Talk: Neel’s Athi Jagratha Backfired

Salaar possibly had the weakest promotional plan for an Indian biggie in the recent past. The makers dropped a couple of songs and a couple of trailers and that is it. The second song was released a day before the release, which shows the low-key promotional campaign.

However, there is one observation here and that is regarding Neel’s unnecessary fear and anxiousness.

The first song Sooreede was released just a few days before the release. It had a slow vibe and wasn’t what everyone was expecting from a mass elevation-driven film like Salaar. The second song Prathikadalo is also a slow one and it was released a day before the film’s release. A new song from the film “Vinaraa” was unveiled today.

Perhaps the reason why these songs weren’t released much ahead of the release was that Prashanth Neel was perhaps scared they were all narrative-driven and might give a look into the core plot. But this preemptive move hasn’t worked.

These songs aren’t mass numbers and instead, slow-paced ones. These are the kind of songs that take time to grow on the listeners and once they set in, they keep ringing. The issue here is that Salaar team didn’t give enough time to establish these songs in the minds of the audience. They hurriedly released them in the last minute.

Had these songs penetrated deeper, it would’ve only helped the film. These songs are now being used by fans for elevation edits of other heroes on Twitter. Had they come out earlier, they would’ve only increased the reach of Salaar. This way, Neel’s decision to hold them back has had a poor result.