Twinkle, twinkle, Bollywood star....

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9. It takes more than just the icing of good stars on the cake of a Hindi film these days to produce a hit. And with Hindi cinema audiences lately not giving Bollywood much reason to celebrate, film-makers are no longer satisfied just making a good film.

A new mantra -- promotion -- is fast taking over the post- production tensions of film-makers. It may cost a little more than normal, but at least the effort was made: that seems to be the feeling among this lot of dream merchants from Bollywood.

Action hero Sunny Deol believes that publicity of a film -- or lack of it -- before its release does not really make a difference and Mr.Aamir Khan prefers his fans watching his film rather than reading about it in newspapers, but the very fact that Delhi has seen more than just ``star'' presence in the last couple of months is a measure of the change sweeping Bollywood.

Going beyond the ``one stop'' practice, more and more film- makers are now extending their stay in the Capital. If pitching tent for shootings was the only reason producers looked northward earlier, the crunch in the industry and the growing influence of the underworld in tinsel town seems to have made film-makers move out of Mumbai to hunt for new areas of promotion.

Instances of stars coming down to Delhi to put in that five- minute appearance at inaugurations of garment stores or cafes are passe now. The ribbon-cutting is still done, but there are a whole lot of events that follow.

Delhi is getting more than just a share of the star-studded premieres now. In fact, fast replacing premieres are music release and pre-release functions. Even an otherwise reserved actor like Aamir khan after putting on the producer's cap made it a point to meet all his Delhi exhibitors during a recent visit here to promote his "Lagaan".

With more and more actors jumping on to the production bandwagon, many more films in future will probably try to use star power to get a good initial. From contests on TV and Internet to providing that lifetime opportunity of meeting a popular star, all kinds of methods are being put to use.

If Mr.Sooraj Barjatya made Salman Khan-Madhuri Dixit a ``household item'' by putting them on letterpads and printed greeting cards with Preeti Jhanghiani and Abbas to promote the first music album under Rajshri banner, it is the Internet that is doing the job now.

Not only is the Net acting as a promotion vehicle for films, it is also helping popularise the official websites of actors and producers. Mr.Subhash Ghai's last couple of films have been promoting the site of his production house, Mukta Arts, and Mr.Aamir Khan's "Lagaan" is up on the Net with lesser known facts about the goings-on behind the scenes.

It is not just creating curiosity about the film any more. As Mr.Aamir Khan pointed out here the other day, "the idea is to make people aware of the hardships that go into film-making and understand the conditions under which the industry works".

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