Shah Rukh and Salman Khan at Baba Siddiqui's iftaar party last year
To think that we were only worried that Twitter would kill the media star; recent social media activity would suggest that the PR professional should be worried too.
Shah Rukh Khan recently tweeted the first look of
Bajrangi Bhaijaan. To the two of you who don't know, that's Salman Khan's upcoming film. Now, this is newsworthy for several reasons. This was Shah Rukh Khan tweeting in support of the man who till recently was, let's just be kind and say not his very best friend. But there he was claiming:
Being a brother is better than being a hero? He clearly means it. This got 22,000 favourites and 15,000 retweets. Soon after Aamir joined the party:
He was able to garner a mere 5000 retweets and 8,000 favourites. Between them, they have over 25 million followers. 25 MILLION. Throw in Salman's thanks to both and his 12 miilion plus followers, and, even factoring in the fan overlap, you have the kind of numbers advertisers and promoters can only dream of.
Kabir Khan, the director of
Bajrangi Bhaijaan, says they hadn't even thought through the implications: "Even we didn't fully understand the enormity of the reach. There's such huge buzz around the film just from three tweets. It came up in a simple conversation with Salman. It was going from the story of the film which is so heart-warming that we thought people would help. Salman agreed that we should check with them. And they readily agreed. Which is so gracious of them considering the whole atmosphere built up around this huge rivalry between the Khans, bordering on hostility. Which isn't actually the case at all."
He went on to say that the promotion plan for
Bajrangi Bhaijaan, while still in early stages, does plan to do things differently. Considering Salman's enormous fan base they plan to focus on "a fans first" approach. To reach out through social network sites as well as with direct interaction. "In fact, the first thing we did was an online contest with fifty fans who got the see the trailer first. And they start posting and it goes viral from there," he said.
And they are not alone. More and more films are looking for new and unusual ways to engage fans with their films. Look back at just the last few weeks:
Bombay Velvet hosted a trip to Goa. Complete with concerts, songs, dances and with stay thrown in at a fabulous five star - no doubt in the hope of interviewers in a more relaxed than usual frame of mind. That it didn't work out as planned was not for lack of trying.
Film critic Anupama Chopra agrees, "This is done abroad for every movie: the press junket. They fly in world media to different cities all over the world: LA, Cancun, Seoul. It's very streamlined, almost assembly line. You get four to five minutes with the star. It's their cameras, their room, the journalists are rotating. This is not how the
Bombay Velvet thing was done. We all had our individual set ups and the stars moved around. And perhaps it wasn't as effective for them as it could have been."
She also goes on to clarify, "I was in Goa and it was great fun. Did it help the film? No. Because ultimately it's the film that counts. I think the trailer is what is critical and people really come in on the basis of that first look."
So
Tanu Weds Manu Returns had no worries on that front but went on to hold its own '
sangeet'. And
Dil Dhadakne Do followed up its very successful first look with an event in keeping with the upscale, 'poor posh people' theme - not a press conference, but a leisurely Sunday brunch. Relaxed and easy, lower the guards, show us that there's nothing to worry about, and we won't think there is. (Rumour is there actually isn't, early reports say it might be as much fun as the trailer would suggest.)
But one way or another, it's a break in protocol. An effective one too. And certainly it's made the process a lot more entertaining, and isn't that the point?