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the best selling wood
this was one of my articles published in our college magazine, blame them if you think it"s trash :-)
Okay, guess… which is the highest selling wood in India? That wood which everyone in the country likes, and that has been ruling over the country for almost 76years now. Well, if you haven’t guessed it by now, you must be dumb for sure--- thakurrr it’s our own desi BOLLYWOOD!
Hindustan’s reply to the L.A. industry produces the highest number of movies every year, though the greatness of the movies is a controversial pie to lay your hands on.
But what is it that has kept the Indian Hindi Film Industry ruling people’s hearts? Sex and Shah Rukh? Not exactly! On second thought, might be yes too. Bollywood has always believed in bringing out films that sell in the Indian market, even if that means making the same shaadi-vivah movies n times over. Of the global 6bn population, if your own 1bn people see and love it, there are few you need to think about.
However, over the past few years Bollywood has been making its presence felt on the international platform. The response is encouraging too! And before you sit up and smile---‘it’s only the NRI market they are catering to’, let me tell you this is no longer the scene. I won’t claim that Bollywood has edged ahead in preference from the German, Italian or French film industries; but it is not lagging far behind either. No more is Indian Film synonymous to Satyajit Ray, because the BigB now stands tall at Madame Thussaud along with his daughter-in-law and the Baadshah Khan and now even Sallu miya.But what is it that has kept the growth steady? The answer is simple --- MARKETING! The gurus of Bollywood know their 4Ps pretty well. They know how to entice out 160 bucks from your pocket. And those who don’t know perish! Now, let’s take a unique and recent example. KRRISH. When the superhero Hrithik Roshan jumped from skyscrapers and fished across a sea, the audience jumped and cheered with him. But few know the fact, that KRRISH is the first film in the history of Bollywood, which had made profit even before releasing at theatres. How?
- The international music rights were sold at a mammoth amount
- KRRISH toys flooded in the market and made a huge profit
- And add to that, the initial payment from distributors--- Yash Raj Films
KRRISH was a winner even before the race had started! If marketing only reinforced the credibility of a good movie in case of KRRISH, there have been cases where sincere marketing came as a boon for films which received tremendous flak but yet were hits because they had made their money by the time the negative word could spread. For example, let’s take the example of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. The movie was criticized from many corners, but before the buzz could spread, Karan Johar had already made his money. Because he had the most ‘saleable stars’ in his film.
Apart these two films, let’s take certain other successful films and check what marketing factors went in favour of them.
- SHOLAY : Huge star cast. Innovative posters and ‘Mehbooba mehbooba’…
- MAINE PYAR KIYA : New comer Bhagyasree’s face on the posters everywhere.
- MOHABBATEIN : Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan together for the first time together. And Manish Malhotra’s costumes.
- KOI MIL GAYA : Science fiction and JADOO…
- Mr. INDIA : The inviible man.
- MAIN HOON NA : Shah Rukh Khan--- that is star power.
- GURU : The Dhirubhai Ambani factor.
- SANGAM : First Indian film to be shot abroad.
- SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM/ MURDER : Zeenat Aman/ Mallika Sherawat.
And the list goes on
Another factor that has acted as a major marketing factor for hindi movies is the evergreen Bollywood music. HMV gifted Rajesh Roshan a Mercedez Benz after the path-breaking success of Kaho Naa Pyar Hai’s music, which to a large extent assured the success of the film too.
Rishi Kapoor starrer ‘Hum Kisise Kam Nahin’ was no better than an average commercial Hindi flick. But its success was guaranteed by unforgettable tracks like ‘kya hua tera vaada’, ‘chand mera dil’, ‘yeh ladka hay allah’ and so on.
Another mentionable part in this is that of Dev Anand’s ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’. and these are not certain hand picked exceptional cases to cite for you. And if you want to check further if music can make films or an actor a hit, who better to ask than our serial kisser Emraan Hashmi, who had the fortune of having super-hit success with the tracks of his films like ‘Gangster’, ‘Murder’ and ‘Aashiq Banaya Aapne’.
And the latest one --- Om Shanti Om, for which, the stars walked on a special ramp show which was organised to promote the 70s style, which was a major feature of the blockbuster. The ramp show was a major success and so was the movie.
But does efficient marketing ensure success? Saawariya spent 20crores for the film promotion but proved to be dud. Similarly, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom spent heavily on promotion but turned out to be YRF’s biggest disaster.
Bollywood keeps reinventing its marketing strategies and you can never say that ‘this’ is the maximum it can get. Some work heavily, some proved to be duds, but the film-makers never stop experimenting when it comes to evolving promotion strategies, even if not the story. Lets just hope that the new-age film makers start experimenting with the storylines as much as they do with the marketing techniques.
With best wishes and lots of love for my dream industry…
Souvik Gupta
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