To promote a film, the strategy once involved back-to-back interviews to print and television media and visits to a few colleges and malls in the city. That still holds true, but isn’t enough to connect with the audience across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Road trips that double up as promo tours are now chalked out and the principal cast travels with the producer and director to key regions in the two states.
Ahead of Bandipotu ’s release, director Indraganti Mohan Krishna, Srinivas Avasarala, Allari Naresh, Eesha and composer Kalyan Koduri travelled to Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Vizag, Guntur and Vijayawada. “We would have loved to do another leg of promo tours in Telangana, but ran out of time,” says Indraganti, talking about their ‘Bandipotu danda yatra’.
Filmmakers feel that wooing the audience in districts and smaller towns makes business sense. In the recent past, promotions for Karthikeya , Loukyam , Run Raja Run , Pilla Nuvvuleni Jeevitam , Ala Ela and Oka Laila Kosam saw the crews touring towns in both states. “We travelled by road. We had a planned itinerary — Vizag, Vijayawada and Guntur — but we also stopped by at smaller places to visit theatres where Ala Ela had a good release,” says Rahul Ravindran. The Ala Ela team was live on radio and RJs gave away tickets, announcing the time when the crew would visit the cinema hall. “When we interact with people in theatres, it enhances their movie watching experience. Of course, all this would work to our benefit only if the film is good,” he says.
The aura of seeing stars in flesh and blood is still intact in smaller towns. Actors Naga Chaitanya, Sai Dharam Tej, Regina Cassandra, Swathi, Nikhil, Allari Naresh, Rahul Ravindran, Vennela Kishore, Sharwanand and Seerat Kapoor were beseeched with requests for photographs, autographs and at times, mobbed. “People in smaller towns don’t hold back their excitement and come up to talk to us. If we visit a college campus, we are bound to meet anywhere between 2000 and 3000 students. We talk to them, share dialogues from the film and shake a leg. Chances are that at least 700 of them will be inclined to go see the film. All this translates to a few houseful shows and helps spread the word,” explains Rahul.
Bigger films with leading stars turn out to be crowd pullers, irrespective of promotions. But the tours have helped smaller films that have limited budgets for promotions. To promote a film in urban pockets, there are many avenues, says Indraganti. “The traditional media apart, one can rely on social networking sites. In smaller towns, when people get to meet stars at a public place like a mall, word spreads faster,” he says.
Since bifurcation in 2014, it has become imperative for film teams to do a balancing act in both states. Teams plan platinum disc functions and success meets in different cities. Loukyam had a success meet in Vizag. Sai Dharam Tej and Regina Cassandra travelled to Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Hanamkonda for a success tour of Pilla Nuvvuleni Jeevitam . The Karthikeya team’s publicity tour covered Eluru, Guntur, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and Kakinada among other places. Nikhil went to the extent of sticking posters in each city he visited. The Run Raja Run promotions in Vijayawada included a flashmob.
“The trend of visiting towns in a recent one here, but the Hindi industry has been doing it for a while. I travelled to Jaipur and Ahmedabad among other cities for Yaariyan . The reception you get at a smaller place, like Khammam, is heart warming. Cinema is the major means of entertainment in towns,” says Rakul Preet Singh.