Peepli [Live] : Part 2

I watched the movie on the very second day of release. The movie lived up to its expectations. ( I was so engrossed in movie that I lost my mobile in theater luckily got back too, This was the 7th time I lost my cell and got back)

Anyways, this is sequel to my post on Peepli [Live] and internet. You can read first part here.



This is comparative analysis of pre and post release. (Data for pre-release is of 11 July at my first post and post-release is on 21 Aug 2010, 21:00)

300% rise in results to given by Google on searching ‘Peepli Live’ which is now about 8,140,000, out of which 787 classified as News.

Orkut community fans did not move much just to 25,963 from earlier 24,573. But Facebook page likes moved from mere 3,321 People Likes to 16,276. Twitter followers list moved to 403 from 29.

Official channel set up on Youtube has received total 484,126 views adding up counts for all videos.

Bottom line is Peepli [Live] out performed on internet just like on box office, full marks to online publicity of Peepli [Live].

Do participate in the Peepli [Live] contest to win 5 Lotas and 1 Hookah autographed by Amir Khan. You can find all answers in the website itself. (Just think, in case you win then everyone in your family will have a separate Lota, no fight in morning)

Peepli Live

This blog was dead for 2 years. Even though the theme was most interesting, I lacked motivation to write.

I am making it live again with post on Peepli Live :D

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Like all the Amir Khan fans, I am waiting for release of Peepli Live. It is supposed to be satire on farmer suicide, urban-rural gap and Indian journalism. Such politically sensitive issues are hardly touched by commercial film makers in India, barring few exceptions like ‘गाभ्रीचा पाऊस - The damned rain’ (For those who do not know, its a Marathi movie on farmer suicide which won many international awards)

Amir is clever strategist, when it comes to marketing and promotion of his movies. This time subject is such that he does not have to do anything, media and opposition will take care of publicity for his movie.

My older post - 'Catch them online', was about online promotion of movies. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to see how does the 'Peepli Live' performs online, here is the analysis. (Done on 11 July 2010, 17:00)

Google gives About 2,040,000 results on searching ‘Peepli Live’, out of which About 225 results are classified as News.

Orkut community has 24,573 members

Facebook page received 3,321 People Like

Twitter has merely 29 followers

Official channel set up on Youtube and official video has received whopping 21,000 views in just 1 week



Movie’s Wikipedia and IMDB pages are updated with latest information.

The best part of promotion is the official website of Peepli Live. It is a piece of creativity, takes time to load but definitely worth a watch. (I feel that they have goofed up in Hindi channel part, the script should have been Hindi.)

So far online performance is good and still there is about month's time for release. Good luck Amir!

Yeh film to super-hit hain!

How do you know that the movie will hit or a flop? My previous post talked about the various techniques used by Bollywood films namely masala movies, remakes and sequels. But one can never be sure that it will work always. Movies are personal experience for each individual. Hence it is highly subjective to find which movie will appeal to viewers and which will not. After hit movies some directors produce total flop movies. So far Indian movies are made with intuition whereas in the western part the extensive research is done on each movie before releasing. India is also experiencing some changes in this regard.

Film makers need some tool which will forecast whether the film will be accepted among the viewers or not. Marketing research companies came into picture at this point. They replicate the population using representative sample with different age, sex, economic groups. This sample is exposed with the movie and promotional material. Feedback and reviews are taken before and after. Depending on the responses right strategy is adopted.

This exercise runs about a month and is the easiest way to gauze consumer’s mind. This methodology saves possible loss, by warning in advance about the film popularity.

It may lead to the old question art for artist or art for people. Well in the world of business, it is all about the customer. Then what about the art?

I will be back

The sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings.

Sequels did made very late entry in Bollywood. I mean, there were few instances like Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy ( Pather Panchali , Aparajita and Apur Sansar ), Harmesh Malhotra’s failed a sequel Nigahen after the Nagina but nothing after that for a long period whereas sequels were the ‘the thing’ in Hollywood. “The Godfather”, “Harry Potter”, “Mission Impossible”, “Matrix” ,“Spiderman”, “Batman”, “Superman”, “Star Wars”, and “The Terminator” are just the names few names.

Even talking about Bollywood Barring exceptions like Mahesh Manjarekar’s Hathyaar (sequel to ‘Vastava’) and Nagesh Kukunoor’s Hyderabad Blues 2 (sequel to ‘Hyderabad Blues’) most of the sequels in Bollywood are hit. The list includes “Phir Hera Pheri” and “Krrish”, “Munnabhai MBBS”, “Dhoom”, “Sarkar”, “hanuman returns” and many films are in pipeline.

Why there is the sudden rush for making sequels?

Sequel is just extension of an existing concept. The initial concept is already bought by public. [Untill now sequels are made only if the first part of the runs successfully]. As the original film is popular and people have already accepted the characters, half the job of selling sequel is done. Even if the quality of the sequel is not comparable to its original film, goodwill of the original film will guaranty most of the ticket sales for sequel.

