All is fair in showbiz

Bollywood has often been accused of pulling out all the stops when it comes to promoting their films. While conservative filmmakers, like the Barjatyas, wouldn’t dream of using anything except stuff from their film to promote it, there are those at the other end of the spectrum who would go to any length to get audiences into cinema halls. Since it’s show business, exhibitionism is the name of the game they prefer to play.
Whether it is Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor letting news of their break-up become public knowledge only days before the release of Jab We Met, or Amitabh Bachchan announcing the engagement of son Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai two days after their Guru hit the screens, but months after the world (except the Bachchans, as they would like the world to believe) knew this was coming, the common aim is to generate interest and curiosity about their film with a view to augmenting its business. While both the aforementioned stories, which made it to the media, were, of course, true, their timing is what made them seem like publicity stunts.
There have been umpteen other publicity-generating stories involving stars of a film which were nothing but a figment of the producer’s imagination and were either planted in the media after taking the stars into confidence, or even without their approval.
The recent incident involving superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the security staff at the US’ Newark airport cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said to be a publicity stunt in that sense of the term, because it did happen, and without Shah Rukh’s “connivance”.
But after it happened, Shah Rukh very intelligently capitalised on it by allowing his secondary interrogation to be used for promoting his forthcoming film. In other words, he turned an unfortunate incident into an opportunity for marketing his movie. Surely, nobody can grudge him that especially when the crux of the subject of My Name is Khan is that in post-9/11 America, an innocent Khan is viewed as a terrorist simply because of his last name.
Years ago, the makers of Dulhan planted stories of Jeetendra’s impending marriage to Hema Malini because they were playing the romantic lead in the film. One will never know whether Jeetendra, rather than Dharmendra, was to get married to Hema before the release of Dulhan, but the news did create a buzz then.
Of course, not every publicity gimmick yields the desired results. For instance, hardly anybody went to watch Dulhan in spite of the wedding controversy. Collections of Mani Ratnam’s Guru didn’t shoot up after the engagement news. But the interest of the public in Jab We Met definitely increased following the break-up story.
Just before the release of his Criminal, Mahesh Bhatt issued ads in newspapers announcing that the film’s heroine, Manisha Koirala, had been murdered — a move that won the heroine’s wrath but hardly any audience for the film. However, producer Keshu Ramsay was luckier when stories romantically linking hero Akshay Kumar to the older Rekha made it to the film glossies, presumably cooked up by a unit hand rather than dug up by a nosey journalist, because of an intimate mud fight between the two in Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi. The film managed to gross impressive figures, thanks, in no small measure, to the real-life romance story.
While several stories which find their way into magazines, newspapers, television, radio and websites are “leaked” at the appropriate time by the producer’s or actor’s publicist, the more enterprising producer or star often himself/herself does the needful.
Boney Kapoor may or may not have known about the fling brother Sanjay Kapoor is rumoured to have had with Sushmita Sen during the making of his Sirf Tum, but he didn’t mind the alleged romance being reported by film glossies at the time of the film’s release because it was thought to be great publicity for the film. For all one knows, the story may have been provided by someone acting on Sanjay Kapoor’s behalf. That is because producers, directors and stars are always hopeful that such stories increase their film’s recall value and thereby translate into box office revenues. It may not happen in every case, but most believe that there’s no harm in trying.
Today, when on the one hand film budgets are sky-rocketing and, on the other, 50-75 per cent of the business of a film happens in the first week itself, a bumper opening is what every star, producer and director prays for.
Given the economics, anything that brings the audience to cinemas is considered fair, even if it involves “manufacturing” tales of affairs, break-ups, fights, controversies and cover-ups and leaking them to the media at the opportune time. Ethics be damned.
Many journalists, editors, columnists and TV channels are only too happy to oblige most publicity-seeking stars and filmmakers because, after all, they too need stories to run their paper/magazine/channel.

Komal Nahta is the editor-publisher of Film Information

QUID PRO QUO
Ashok Pandit, Writer, producer, director

Showbiz has become a business of prostitution. When celebrities know things are not right, or are insecure, they push frivolous stories about themselves. For instance, the Emraan Hashmi case (he allegedly that he was denied a flat because he is a Muslim). It was obvious that he wanted to promote his forthcoming movie. Earlier, the media was using celebrities to get stories. Now it’s the other way round.

* * *

Dale Bhagwagar,
Publicist to top Bollywood stars

Of course we publicists are super schemers and master manipulators. We play mindgames with the media over story ideas, news and gossip to promote our clients in the way we want. We turn, twist, spin, plant and plug stories to suit our strategy and media plan.
I’ve never revealed this, but my job today is equally about concealing stories and crisis management, as it is about imaging and branding. There are times when I am hired to divert media attention from certain facets. PR (public relations) is a very complicated and conniving world today.

* * *

Taran Adarsh
Trade analyst, film critic and TV presenter

I feel the entertainment media has become very strong and aggressive. We used to hear about the paparazzi abroad, and now that phenomenon has come to India too. That’s why we now get stories about every aspect of a star’s life. Media grabs anything that’s new and then blows it up.