Sikandar’s Promotions: Bollywood’s Biggest Problem

With so many films releasing lately, film marketing has become a crucial factor in setting movies apart from their competitors and attracting audiences to theatres.

However, lately, film marketing has been disappointing.

Even for big-budget films, marketing efforts have been miserably failing to generate ground-level hype. And for small and mid-budget films, most promotional and marketing activities are limited to social media, which doesn’t seem to be making much of an impact.

There’s a noticeable lack of anything special, unique, creative, diverse, or out-of-the-box. The focus appears to be primarily on PR/media, star power, and controversies.

The latest example of this is Salman Khan’s upcoming film Sikandar.

Since Sikandar was announced, there has been no structured promotion.

The teaser was expected to generate buzz, but it fell flat. Even the posters failed to create interest.

Reports suggest that a last-minute promotional song was recently shot at a studio in Mumbai, featuring Salman Khan and Rashmika dancing to a popular old number by Lata Mangeshkar.

But now, with just two weeks left until its release, the makers have gone silent. If a film of this scale doesn’t have a well-planned marketing strategy, what does that say about the production house behind it?

If this is the fate of a big-budget film, then the situation for small and mid-budget films like John Abraham’s The Diplomat is even worse.

The right promotional material and methods are extremely important to attract the right audience to theatres. However, none of the films these days seem to be doing it correctly.

Film marketing has also become formulaic- any film could use these generic promotional methods. But every movie needs a creative, personalized marketing strategy, something production houses seem to be forgetting.