here doesn’t a “Ruburu” or a “Khushboo” face the same problem? Lack or promotional budget? So then do these films deserve our backing solely on the basis of their budget, or do we have to LIKE them as a prerequisite?
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On the flipside, not every big-budget film benefits from being produced by a big-banner or the associated promotional blitz. For example, “Bachna Ae Haseeno” had a very average response from movie-goers despite being one of the better films to come out of Yash Raj in years. Obviously audiences were wary of Yash Raj after disapoints like “Tashan” and “Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic”.
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I think what it comes down to, and what it was ALWAYS come down to, is whether or not audiences sense its a good film.
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So what we all need to do is promote ALL good films, regardless of their budget/starcast/banner/etc.
@Tony, Ratnakar: It is only logical and fair that we should promote all good movies, and that is what we all try to do here. But, I sense the topic is something else. I feel it is about giving a chance. Atleast, Thoda Pyaar and Tashan had a decent opening, people didn’t dumb it by just watching the promo, they went and actually saw the film and then decided, and spread the word. But, what happens with the Manormas, Mithyas and their likes(good small budget films)? They are not even given a chance. A chance that they so deserve. I will have no qualms about dumbing a small/medium budget films after watching them, but not to give them any sort of chance in the first place is pretty heart breaking. And thats what has been happening, though things have started improving of late.
Tony, Vivek and Phoenix
I think in recent times we had the more mainstream actors and movie makers, promoting the small and medium budget movies. My Brother Nikhil was enthusiastically promoted by Karan Johar and a host of other celebs. An Aamir or SRK promoting a movie can help it a lot.
Tony
Saying all Good movies need support, is kinda taking the easy way out.
BAH or for that matter even RBDNJ, might or might not have been as much a commercial success as YRF expected, but people walked into theaters to see those movies, and that is the same with any Yash Raj or Dharma movies, people went to a theater to watch them.
And that is my focus, first of all get the people to watch those movies, get their curiosity, get them into the theaters, do whatever you can. Just saying “Oh no Indian audiences want 3 Hours of Entertainment” is like side stepping the issue. The fact is there is a sizeable audience out there, who wants movies that are more than 3 Hours of Nonsensical Entertainment. Reach out to them, target them and get them involved. I mean let them see those movies not just in a multiplex, maybe in a theater, in a movie club, in a parlor, on DVD wherever they can, and after them let em make a decision, whether its good, bad or downright rotten.
@ All
Please read my post, properly, and again. I am not going on a mainstream cinema bashing here. I am asking that small and medium cinema, be more aggresively supported. If you have some ideas regarding how the small and medium cinema, can reach out to more people, put them in.
@ RS: Great post to begin the day with. Cheers to that! There is an idea in my khopdi ki jhopdi. Just like we have production houses for small movies like UTV Spotboy etc, there should also be marketing agencies that promote such small-budget indies etc. using non-conventional medium for providing maximum mileage within the minimum shoe-string budgets. Being in advertising I have observed that there is a huge trend of brands falling back on below-the-line (BTL) activities, when they can’t afford the Print ads & VCs. Something like this could come handy for the small budget films too!
Well right now UTV is doing a real good job of marketing smaller movies. Hmm one thing that does beat me, is why most of our small and medium movie makers, dont tap the DVD market as much as it is done in West. Magik, since ur an ad man, is it kinda possible to have a DVD ad strategy for these smaller and medium budget features. I mean the more indie, art house ones.
Also how effective you think it would be, if you put up a DVD screening in colleges or universites. I had basically raised some of these points in my earlier post on Movie Marketing. But wud love to hear from people who are actually hands on in this area.
@ Ratnakar
I’m sorry I didnt mean that you were dumbing down mainstream cinema.That was a more general comment from my side & not directed at you.
@ Magik
BTL activities are usually done for brands which dont have much money for ATL ( Above the line) activities as pointed out by you and also for getting some instant gratification – in the form of sales/visibility.It very clearly means spending money most likely directly.In this case how do you do BTL?I was thinking of blocking space in a Forum Mall ( PVR), a Garuda Mall
( Inox) in Bangalore or a Hyderabad Central
( PVR) or Prsads in Hyderabad & using that space for promotion of various kinds.But in this case it would still technically become ATL as it involves promotion.So how does one do BTL?The easiest way to do BTL would be to feed money to theatres/multiplexes and make the movie run for a guaranteed period, but I dont think that would come cheaply.I’m thinking of other ways of doing BTL, please do let me know if you have other ideas in mind.
@ RS: I m still not well-versed with the ekonomix of films. I also dunno if people who watch a film on DVD, will they go to the theater & watch it again on the big skreen. It might help the word-of-mouth marketing, but not sure how far it will take the film. I have some outrageous ideas for movie marketing but am gonna selfishly & shamelessly save it for my first feature. And I was talking about a dedicated low-budget film marketing agency, like Percept has a P9 for marketing the biggies… am waiting to hear more from other filmis about this!
