Makers think out of the box to promote movies

With cinema lovers preferring OTT platforms to theatres to watch movies, the thin presence of audiences at halls has become a worrying factor for the film industry. The OTT, which has turned a hot favourite of the movie buffs during the corona period, continues its dominance even post pandemic which eventually poses threat to the survival of theatres.

Also, the price-conscious people are not evincing much interest in going to halls unless the movie is something special.

Against this background, cinema teams are pulling every string to woo audiences to theatres. Besides pre-release shows, interviews, promotion tours, release of teasers and trailers, they are going an extra mile to catch the eye of people. Of late, memes, reels on Instagram, shorts have come in handy for their promotional drive. The filmmakers are not hesitating to spend a big amount on the publicity campaign.

According to sources in the industry, a whopping Rs.20 crore was spent by the RRR team on promotion drive alone. To draw the attention of people in the US, the fans of Jr.NTR and Ramcharan used special flights and boats and tied banners to them.

To promote his movie, 'Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam', upcoming hero Vishwak Sen made a prank video in which a youth attempts self-immolation. It triggered a row during a TV debate on the movie giving the much-needed publicity.

In a novel attempt, the team of Dhamaka, a Ravi Teja-starrer, using social media as its platform conducted a memes contest on the movie offering attractive prizes for winners. On the same lines, another movie maker took the reels route for a promotion drive. The team invited creators of Instagram reels to make special videos on the songs in their film.

Meanwhile, the two big-ticket movies -- Waltair Veerayya of Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna starrer Veera Simha Reddy -- scheduled for Sankranti release, are planning publicity on a big scale before the showdown. Already, teasers of the two films are released paving way for the much-anticipated pre-release buzz.

Pre-release bizz

In addition to promotion drive, the movie makers also eye pre-release business to generate hype and also to net maximum revenue. In a record of sorts, RRR, directed by S.S. Rajamouli, did a pre-release business to the tune of over Rs. 450 crore, while Radhe Shyam of Prabhas netted over Rs. 200 crore.

Similarly, Acharya of Chiranjeevi earned over Rs.130 crore even before its release. While RRR, as expected, proved to be a huge hit, the other two, belying all the hopes, brought tears to distributors. Despite all-out efforts by cinema teams to draw crowds to theatres, many a flick fails to click at the box-office.