Chennai: Popular national TV channels may have delayed by a couple of days their intensive coverage of the flood that inundated Chennai last year. Now, reliable sources say that media reporters from across the country have landed in the city well in advance and are ensuring they do not miss a bit of this melee around Kabali. “Some have even sent anchors”, added another source.
With senior editors and journalists going gaga over Kabali, a section of unbiased people sit back and try to figure out who Rajinikanth is, apart from being a superstar and a successful businessman. His political position and his standing on issues relating to the common man either in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu come under harsh scrutiny.
“The euphoria that is created every time a Rajini movie is released is a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt”, says a senior journalist, on condition of anonymity. But by creating this frenzy, even those whom the actor does not impress are forced to participate in the euphoria and the other elements of Rajini films are put in the back burner. While some actors earn flak for sexism in their movies, Rajini movies, which have an overdose of sexism and stereotyping, stay beyond criticism.
Sources in the film industry talk about how successfully running films are forced to leave the theaters this week to join this frenzy and huge losses are incurred by producers of those demoted films. More than 20 films have postponed their release to avoid clashing with such a big project, says Nikhil Murugan, a mediaperson representing films and film stars.
“I strongly feel that because of a film with this kind of frenzy, film as an art form is getting transformed into a game of gambling”, says advocate Arulmozhi. Being a movie goer, I feel so sad to see a collective effort of hundreds of people shifting its focus to only the hero and director. This trend is unhealthy and it ruins the dreams of many a cinema aspirant”, she added.
In a state like Tamil Nadu were films are a religion and stars are demi gods, this euphoria is not new to the Tamil film industry. Films of superstars like Ajith, Vijay and Surya have their own share of drama and passion around it. “His last hit being Robot in 2010, Kabali is very crucial in Rajini’s career, as it comes after two thundering flops. If you look at his filmography, he has his own share of flops. But after each flop there comes a super hit.
While Baba flopped at the the box office, Chandramukhi saved his image and now he and his producers are leaving no stone unturned to make Kabali a success after the failure of Linga and Kochadaiyan”, says Ravindran Duraisamy, a social activist.
“Thanu knows how to market a film and he is known for publicizing it the way even the biggest production houses in Tamil film industry could not do’”, says producer Suresh Balajee. When he was distributing the Rajini film Bairavi he introduced six-sheet 60x120 posters instead of the usual four-sheet 60x80 posters. He also erected massive cutouts saying “THE GREATEST SUPERSTAR RAJINI in BAIRAVI” at a time when MGR and Shivaji Ganesan were around.
The hype is really unbelievable, with social media doing its bit and corporate joining the fray. These novelties are catapulting the marketing of this film to another and unprecedented level in Indian film industry, he added.
The last big hype around a film was for Bahubali. But then, it was for the film itself and not the star. Film critics are of the opinion that in this Internet age no hype will last long. A success of the film depends purely on its merit and not on any one element. Noted documentary filmmaker Gopal Menon said, “This hype won’t sustain long and just Rajini won’t be able to save this film if it is not backed by a strong script and good production values.
The fate will be decided after the first show, as word of mouth publicity is stronger than any marketing hype, which is evident from the much hyped and yet flops which the last two films of the superstar were”. Echoing this opinion, Jayaprakash Radha Krishnan, maker of the recently released Malayalam film Lens says, although marketing and hype are integral part of business, the fate of any film will be sealed by many other factors as well.
