Liger failure: Should filmmakers stop over-promoting their average films?

This was supposed to be Tollywood actor Vijay Devarakonda ’s big Bollywood debut and the making of a new pan-Indian star. However, ‘ _Liger_ ’, directed by Puri Jagannadh and co-produced by Karan Johar , Puri Jagannadh and Charmme Kaur on a budget of Rs 125 crore reportedly, has turned out to be a major box office disappointment. The promotion blitz for the film was one of the largest in recent times with the ‘Liger’ team travelling to cities big and small across India – from Delhi to Chennai to Lucknow and Kochi and more – over two months. Within a few hours of the film’s release on August 25, the film was panned by the audience on social media and word-of-mouth spread rapidly that ‘Liger’ was not worth watching. Andhra Box Office on August 29, tweeted, “#Liger is a Disaster of epic proportions at the Box Office. The film has only managed to shake and shiver the Buyers and not India! It is a mystery what made the Team to overhype it so much, Especially #VijayDeverakonda!” Bollywood Hungama went a step further to write that it was the ‘third consecutive disaster for the actor in Telugu market after ‘Dear Comrade’ and ‘World Famous Lover’. So, this begs the important question - should producers and filmmakers go easy on the marketing and PR of a film? All about the promotion Marketing and promotion of a film is a big part of Indian cinema and every filmmaker wants to try a new technique prior to the film’s release so that it stands out among the crowd. Today, digital marketing and social media combined with on-ground events are used to connect directly with the audience. What filmmakers also need to realise is that audience habits and content consumption patterns have also changed with the pandemic. If they are required to spend about Rs 300 to Rs 400 per ticket and three hours of their lives in a theatre, they want to make sure the movie is of top-notch quality and is engaging. Gone are the days when the audience is willing to watch anything because they want to watch a film with their favourite star or want to go for an outing. If there is no story or content in the film, the audience is ready to shun it. When a movie is over-hyped, audience expectations are amped up and when it fails, the audience goes all out to trash the film. Less hype, more success Some filmmakers and producers have learnt from this and now go easy on the marketing which seems to work better for them. A south Indian film trade expert states that Sun Pictures went all out to promote top Tamil star Vijay ’s film ‘ _Beast_ ’ but the disastrous outcome at the box office gave them pause. When their next film Dhanush ’s ‘ _Thiruchitrambalam_ ’ was up for release, they went easy on the promotions and the audience also wasn’t able to figure out what the movie was really about till it was released. This strategy has worked well and this movie is one of the biggest blockbusters for Sun Pictures and Dhanush as well. The movie has made nearly Rs 60 crores till now and is having a dream run. Reality check Today, the marketing budgets for Hindi films are between 10 to 15 % of the film’s total budget and there’s a sharp contrast between how Bollywood and south Indian films are marketed. In Bollywood, a movie promotion is all about flying around in private jets and doing a record number of interviews, TV appearances and audience meets in some ten cities. In contrast in the south, marketing and promotional budgets are usually fixed and the number of on-ground events are limited. There are usually a few press conferences in about two or three cities and TV appearances and a lot of digital media promotion. South film producers are more frugal in the way they spend money on marketing and PR because they know that money needs to be recovered and over-hyping a movie can cause credibility issues. More importantly, the promotion of a film is also related to how strong the content is. When ‘ _RRR_ ’ and ‘ _KGF 2_ ’ had pan-Indian promotions, the filmmakers and producers knew how strong the content was and that it would work. In ‘Liger’s case, the audience and critics noted that it didn’t have a story and other than Vijay Devarakonda there was nothing in the film. Given the weak script, should a filmmaker go all out to promote it hoping that the audience would be swayed by the promotions? The answer is a big no. Big filmmakers and producers should seriously rethink their promotional strategies and adopt a different approach for every film based on the content because the audience is far too intelligent and unforgiving. With a string of flops that Bollywood has seen this year, it is time for filmmakers to go back to the drawing board and come up with good stories rather than over-hype a disaster of a film. Latha Srinivasan is a senior journalist based in Chennai. Her passion is entertainment, travel, and dogs. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.