Re-releasing old films with new names may well be considered a clever marketing ploy for re-runs. But distributors are now doing some serious re-thinking on how far the strategy can contribute to the business of a repeat run. Ramesh Sippy of BRA Films who recently released the Shah Rukh-Urmila starrer Chamatkar as Main Hoon Baazigar has decided to keep on hold his decision of releasing D.Rama Naidu's Jeevan Ek Sangharsh as Sangharsh. Sippy was planning to release the film next month. "But I have decided to postpone the film now, because of the poor response for Main Hoon Baazigar did not even get an initial inspite of the repackaging," Sippy says. Sippy even used the word Baazigar in the title hoping to cash in on the success of the film but that did not prove to be of much consequence. According to Sippy, the audience has grown smarter today and repackaging of a film does not necessarily make a difference. "The audience has become discerning," Sippy says adding that Main Hoon Baazigar is unlikely to do a business of more than two lakhs for the Mumbai territory, which is a very discouraging figure. In contrast, Sippy's earlier re-release Tabahi (initially titled Bedardi) went on to do a business of ten lakhs when it was released a year ago, a great success by all standards. Sippy feels that one of the reasons for the slump in the re-run business for films released with new titles, is the banning of wall-posters and street publicity by the BMC. "It was one of the main avenues of publicising films and it worked very well in the case of Tabahi. But that has been ruled out. Add to that the problems of hike in theatre rentals and television making up for the nostalgia value, the repeat business of films is zero today."

But as Sippy points out one of the major factors that actually contributed to the repeat run of Bedardi as Tabahi, was the fact that Bedardi was a non-starter at the box-office in its first run. "An unsuccessful film is easily blanked out from audience memory. Even video and cablewallahs desist from showing it. With the result that those who had avoided seeing it in the first run because of its flop status ended up seeing it in theatres with a new name," Sippy explains. Which is why Sippy did not bother to retitle the Urmila-Sunny starrer Narsimha when he re-released it for the second time recently. "Narsimha was a great success when it was first released and giving it a new name would actually mean erasing the image of a successful film," Sippy justifies.

Balkrishna Shroff of Shringar Films endorses Sippy's views. "Hit films don't need new titles. A new title will in fact amount to killing the film's re-run prospects. But a flop film can definitely do better re-run business when it is given a new name," Shroff says. A month ago Shroff re-released the Sunny-Sanjay Dutt starrer Kshatriya as Khiladiyon Ka Muqabla and it did more than average business at the box-office. "I abstained from screening the film in Mumbai for two years before I released it with a new name and it worked for me," he says. Now he is planning to release the Akshay starrer Zaalim and the Sunny starrer, Veerta with new titles. "We intend to keep on doing it because it does make a difference to the business of the film even if it is only marginal," Shroff says. He does maintain though that the ban on street publicity has affected business of re-runs. "It was like a bombshell for re-runs."

Not all people however are in favour of retitling old films. A couple of weeks ago, Rahul Rawail threatened to sue the distributors, Zeal Pictures, when they tried to re-release Anjaam as Nafrat Ka Anjaam. Rawail was reportedly upset that it would kill the individuality of his film and give it a completely different connotation with the new title.

Interestingly, neither Shroff nor Sippy feel that releasing an old film with a new name is tantamount to cheating the audience. "It is a simple gimmick used to catch the attention of the audience. So that they can think of seeing the film all over again, instead of dismissing it. People are not fools not to be able to distinguish between a fresh release and a re-release. Besides, we always mention the original name of the film below, though it may be only in small type," Shroff says. Sippy agrees, "There's a difference between using a gimmick to draw attention and misleading the audience outright. What we have been doing is trying to woo the audience. But even this has its own limitations. It is time we re-worked a new strategy," Sippy says.