@ Sethu: one thing that people love is to be involved. Like they did for jab we met. The makers left the naming to the junta. That builds a relation with the people. There has to be people may be konducting kontests etc at the malls / plexes. and there are a dozen more ways to reach out to people… all it takes is a lil bit of understanding the film & taking it to the right audience by directly reaching out to them. PFC is one such forum, but its online. The challenge is to kreate something more compelling!
@ Magik
I do agree with you.Even in case of Omkara- junta was asked to choose between 3 names suggested by the team behind the movie & ultimately it was Omkara which prevailed.Yes a lot of such things can be done , no doubts about it at all.
Regarding a marketing agency like P9, I am sure the UTV’s , the Moser Baer’s,the PNC’s can all do their bit.to start off I have a suggestion- UTV Spotboy can have a small marketing wing in itself and not depend on big brother UTV’s marketing team for support.This will bring in specialised focus.
@ Sethu: dats eggjhaktly wut i meant. completely dedicated for the cause of the small budget ventures. that will also be an ultimate test of the creativity of the marketing team.
Yes I completely agree with you Magik.I even have a case in point.While UTV did a farily good job in promoting Aamir before the movie released, I dont think they really did the same for A Wednesday.How many people actually even knew anything about the movie till around 10 days before the release date?Luckily the movie was good and went on to do well purely on the basis of WOM.But imagine if the WOM had not generated the result, what would have happened?So if there’s a dedicated marketing wing for these kind of movies within the production house, having a specific & customised promotion/marketing would be possible.
Similar was the case with Mumbai Meri Jaan.I dont think UTV actually did any great promotion/marketing of the movie.The movie was virtually unknown to the people a week before the movie’s release.A seperate marketing arm would have taken better care of this in my opinion.
Sethu dunno where u have been watching, but as far as i can recall, MMJ, A Wednesday and Welcome to Sajjanpur were marketed pretty well on all TV channels and websites. I actually saw Wednesday and WTS, based on UTV promos. And UTV have their own marketing dept, and right now Moser Baer is taking care of their Home Movies Distribution segment, so I think that UTV is doing a fairly good job there. What else are u expecting from them?
the multiplex movies myth has gone on for too long. they are just packaging plays in the name of films.this is no new wave
(i know you said that too) but the way your holy patron Anurag Kashyap supported Dasvidaniya, it seemed as if he was trying to create one such wave. i have not seen RNBDJ or Dasvidaniya(i am using them as examples)and i don’t plan to watch either. i saw Bheja Fry, so recommended and stuff and it was a bloody play. there should be some kind of movement in a film, i suppose, not just a narrative. Khosla Ka Ghosla was decent but again, i couldn’t watch all of it. A wednesday didn’t grip me.
true, we didn’t ‘grow up with Truffaut’ or Kurosaw but certainly Phanishwarnath Renu’s books were around, so were Rajendra Yadav’s, Kamleshwar’s, Mannu Bhandari’s. Uday Prakash is there now. but the current generation of film-makers and cinegoers are completely unaware of the literary heritage(if it seems pedantic, i am sorry)
what i mean is, just downloading, watching and collecting movies never made a film-maker out of any one. you have to have an idea of all kinds of art-forms. i don’t think, frankly, that the current generation had the access, or willingness to work towards that kind of understanding. all they have seen in the name of art is bollywood stuff(which i have seen probably more than anyone myself) and now, with the internet and some access to world cinema, suddenly they think they can become artists. well, they will never be. at most, with their intelligence(and that they have certainly) they will be able to hide their sources till they finally sell-off.
ps:this site is a front for A. Kashyap, right?
I wonder how much money it would take to get Taran Adarsh to promote these low cost movies. After all his reviews are almost like promotion. I can’t see the difference between the two where he’s concerned. If you want to know what I mean, just check out his review for Ghajini. He predicts it will be an all-time blockbuster. With theatres already housefull (or at least that’s what the hype is saying) it’s like stating the obvious!
Sasha, Taran generally reviews and promotes even the lower cost movies. In fact i think he is the only person i have seen who reviews everything. And to give TA his due, he has been pretty much supporting of movies like Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday, Aamir in recent times. I think basically success of Page 3 made him change his outlook somewhat. He had predicted Page 3 to be not so succesful, but it did well.
So now a days, for smaller and medium movies, he understands their audience is limited, and so he predicts how it will do in that segment.
RS good & valuable topic. Though I think not all small budget movies are great movies. Sometimes we considering ourselves fonders of different kinds of cinema ( ‘C’ catagory of cinema according to you) develop some sort of emotional bonding with them. This is somewhat similar to the audiance of A or B catagories of cinema.