A hit film raises the credibility of crew helping in the financial issues for the sequel. Few companies are into business of purchasing a sequel option. Generally sequels option expires after 3-4 years, meaning sequel has to be made soon after original movie because people tend to forget quickly. Purchasing a sequel gives you all the rights to make a sequel. You may or may not make it actually.

Current trend is to make stories keeping in mind the possible future sequel.

Mamma, I want the Kkrish Tiffin box

Read here, all exhaustive history of most Bollywood merchandising. This post will look this topic from angle of the three stakeholders involve in the merchandising.

First the movie producers, the direct benefits are profits. Movies make additional revenue by selling the writes to the merchandise manufacturers for a fee. This happens most commonly with apparels, toys. Secondly, market is flooded with the movie merchandising, adding to movie publicity and recall. Third the movie remains alive in the form of the merchandise years after the movie is out of theatres.

Second stakeholder is merchandise manufacturer. Merchandise manufacturing is a big business in itself with many business houses entering into in. Movie merchandising is most of the time is success. There are instances like the toy Tutu sold extensively but film Na Tum Jaano Na Hum flopped miserably.

Finally, what does customer get out of purchasing movie merchandise?

Before going to the benefit part of customer let’s see which segment is being targeted by the movie merchandising. Looking at the nature of merchandise like fashion apparels, toys, stationary items, school items, jewellery etc. The segment that is being targeted is children and youth. Who have biggest influence of movies? Kids have competition among them to grab latest hanuman book. They don’t want to lag behind. Same with the youth they know what is happening from the films and don’t want to feel old fashioned. By grabbing film merchandise people seek attention and pride to have the esteemed belonging.

Few Hollywood movies earn more revenue from the merchandise than ticket sell. Merchandising concepts are planted right from the scripting point with consultation from the manufacturer. Signs are that the trend will soon hit in India.

Thank you for smoking

‘Thank you for smoking’ is one of few movies those made most impact on me. This movie is number one recommendation for all marketing enthusiast. Movie doesn’t take any side i.e. smoking versus non-smoking and the best thing about the movie is that there is not even a single smoking scene in entire movie.

Now, I am not going to write its story here or tell you about greatness of that movie. IMDB is best and reliable source for such stuffs. But I will write about what I learned from the movie as student of marketing. (Warning alert! May contain spoilers)

Pasting the scenes those I want to talk about. If you have seen the movie just go the end of each scene.

Lesson 1

Scene 1 –Conversation between father and son (Nick is father and Joey his son)

Joey Naylor: ...so what happens when you're wrong?

Nick Naylor: -Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...

Nick Naylor: -Well if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?

Nick Naylor: -OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say:

Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.

Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?

Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.

Nick Naylor: -Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?

Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.

Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty.

Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about

Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.

Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...

Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.

Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me

Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***

Scene 2 –Inside classroom giving career tips about the ca

Kid #3: My Mommy says smoking kills.

Nick Naylor: Oh, is your Mommy a doctor?

Kid #3: No.

Nick Naylor: A scientific researcher of some kind?

Kid #3: No.

Nick Naylor: Well then she's hardly a credible expert, is she?

You will face criticism, while defending an idea which even you might not support. Believe that nothing is wrong in the world. People criticise you because you are wrong. But at the same time the one who criticising you isn’t right. When you can’t prove yourself right, your job reduces to simply proving the other party wrong.

Lesson 2

Scene 1 - In meeting

Boss: We sell cigarettes. And they're cool and available and *addictive*. The job is almost done for us!

Scene 2 - Later in meeting…

Nick Naylor: These days, when someone smokes in the movies, they're either a psychopath... or a European. The message Hollywood needs to send out is 'Smoking Is Cool!'

Everybody needs advertising, every product. Creating create image is a long process to. You can’t relax and believe that everything is going right. Your image can be dependent on something which is completely out of your control. In this example, there was no problem in the image created by advertisements but real trick was influencing external factor, the movies. Cigarettes companies did that job to perfection.

Isn’t that true for human beings too?

Evolution

Long-long-ago people used to talk, talk and talk. Then man found out the blackboard, explaining was so much easy with that. Few years later projectors were invented, making transparencies was a cool thing then. Now we are in the era of PowerPoint presentations.

All new inventions were result of the need to grab attention. Everything became repetitive and same when everyone had it. First arrival of blackboard was cool but later everybody had it, suddenly new projectors were cool, then the place was taken up by PowerPoint. Now if everyone has PowerPoint, how to be different, how to stand out of clutter, how to convey the idea?

What is next? A short movie… why not. Check out following two short movies made by two Interest Groups at IIMK to stand out from other presentation. I have my little contribution in both.

Amar Akbar Anthony & K

Nostradamus

Human mind is always attracted towards new things. Idea of presentation with the help of movies clicked. Which helped creating hype and good publicity for the IGs.

Just a thought: What will happen when even short movies will be cliche? god knows…