Gunning for Hits

Salman Khan will be pitching for Wanted,which releases on September 18,on his show 10 Ka Dum with his co-star Ayesha Takia and director Prabhudeva. He will also appear in 30 short films on public issues—to boost its box-office chances. For Hadippa which shares its release date with Wanted,the promos have been using Rani Mukherji’s bare back as a trump card for weeks now. London Dreams,Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and Radio—all slated for an October release—are building up the tempo. Since these are Diwali releases,the marketing moves are likely to intensify. “We have big plans for our Diwali release Main Aurr Mrs Khanna,” says Shikha Kapur,Vice-President of Marketing. London Dreams ads and promos have started appearing while the Radio team made a trip to (where else?) a radio station and released its music at the Lalbaug Ganesh pandal.

In the race to stand out in the Bollywood rush,the upcoming films are exploring all possible media and gimmicks. Kapur says,“We plan the promotion of a film and the mediums for it depending on the film’s subject.” Next,UTV is focussing on Ashutosh Gowarikar’s What’s your Raashee?,which is releasing on September 25. Since love and zodiac signs are integral to the film,Facebook applications,like ‘Zodiac compatibility’,were recently launched. “The campaign will be thematic,revolving around 12 avatars of Priyanka Chopra,” says Kapur.

There is always a risk of marketing overkill,but films like Love Aaj Kal and Kambakkht Ishq seem to ignore it. After umpteen interviews in the run-up to Aaj Kal’s release,even the byte-hungry journos seemed to have exhausted their questionnaires. At an event,Saif Ali Khan was let off after a couple of questions. His leading lady went the extra mile—literally. Deepika Padukone created a record of sorts,visiting four stores in a day to promote the Love Aaj Kal apparel line. But the wackiest gimmick belongs to Quick Gun Murugan. A lipstick-ed and pancake-d Rajendra Prasad distributed cowboy hats while Rambha in her blonde wig,sold ice- cream at a parlour.

Wake Up Sid is the latest film to hop onto the blogging bandwagon. “We have tied up with Dharma Productions to launch an exclusive set of video blogs on Wake Up Sid on BollywoodHungama.com. They will also be available with all mobile operators through Hungama Mobile,” says Siddhartha Roy,COO,Hungama Digital Media,who is trying to woo the Indian mobile market of over 40 crore subscribers. Alongside television,the Internet has emerged as a prominent medium for film promotion. “The promotions on digital media help producers reach an estimated 6.5 crore Internet users in India and 2 crore Indians living abroad,” Roy adds.