However with some exception these low budget movies have always done well. Even much better than Yash Raj films or Vishesh films considering their budget.
@ Ratnakar
I beg to disagree with you.I dont think UTV promoted A Wednesday or MMJ the way they probably promoted Aamir or Welcome to Sajjanpur.That in itself says that UTV has a good pulse of the market and knows their movies well.If they could promote WTS or Aamir well they could have done better with A Wednesday and MMJ.In fact promos for both these movies came in very close to the movie’s release on both the web & the TV channels.Its only post release that UTV came up with better promos for them.And Ratnakar people like you & me are anyway quite clued in about movies- lets not dispute that.We would anyways notice things and get to watch the movies.I am talking about reaching out to the aam junta.IMO UTV did a fantastic job in promoting Aamir and WTS but didnt really do so with MMJ & A Wedenesday atleast till the movie’s release.
I am not sure about MMJ, but A Wednesday was there all over TV much before its release. And its not just u and me, Sethu, a vast majority of people are movie crazy one way or another. But please tell me specifically, what did u find lacking in promotion of A Wednesday by UTV, maybe as a marketing professional, u should know better.
No I am very sure that promos for A Wednesday was on air only a couple of weeks before the release.Apart from the time duration, atleast initially the promos seemed to focus mainly on Nasser & Anupam Kher wih some terrorism angle in the background.I personally thought they had done a splendid job of promoting WTS & Aamir.The audience knew what to expect from the movie.This is what I felt was a bit missing in case of A Wednesday ( the commununication could have been better).In case of MMJ, I would say they were plain laxy- starting promos around a week or so for such a movie is definitely not done.
Also Ratnakar let me tell you that yes you & me are not the only movie crazy people but the vast majority of movie crazy people are not crazy for a WTS, MMJ, Aamir or A Wednesday.For reaching out to most of these people you need to do good promotion.I will repeat that A Wednesday clicked only because it was a solid product which gained good WOM.And seeing this UTV then improved their promotion.Look at the way they’ve promoted the World TV premiere of the movie on their channel- UTV Movies ( 21st Dec)- awesome.
Sethu-29
A Wednesday is the kind of movie, which has a twist and turn at most part, it is not the kind of predictable movie, where you know what is going to happen next. If ur asking to be shown more in promos, its like giving the entire movie away, and that defeats its very purpose. WTS is a different case, tis a character driven movie, where focus is on characters and their individual stories. So the promos wud be more extensive. When you are speaking about A Wednesday, its a plot driven movie, its about 2 characters Naseer and Anupam, giving away too much would make it irrelevant.
Let me make it clear to all that I have nothing against UTV.In fact I have the highest regard for them.For someone who knows to balance a Race and Jodha Akbar with an Aamir & A Wednesday, I can only look up with admiration & respect.My point of view is when I saw their promotion for Aamir my expectation level only increased from them.They did not meet my expectations with A Wednesday & MMJ but they’ve redeemed themselves with WTS.So I am hoping to see better things from them.
Sethu-30
When i am speaking of promotion i am referring to promotion among people who have the interest in those kind of movies and that is precisely the point i raised. I develop an open source product, I am not going to market it among every Tom, Dick and Harry, i am going to market it among developers, techies, people for whom the product is relevant.
When i am speaking of promoting movies like MMJ, Wednesday or Aamir, i am not speaking about the entire Aam Junta, there is a Target audience reach out to that audience first. Then think of Aam Junta.
Ratnakar, I totally agree with your post. The smaller films need more support than big banner film, which is in no way saying that all big films are bad. I would queue up to buy DDLJ as well as Mithya’s ticket. About stars promoting a small film, I am not too sure if that is possible. Why would they do it? They have packed schedules of their own films, their home productions, ad shoots, brand endorsements.. They would promote a film that is not their own, only if it is that of a close frds’. In that case, there are high chances that it is not a small film in the first place.
I agree on UTV doing a fab job too. They did market MMJ, WTS and Aamir well. They know when to spend lacs and when to spend crores well. I am sure we will have more people coming in, who know their jobs well. If new, fresh directors like Rajkumar Gupta and Anurag Kashyap get the amazing production and marketing expertise of guys like UTV, we can surely expect a positive change. That, as Ratnakar’s point is, will render good support to smaller films because UTV doesnt treat a small film like one. We will soon have more UTV’s!
@ Abhi-23
Nah this site is not a front or whatever for Anurag Kashyap. Sorry to disappoint u.
Well to each one his/her own.I stick to my stance on UTV’s promotion for A Wednesday.I am not talking about revealing the plot here.But a lot more could be done like in case of Aamir.Now isnt Aamir a plot driven movie too?And Ratnkar I’m aware UTV & all other big players like YRF, Moser Baer etc have their marketing departments.I was only endorsing Magik’s view on having a marketing unit for the smaller films in particular.Like UTV has a marketing arm, but does UTV Spotboy have a seperate marketing arm.
