Recalling the days of producing Dollar Dreams, Sunitha Tati, the executive producer, narrated that they had promoted the film himself by requesting people to allow them to stick posters before the releaseand sold tickets themselves. Yet they had managed to get the movie released in only one theatre. Those were the pre-internet days but now movie promotion in Tollywood has changed drastically and for good.
The way in which internet has revolutionized film-promotion is amazing. The director of Routine Love Story, Praveen Sattaru, agrees that internet is the easiest and cheapest way to promote a movie, especially when a movie has no big stars to catch the attention of the viewers and the conventional modes of advertising cost a bomb. Talking about how he used social networking sites to promote hismovie, he emphasizes on the importance of a unique idea to create buzz about a small film. For his film,they made posters about whacky themes which tell what the movie is about and gave the tagline as“relationships are fun”. Their strategy proved successful when the movie got its tickets sold out before the actual release of the movie.
Similarly, the makers of Bangaru Kodipetta are conducting an online contest for the purpose of selecting people to feature in a promotional film. They are also launching a tag line contest for the film. Theywill also release behind-the-scenes shots to generate curiosity about the film. They have also created a journal in the graphic-novel style to show the happenings during the shooting. This has succeeded ingenerating great online response.
At the end of the day, the marketing is crucial. The promotions and the marketing have to have an impact upon the viewers for a movie to be financially successful. Movies like Ee Rojullo and Bus Stop,marketed similarly, reaped its benefits. Ee Rojullo had an audio launch with Allu Arjun as the chief guest which created a huge buzz and garnered a lot of public attention. Similar strategy was adopted for Bus
Stop.
Innovative ideas to grab eyeballs and the use of internet to create hype about the movie are must for the success of a movie.