Ferrari vs 'Ferrari ki Sawaari' producer spat just clever marketing

“While Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Ferrari Ki Sawaari is creating a lot of buzz with people praising the film for its simplicity, reportedly there is one section which doesn’t seem to be too happy – the car company. A sequence in the film shows the car being towed by a bullock cart – something which seems to have irked the company bosses. It is being said that apparently Ferrari’s top brass wants to see the film,” Firstpost had reported earlier today. “Vinod Chopra Films are in touch with the Ferrari office in India and their headquarters and we don’t know the details. As of now there is no screening arranged for them,” said a spokesperson for the producers. Ferrari will certainly want to see the film. It’s not too long ago that we had a (minor) brouhaha in the context of a film and a car brand. The film was Slumdog Millionaire and the car was Mercedes. As a result of protests from Mercedes, the Mercedes logo was removed from all sequences which featured the car. [caption id=“attachment_342129” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Ferrari ki Sawaari. Image from IBN-Live”] [/caption] At that time, Danny Boyle, was quoted in The Times, London: “The [thing you did not see] was the Mercedes logo on that car. We had to take that off because Mercedes don’t want to be associated with being in a slum. “We wanted to use a Mercedes because . . . this guy, this gangster would drive a Mercedes . . . but if you use Mercedes then clearly you have to get permission, and we asked for their permission and they refused it.” In the current situation, if it was just some sequences in the film featuring Ferrari, the film’s producers could do as Doyle did – and remove all traces of branding. However, the link to Ferrari is much deeper – including the fact that Ferrari is part of the name of the film. The two-minute official trailer shows that the Ferrari logo is very visible indeed and that the brand is mentioned frequently. To erase the logos from the film will not be a difficult task, but to relay audio tracks (if Ferrari objected to the mentions) would be both time consuming and expensive. Vinod Chopra Films is no greenhorn when it comes to brands and dealing with them “Brands that typically do not use mass media extensively have got a boost from the recent Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots. With deals ranging between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 1 crore, Pepsi’s Aquafina, Fortis Hospitals and Mahindra power scooters (Flyte), have got their brands noticed based on the wide reach of film,” Hindu Business Line had reported. The production house is used to dealing with brands and clearly understands the nuances of how brands operate. About the first thing they would have done before shooting the film would have been to discuss the story and the treatment of the car in the film, including their plans to use the brand name in the film title. It is unimaginable that the producers would have gone ahead with shooting the film, risking Ferrari going to court and stopping – or, at the least, delaying the release and forcing some changes. What does one make of the reported unhappiness and the report that no screening has been arranged for Ferrari executives? It looks like it is Vinod Chopra Productions doing, once again, what they have done consistently – being clever with their marketing and getting reams of unpaid publicity for the film days before release.