In the last
few days we have had a deluge of trailers from Bollywood. Some big movies like
Thugs of Hindostan, Zero and Two Point Zero and then some smaller ones like a
Mohalla Assi or Bhaiyaji Superhit. Obviously the smaller ones did not make a
buzz though the loyal fans were always there to lap them up and you never
really can predict if the trailer release guarantees box office success.
The
obsession of Fans. Makers and the media is now reaching laughable heights. The
moment a trailer is releases you have the whole hyper noise pollution on the
internet which is about how many views a certain trailer has had and how those
views are faster and more than a rival star’s movie. Common sense and logic are
of course buried under the carpet of hype in any case. For Example both Zero
and Thugs Of Hindostan have had almost 8 crore views on youtube. Now, if these
are actual fans and unique people watching the movie’s trailer then at the cost
of Rs.100 per ticket each of these movies should clock a revenue of 800 crores
at box office. How many would be willing to bet on this number? Let us stretch
the logic even further assuming the numbers of one of these movies do go across
and bigger then the number we quote here then does that mean that there is a
section which watched the movie without even looking at the trailer? If your
answer is a yes to the question then such a hyped and intensely pushed trailer
did not really reach all those who planned to watch the movie? Then does that
qualify as a marketing failure?
There are
more questions for the trailer hype brigade. What is the guarantee that I was
not watching a trailer only to laugh at it? Or for all the technology sophistication
how do you factor the same person watching the trailer from multiple sources
like a personal computer, office computer or a mobile etc? Which means if we
start cutting off such numbers then the actual audience numbers might not look
so impressive.
The idea
behind asking all such questions is neither to laugh at a superstar or a big
director’s movie making capability. The idea is to simply point at the pitfalls
of hype and the dangers of raised expectations. In the olden days while we
would anticipate a big movie, like Subhash Ghai’s getting Raj Kumar and Dilip
Kumar together in a Saudagar there was not much to read on a daily basis. When
a maker tries to feed in too many stories about the making of a movie it really
kills the joy. In fact it makes us obsessed with the unnecessary elements
really.
For example
how does it matter to the audiences that media which turned up to watch Zero
trailer was fed with merrut ki authentic chaat or how does it matter if Akshay
kumar sat for 4 hours daily with his make up or eight hours? Or for that matter
how does it matter that the crew of Thugs Of Hindostan flew all the way to
Malta for the ship sequences ? Yes we should respect the hard work that goes
into making anything but then all the hard work is also done with the motive to
make profits . More important remains the question that should a movie be
judged on its ability to entertain,awe and inspire us or should we judge it on
how many people saw its trailer in the first four hours of youtube release? When
a star starts flaunting the trailer numbers on his twitter page is he actually
being humble or is he just showing his big fat ego to us?
My favourite
movie till I die will remain Sholay. For me it does not matter that the sound
of Gabbar’s boots in that legendary introduction scene was dubbed in London in
those days. For me the menace of kitne aadmi they is legendary and worship
worthy.
Saw please
don’t tell me how many kachchas SRK wore in your movie or how many trailer
views twopointzero all languages combined has cracked, give me entertainment please dear Bollywood
and spare me your trailer hype and trailer war obsession.
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