Cut a trailer, a teaser, put it online, take prime hoardings in Mumbai and do some talent interviews. That is the template that every studio and production house has been following, blindly, for years. It doesn’t matter what the film is about, who it talks to, what genre it is, or what the star cast is. Main Vaapas Aaunga did that too. But when the first-day numbers came in, “We knew something had gone wrong,” says Shibashish Sarkar, group chief executive officer, Reliance Entertainment, and a partner in Mr Ali’s production firm, Window Seat Films.
Main Vaapas Aaunga tries to capture our sense of home — the one that is trapped in our memory, associated with a person, a place, a point in time, or all of them. Seventeen-year-old Keenu and Jiya’s love is just blossoming in Sargodha (Punjab) when Partition strikes. Punjab and Bengal are split into two parts. Keenu, a Sikh is forced to flee to newly independent India. At 95, when dementia has eaten away his memory, the only thing he holds on to is a promise he made to Jiya. Naseeruddin Shah as the 95-year-old Keenu Grewal and Vedang Raina as the 17-year-old one are brilliant. The film lingers in your head and heart, especially if, like me, you grew up in a Partition family. In the 10-odd advance screenings for Partition veterans and others, people laughed, cried their hearts out and loved the film. Yet, its marketing had failed in its basic job — to communicate what the film was about.
In the normal course, the team would have simply curled up in misery. Making a film — good or bad — is extremely hard work, involving hundreds of people and at least two years from idea to release. When the audience rejects it, it is known to push makers into depression. And then there is the danger of theatres stopping the screenings after week one if footfalls don’t improve.
On the Friday evening of release, the team put its heads together. Mr Ali decided that he wanted to meet the audience. It was a good film; everyone who saw it loved it — the question was how to amplify the message. From that Saturday began the journey of Mr Ali, Mr Sarkar, and the entire cast. In the 26 days since, they have attended over 50 theatrical screenings across Indore, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, among other cities. Mr Ali is part of some; Mr Raina or some other cast member is part of others.
Mr Ali’s interactions with the audience after the screenings, especially when people are emotionally overwhelmed and reach out to share their stories with him, are being shot by others in the theatres. They are being uploaded on various social media platforms and have now reached a level of virality not seen for something that is not engineered by a digital agency and paid for by the studio. Mr Sarkar says the company consciously did not get into it.
“This has never happened in my life. People have taken the lead in publicity and marketing and have been the ones to force other people into the theatres. Every day, the number of people in theatres and the collections have grown,” says Mr Ali. There are three lessons here for studio executives and communications people who offer blank looks when questioned on templatised marketing.
One, get your head out of the digital ghetto. The first rule of marketing is to know your consumer. The media used is a means of reaching the right people — not the marketing plan. There are 566 million Indians browsing the net. There is also a whole India out there that is still on TV or reading print, or simply waiting to be connected with physically, like Mr Ali did with audiences.
Two, have a clear proposition. Live music concerts (the equivalent of a theatrical release) are the fastest-growing part of the music business. A Coldplay or Dosanjh concert is clear about what it offers. That is what a movie’s poster, trailer, its whole communication should be. This is especially true if it doesn’t have a big star or is not part of a franchise to pull in the initial audience. The underlying condition — the film has to be good. If it isn’t, the best marketing can’t save it.
“We thought that we knew how to promote. But we didn’t. The audience rescued us. We are getting a second chance and we will learn hopefully what we have to do in terms of marketing. For movies, marketing is not only a business function but also an emotional one,” says Mr Ali. That is lesson number three — trust the film, trust your instincts, innovate a bit. A good film, supported by good marketing usually delivers. Sitaare Zameen Par is a recent example.
Meanwhile, Mr Ali continues to attend screenings. The trade reckons Main Vaapas Aaunga will hold steady for another 4-6 weeks.
 "Main Vaapas Aaunga (Photo: BookMyShow)")