Promoting Films

Bollywood used to have a great pre-release promotion tool in the sixties and seventies - a sponsored 15 minute radio program anchored by Ameen Sayani or some other RJ- that it has all but lost these days. Internet has compnsated to an extent, and the TV news about movies about to be released. Stars are much more accessible on the idiot box and also in person these days- Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani had come to Nagpur before the release of 3 Idiots, and Akshay before the release of Khatta Meetha, for instance.

During the film's run, the newspaper ads and listings still play a major role in conveying basic information like show timings and actors. But many of the ancillary parts like script-writers, song writers and music directors, etc. get less and less attention in the publicity these days, even in movie credits. Can anyone recall the music director of the last three movies you saw?

The product life cycle for a film in traditional movie theatres is down to a week or two in most cases. Therefore, the money may actually come from non-traditional rights like TV rights, music rights sold to companies, product placements (branded products used as props in the film for a price) and so on. This also means that the release has to be simultaneous in many towns, unlike the good old days when movies used to release in metros like Mumbai first, and then the same prints were carted off to small towns. Remember ads that said "Brand new print" because many had scratches from having been rerun several times? Digital copies are also making it possible not to have the traditional reels or spools of film.

Has all this resulted in a better experience for the film-goer? Yes and no. I still recollect the best movies seen in good cinema halls with awe. Ramakrishna 70 mm in Hyderabad, where I saw Sholay, and a few English films, or Sangeet in Secunderabad, for example. They had great sound, picture quality, ambience, some better than the multiplexes. Rajmandir in Jaipur is built like a palace.

On the other hand, availability of tickets through multiple channels has made life a bit simpler. Black-marketing has almost vanished. Single theatres are still affordable, but multiplexes are exorbitantly priced from the point of view of a common man. Earlier, movies were socialist in audience mix, while they now have an elitist bias in the pricey multiplexes. That has brought down some of the enjoyment of going to a theatre.

Another phenomenon that has emerged of late is the dubbed film. Most Hollywood movies are dubbed into Hindi or regional languages. This enlarges the audience base but can also turn off some sections-albeit smaller in number.