Suspense ki baat hai!

SHALINI P / TNN / Dec 21, 2008, 00:18 IST

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Filmmakers are going out of their way to keep their cast under wraps. Hyderabad Times checks out the marketing trick that's brand new, or is it?

<arttitle>Suspense <i>ki baat hai!</i></arttitle>

Catch the attention of the audience �� well, that's the mantra for movie producers and they go about it with different promotional techniques.
While one old way of doing it to tom-tom about the film until people can see it in their dreams, the newest strategy is quite the reverse, one that doesn't allow people to have a glimpse! This strategy, which we earlier thought was the Mani Ratnam forte, is now being picked up by a few filmmakers as part of the publicity strategy.
Take Rab Ne Banade Jodi for instance, where the makers didn't reveal Anushka Sharma until the promos. And then it seemed as if the makers of Ghajini were on the same track. Until the promos, Asin seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth!
"It's purely an individual's choice. Some like to keep it under the wraps because it works for them and then some do it because of superstition. I remember when I did Ashutosh's film Jodhaa Akbar, the cast were told not to reveal anything to the media. And then there are some filmmakers who go overboard for the publicity. Each to his own, but some fear that new actors who are not used to media may say something that could attract negative publicity," says actor Sonu Sood.

Interestingly, when one of the lead cast or the director is a well-known name, it sometimes helps to keep the audience in suspense about the rest of the cast. But there are a few actors who wouldn't even reveal the production house. For instance, when we had spoken to Sweta Prasad earlier, all the actress said was, "I have an offer from a leading production house and I can't reveal anything more until I get the permission." Well, looks like filmmakers have the cast completely under their control.

Tollywood too hasn't shied away from the publicity trick. From the days of Papam Pasivadu, when filmmakers threw promotional materials from a helicopter in the 70s to counter the NTR film, to interesting poster designs, filmmakers are trying out all possible publicity strategies to lure the audience. And the reveal-no-cast strategy also seems to be in use for some time now. Director Teja says, "I've been using it since my first movie Chitram. Mystery works for me. I didn't reveal the cast of my recent release Keka either. I feel the curiosity factor works. But it doesn't apply to all films. For instance, when there's Aamir or an SRK film, the mystery works but for Akshay, it doesn't because his films are meant for the masses and therefore it has to have a direct appeal. You have to know your target audience.�� When the cast and the director are new, you ought to have lot of publicity or some interesting design. For instance when RGV made Shiva, Nagarjuna or any of the cast's faces were not publicised. The poster had only a fist with a chain and it was interesting, which caught the attention of the people," he says.
Moviegoers, however, feel that sometime filmmakers go overboard. "They shouldn't confuse the viewers. For instance, I found the posters of Nuvvu Nachauvule cute with only dogs and cats, but it looks like a movie on animals or an ad for a certain mobile network provider! Initially these tricks work, but then if the storyline is bad, who would want to watch it?" says Abhishek Prasad, a software engineer.

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