Dhoom 3, the year-ender for Yash Raj Films, might be a multi-starrer and made on a high budget, but the production house is taking the less-is-more route for promotions. Along with the publicity partner, Spice, it is ensuring that the media is not flooded with promos and hoardings of the cop-robber franchise. At work, are strategically placed teasers to intrigue the audience till the movie’s release on 20th of December.
PVR had opened advance bookings for select shows the day the trailer was unveiled a couple of months back. According to the multiplex chain, the movie has already seen sales of just under Rs 2 crore in advance bookings.
“Mobile is more flexible than TV, which makes it cheaper. What an advertiser spends per impression on mobile is much less than any other medium” Srikanth Kakani & Preetesh Chouhan of Vdopia
In monetising app of a TV show, the first area is acquisition of the app. This means not buying it but partnering with the content owner. Our partnership with the content owner goes before the TV show Comedy Nights with Kapil became popular. Second is the app developer world. We have developed solutions that go to a lot of app developer ecosystems across the world and we integrate at the source itself. To understand this, consider yourself as an app developer and who loves building games. Once you have built an app, go to our website and download our SDKs (software development kits) which are a bunch of codes for the app and put the app in an app store. As people start playing the game, the ads are served and the app developer starts earning. But why Comedy Nights with Kapil and not a movie? Because in mobile, TV content is more popular than movies.
Veteran director Kodi Ramakrishna (one of my father’s favorite directors) dished out quite a few blockbusters during his hey days. In a very old interview he compared a wholesome entertainer to a sumptuous meal. He observed that no matter how big the assortment of items, if you missed out on the essentials like ‘Avakaya’ pickle Telugus would go unsatisfied.
The movie ‘Venkatadri Express’ is designed based on this principle and weaves a simple story into an engaging screenplay. While the movie resorts to a few scenes that manufacture comedy, the threads that move forward to logical conclusion keep the audience interested throughout the movie.
Predictable characters like a tough father, a good-at-heart and risking the danger of becoming a good-for-nothing son, devoted mother, drunkard accomplice, pelli kaani babai etc actually help the audience to savor the comedy that is woven around them. Popular themes like father-son relationship, hero and heroine’s serendipitous meeting and their journey together, youngest son saving the day for the family, Tirupathi connection etc keep it simple for the audience and makes it for an easily digestible entertainer.
The producer (Gemini Kiran) deserves a special mention for backing a debutant director, selecting a seasoned yet progressive cinematographer like Chota K.Naidu (who is known for both his big budgeted and small films) and promoting the movie just enough before the word of mouth kicked in.
Director Gandhi’s directorial journey has a fairy tale beginning, with decent theatre occupancies even in the third week of his movie’s release. Will his future trains make a stop at ‘Cuddappah’ or ‘Araku’ or take off from ‘Platform 9 3/4? 🙂
Some links
Director Gandhi’s short film
‘Khubsoorat’- First movie I watched with a disciplined parent as the protagonist