@ Abhi-23
Maybe u did not enjoy Bheja Fry or A Wednesday, fine to each his own. But a lot of people out there liked those, including me. Maybe ur perception of movies is different from some of us. But that happens, every one has their own views on it. Nothing to argue in it.
I for one honestly speaking would love to see more and more movies based on literary works. Some of my fav movies have been those based on literary works, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam, Shyam Benegal’s Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda to name a few. But problem is making a movie on a literary work, needs resources, money, which can only be done by the mainstream movie makers as of now. And i dont see any mainstream movie makers having that interest.
Abhi, problem is not that people lack the sensibility u mentioned, they have, but they need the backing and resources to translate that. I would love to see AK or Dibakar or Ashutosh Gowarikar make a movie out of Feluda series, but u need some one who can back them, give them the financial support needed to recreate that period, that atmosphere. Its like those who have the sensibility, dont have the resources and those who have the resources dont have the sensibility.
Ratnakar@ 33
If you are talking about promoting to the TG first, then I would definitely agree to your point.I was talking from a larger perspective.Point taken my friend
Oh, I know this discussion by heart. It never ends. The thing is, small budget films do have success when they are good, only when people on a plattform like this one say: “Don’t miss it, you wont regret it!” Or people tell their friends to go and watch it. On the other hand, it doesn’t help to back every film, because then you simply lose your audience.
You still can promote the films that need it.
It is a good thing to wholeheartetly support a film, has to earn the respect of the audience. Small budget films really need the support. But, to criticize every mainstream film doesn’t help. Your have to still be fair in the judgement department.
Personally, I thought RNBDJ was fine. SRK was nice – although sometimes annoying as Raj – he did get the best out of the role and made it quite entertaining. And I thought Anushka was even better, but way to young. They really seemed like father and daughter sometimes… Aditya Chopra is totally overrated, if you ask me. I hated Mohabbatein. Still, I loved “Bachna Ae Haseeno” and I’m not ashamed of it. And also: I liked “Mumbai Meri Jaan” even more than “A Wednesday”.
Small films have been marketed positively and many have also done well in recent years. It all depends on what you mean by successful. Many have made profits but if one is expecting the box-office returns similar to OSO, SIK, RNBDJ, GR than one will of course be disappointed.
Just as is often said that movies by the likes of Karan Johar and Yash Raj films are aimed at the NRI (something I disagree with) audience so too smaller films are usually aimed at the more discerning viewer. Keeping this in mind these films DO find their audience.
@Magik – the word is ‘Kause’ and not ’cause’. :P
Few of my musings on this one.
Creating a buzz is time and intensity product i.e. big banners can create a larger buzz in shorter time because of the amount of “buzz space” they can afford. So for Ghajini, within 1 – 1/2 months, the buzz is tremendous. It did help that AK sported the hair cut long back.
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For SMM (small and medium movies), they will have to start real early, say 6 months before the movie releases and it does not have be high intensity (in terms of song trailors) but strategic placement, say a 20 second teaser or an interview here and there and build on that as D-day comes closer. And it goes without saying, a homepage is a MUST. A message board along with that is a plus with feeder (or email newsletter) is a bonus.
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In India, the audience is fragmented but the fragmentation is not highly visible so these can be the ways you can allure cinephiles.
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Normally, Dasvidaniya or worst Oh My God ( I did not know till a week befor it released) start marketing 1 week or 2 before. They get lost in the crowd :-(
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Another thing, off-topic, there is no decent movie magazine online or in print. Everyone is out there trying to be a tabloid. So this can be a good opportunity too.
Here is the deal, and I agree with the author of this post, YRF and Dharma and White Feathers and a lot of big banners do not need publicity, gimmicks, reviews etc etc for their movies, people will watch them anyhow and then after that they make profit or loss depending on the people.
Small-Med Budget movies like Oye Lucky Fails cos’ of the exact same reason, people don’t go to see Abhay Deol cos he is a niche actor and the movie loses but what the very people forget is that a SRK or Aamir will not work in the set up of an affable crook any more they are big stars and can never play such odd simpelton roles until there is a big climax in the end.
But all types of cinema should be supported.
Anurag Kashyap has the wackiest of ideas, sometimes the movies bomb but some of them are masterpieces, Black Friday is one and Im sure that Dev D falls in the same category.
Same for Vishal Bhardwaj- watch the Blue Umbrella for the master actor Pankaj Kapur at work priceless, these are the movies from India which go out on a global scale, but no we select movies which are Big Budget. That’s how life is- unfair to the poor, so we fight and we will fight against all the big banners.
I say let them be the way they are , we will take care of ourselves.