By Shilpa Jamkhandikar
(Reuters) “Dhoom 3”, the third instalment in India’s only action movie franchise, has become Bollywood’s highest-gros-sing film, raking in more than 5 billion rupees ($80 million) in global ticket sales.
Lead actor Aamir Khan spoke to India Insight about the film’s marketing strategy, why reality TV shows may not be ideal for publicity and what he would change about his 2005 film “Mangal Pandey – The Rising.”
How was the marketing strategy for “Dhoom 3” conceived?
When we sat down for the first time, Victor (director Vijay Krishna Acharya) and the whole team were trying to figure out what we wanted to convey for this film. And like any other film, and this is something that both Adi (producer Aditya Chopra) and I feel very strongly, what actually wants to make you see the film is the trailer. We wanted to let the creative of the film speak for itself. Over the years, certain conventions have been formed and we looked at each convention for its own merit. Do we want to continue what is happening, is it of any use to the film, or not?
Which conventions did you look at?
One of the conventions is that, typically, it is believed that going on big-ticket reality TV shows gets you a big opening.
Weren’t you one of the first to do that during “Ghajini”?
Yes, I was and I am not denying that. But circumstances alter — I cannot do the same thing I did five years ago. That doesn’t mean it is relevant today. We looked at each convention in isolation. Will “Dhoom 3” benefit by going on a reality TV show — our answer was no. Because in our opinion, what a reality show essentially does is it amplifies the awareness of your film, but it doesn’t increase the desire to consume. I may be aware of your film and be very clear that I don’t want to see it. “Dhoom 3” didn’t need awareness, people have been asking us for the last three years about it. I am not saying there is no value to going on a reality TV show. If it was a film like “Peepli Live”, which is a small film — we don’t have the budgets and cannot buy ad time. Our hands are tied and I don’t have stars. So I go to a large show and raise awareness to a huge audience that isn’t even aware of the film. The other big thing was not releasing our full songs — that was a big decision we took. The thought being that we want you to enjoy the full songs in the theatre.
