Selling Point

A method actor who is also a marketing guru. A look at how the Aamir Khan PR factory pulls you to the cinemas

A method actor who is also a marketing guru. A look at how the Aamir Khan PR factory pulls you to the cinemas
You cant escape Aamir Khan,not even if he pulls off a disappearing act. So last week,breathless reports told us that the actor had ducked the media to take a break before the release of his film 3 idiots. Within a day,however,they had found him in Varanasi,disguised as a 60-year-old man,sporting glasses as thick as soda bottles,a tattered shirt and pyjamas. It was,but of course,a trick to promote the film,a story of the journey of two friends Raju and Farhan who set out in search of their lost friend Rancho,played by Khan. By now,on his seven-city promo tour,he has woven a sari,barged into Sourav Gangulys house and launched an online game inviting people to guess his next destination. Another set of media spectacles,orchestrated with the cold-blooded attention to detail that goes into his best performances.

Khan was once an actor cocooned in the mystique of a media recluse. But he is now as much of a marketing guru as a method actor. When he takes up a film,he takes on the responsibility of the films success. He is not a member of the marketing and publicity team for his film; he heads it, says Shilpa Handa,the head of his PR agency. Seldom have his strategies failed,whether it is when he stood outside theatres before Ghajinis release to give free haircuts,the drawing sessions he attended with children ahead of the release of his directorial debut Taare Zameen Par or even his participation in the Narmada Bachao Andolan before Fanaas release in 2006.

Film-makers who sign him on for a project half-expect him to manage the marketing. Rajkumar Hirani,who has directed him in 3 idiots,jokes that Khan is a marketing monster. He says that when he started out with the project,producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and he had signed Khan on only as an actor. But from the very early stages of the project,he would come up with ideas to promote the film. We knew that whether we wanted it or not,Aamir will put in all he has to push the film towards success. So we decided to make it official and handed over the responsibility of the films marketing to him, says Hirani.

Khan insinuates the character he is playing into your mind long before the films release. The ads he appears in not only promote a product but also his forthcoming film. Before Ghajinis release,he wore the look of the film for the Samsung phone ad as well as for the Tata Sky ad. In the recent Coca-Cola ads,he is playing a Play Station savvy college kid. He uses the endorsements to anchor the look and feel of his character in the audiences mind, says Vajir Singh,executive editor of trade magazine Box Office India. In fact,Tata Sky often telecasts the promotional material of his next release the Making of Jaane Tu played incessantly as did the songs of Ghajini before their releases, says Singh.

Eight years ago,however,Khan was the actor with a differencefrosty to the media,reluctant to give interviews for his films,let alone appearing for social dos. For years,he went about his work,silently watching the industry evolve. Lagaans nomination for the Oscars was the turning point. He opened up to the media as well as his audience. To promote Lagaan when it was nominated for Oscars was up to Aamir because he was the face of the film. And since he had stayed away from the limelight for some time,his fans as well as the media were eager to see more of him,which helped the movie too, says Singh.

As Khans films near completion,media reports about the actors interference in the film-making process as well as in promotions get more frequent. Many see his contribution as an imposition. But few who have worked with him agree. Madhu Mantena,who co-produced Ghajini along with Aamir Khan Productions,says the actor is a born leader. He takes a keen interest in everyones work and prefers to work as a closely-knit team,which is probably viewed by outsiders as interference. While deciding on the look of Ghajinis posters,the design team was debating a few options. Aamir heard out everyones opinion and didnt impose his decision. He spent time talking to us and didnt finalise the designs till each one on the team was convinced about the decision.

Abbas Tyrewala too dismisses reports of interference when Khan was producing his directorial debut Jaane TuYa Jaane Na last year,starring nephew Imran Khan. I am only thankful that Aamir took over a responsibility I was not adept to handle. He knew that the track Pappu cant dance saala had caught the audiences fancy. A video on the making of the song was his idea and it worked, says Tyrewala.

Story continues below this ad

Advertising and marketing veteran Prahlad Kakkar is a tad cynical of Khans ways. He tries to control all he can before the films release because he knows he wont have any control on the audiences response after that. So all his efforts are targeted towards getting as many people to watch his film over the weekend. He does this by controlling the extent of information about the content of his movie and creating curiousity. If you compare this strategy with any good branding exercise,you will realise it is lame. Brands are for life whereas the movies promotion limits its recall value to the first week.

But in Hiranis opinion,even this much works for the film. Times have changedinitially,Vidhuji and I would never bother about marketing our films except putting ads and promos out. But cut-throat competition requires us to push the film for the first one week. If the film is good,the rest works out on its own but if it isnt,even Brand Aamir cant save it. The actor refused to comment before the films release