By Priyanka Khanna, IANS New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) Marketing and publicity campaigns of Bollywood films have come

of age. As television promos and larger-than-life posters become pass, Bollywood laps up the latest buzzword Innovation. "The audience of today have a limited attention span. A movie has to make an impact on the first day of release. Its fortune is decided in three-four days," says Tarun Tripathi, the marketing head of Yashraj Films. Tarun had head the marketing of "Hum Tum", another Rani Mukherjee-starrer, for the same banner. The film co-starring Saif Ali Khan, essaying the role of a cartoonist, was accompanied by unique promotional stunts - a comic strip in a popular English daily, a tie-up with a chip brand, and an appearance in the popular soap "Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin". According to reports, while a producer would ideally invest 10-15 percent of the total production budget on marketing and promotions, there are increasing incidents where it is getting stretched to 20-25 percent. Here is a string of some such 'innovative' eyeball-grabbing strategies: Body beautiful Mallika Sherawat sold tickets of her latest flick "Bachke Rehna Re Baba" at a theatre in the national capital. Actors Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee played pranks on unsuspecting victims on popular MTV channel show "Bakra" to promote "Bunty Aur Babli" in which they play cons. The petite Urmila Matondkar shared her supernatural experiences on Sony TV's horror series "Aahat" before the release of her spine-chiller "Naina." Stripping parties (that did not go the whole hog) were thrown at major pubs in Mumbai by the makers of "Oops" - a movie based on male strippers. Well, though these were just a few of the truly innovative ways of movie-promotion that filmmakers and producers are adopting these days, the age-old practice of throwing in a cameo by a hot star is still going strong. "Kaal" had Shah Rukh Khan pirouetting with the ever-hot Malaika Arora Khan. The film, otherwise trashed by the audience, benefitted hugely from Khan's item number. King Khan also appears as a storyteller in the new release "Silsiilay" by journalist-turned-filmmaker Khalid Mohamed, though the movie's promos fail to highlight this. Shah Rukh will be seen again in a 'ghostly' cameo in his home production "Paheli." The promos of this Amol Palekar film are promoting his presence heavily. Taking things to another extreme are films that are a product of market research. B-School dean-turned-film producer Arindam Chaudhuri's "Rok Sako To Rok Lo" was made after thorough research, but sank without a trace. No amount of good marketing, however, can replace the importance of content. "Often marketing and publicity campaigns backfire as the success of a film depends on how the audience accepts it," maintain trade analysts. -*There are no holds barred in innovation, and Bollywood has probably gathered this lesson well, and profitably too. Tying up with corporate houses is the latest way to rake in the moolah. The launch of Maruti's swanky new automobile Swift, was timed with the release of "Bunty Aur Babli", and Maruti left no stone unturned to promote the vehicle. This is considered by many as a quantum leap from the strategic product placements in films that Bollywood is so very used to. Apparently the makers of the Sanjay Dutt-starrer "Plan" pocketed a net Rs.45 million for promoting Radico Khaitan's 8PM whisky. It's no surprise then that the liquor brand was on top of consumers' mind for a good six months after the movie's release.

Reports say Yash Raj Films' senior marketing executive Tarun Tripathi invested only 10-12 percent of the total production cost of "Hum Tum" on marketing and publicity. Some free-of-cost deals got the movie free publicity worth 30-35 percent of its budget. With such win-win situations for both the producers and the brands, we're sure to see more of such tie-ups in future. -*While we're going whole hog focussing on careful and planned publicity strategies, why leave out publicity stunts? If a Tom Cruise can kiss a Katie Holmes in full public view just before the release of a movie starring the two, and a Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie reportedly develop an intense relationship on the sets of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", do you think dear ol' Bollywood would be far behind in garnering the fruits of publicity gimmicks? The very graphic Kareena Kapoor-Shahid Kapur lip-lock, movie clips of Ashmit Patel with Riya Sen or threatening calls from underworld dons to Ram Gopal Varma are all being looked upon as attempts to get that extra mileage for their films, or in some cases, media attention to sinking careers. But hey, everything is fair in love and war!

Indian film industry should continue to reflect the countrys ethos and heritage and not change the style under pressure from foreign movies, filmmaker Karan Johar has said. Participating in the panel on media at the Wharton India Economic forum here yesterday, he said music and dance are part of the Indian movies which viewers enjoy and this tradition does not require any change. No doubt, the movies break into sudden sequence of song and dance without any reason but then that has been the part of the tradition and the audience look forward to it, he added. He said corporatization of the film industry is not an easy task as the industry still considers itself an extended family and might not be amenable to corporate rules. How could I tell Amitabh Bachchan that uncle do not bring auntie Jaya with you because my corporate manager objects to her presence, he remarked amidst cheering from the audience. Other members of the panel also agreed that bringing corporate culture is not an easy task though it might help in getting financing. Still even if it comes, caution is needed that it does not interfere with the creativity of the artistes and does not dictate the choice of the cast, the panelists said. Founder of Adlabs Films Manmohan Shetty said he had no quarrel with the foreign film industry participating in making movies in India but they should guarantee that Indian films are released in mainstream cinema.
Bhopal: In Bollywood, compulsions of making a war movie either a hit or saleable often means taking too many liberties with the portrayal of the soldierly ethos, feels an Indian Army veteran whose features and media agency has been advising the likes of tinsel town titans such as Subhash Ghai, J P Dutta and M S Sathyu during the making of a warfilm. '''I believe that the ethos must be maintained. Films on war themes are comparatively fewer and far between. Their demand went up since the 1990s. Particularly after 'Border', the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir became a sought-after subject,'' Indian Army's and Defence Ministry's former spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) Anil Bhat, a recipient of Vishisht Seva Medal, told UNI. Approached for advice and assistance, Lt-Col Bhat -- who is Managing Editor of Wordsword Features and Media since 1999 -- has interacted at length with Rajesh Khanna, Veeru Devgan, late Shahrukh Mirza, Sunil Shetty, Gurdas Maan, Moti Sagar and several other foreign media personalities, including Sir Mark Tully, David Dimbleby, Siddharth Kak, theatre personality Ratan Thiyam and Sinia Duggal. ''In most cases, the advice given was well-received. There has always been great fascination for the uniform inIndian films, particularly Hindi, and the policeman is almost always an inevitable fixture in the plot,'' said Lt-Col Bhat, a research fellow of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.