FILM PROMOS * Amitabh Bachchan personally supervised the making of the promo of his forthcoming movie Major Saab and he spent over a fortnight in the process. * Ajay Devgan conceived and executed his own concept for the publicity of his home production, Pyar To Hona Hi That. The special effects of the promo cost about Rs Four lakhs, making it the most expensive promo made so far. * Shah Rukh Khan shot and directed the special promos of Duplicate with the battle cry — “Double Shah Rukh in single rate.” * Uday Chopra has been exclusively shooting promos from Darr to Dil To Pagal Hai. It need not be emphasised any further as to how important film promos on TV have become in recent years. Promos ensure the initial draw, swear the producers. Promos have become mandatory for film publicity. The buzzword today is to have glossier, funkier promos replete with special effects. It most certainly is boom time for the promo-makers now. Screen zooms in on post production studios specialising in promo-spots to find out how they are keeping up with the ever-increasing demands of their novelty seeking clients... Juhi Chawla swayed to the mute rhythm of music in the first-ever specially shot trailor of Darr. Whiz director Shekhar Kapur had then rated it as “the best trailor.” Thus Yash Chopra pioneered yet another trend in filmmaking. “It was Adi’s (Aditya Chopra) idea to shoot special promos for Darr, like in Hollywood. So he put Uday on the job, he shot on his video alongside the main shooting and finally compiled the promo for Darr, then Dilawale... and finally Dil To Pagal Hai,” elaborates Mahen Vakil, the executive producer of Yashraj Films. Since then filmmakers have been concentrating on this aspect of publicity. Subsequently, thoughtfully-devised promos replaced the ‘cut and spliced’ trailers of earlier times. Soon, the post-production studios geared up to match up with the emergent trend. Highly sophisticated hardware and special effects software packages became the order of the day. Shyam Ramanna at Crest Communications was the first to realise the potential of film promos for TV. With the split and multiple screen promos of the Bobby Deol-starrer, Barsaat, Crest opened up whole new vistas in the genre of TV publicity. “The Barsaat promo was a trend setter. The audience were completely mesmerised by its special effects. There was no looking back after that, producers clamoured for hi-tech promos and we were only too glad to oblige,”recounts Pushpa Kaushal, corporate communications consultant at Crest. The die was cast after the phenomenal success of the Barsaat promo. It became mandatory for every filmmaker to have a specially designed TV spot for his movie. “Promos are like the icing on a cake, they enhance the appeal of your product,” reasons Sanjeev Makheja, the producer of Maharaja. Following Barsaat, it was the glossy Madhu-Urmila starrer Mere Sapno Ki Rani promo that created waves. “We highlighted the soft, romantic mood of the movie through the songs. The promo generated tremendous interest and the film became hot owing to its colourful promo,” claims Ramesh Aggarwal of Rajtaru studio. The stylised and sensuous promo of Daud, crafted by CMM studio was the next to have the audience panting in anticipation. “In addition to the music, Ramu wanted to promote it as a comedy and so we had everybody running backward in the promos. That promo sure fired up the imagination of the viewers,” enthuses Ninad Vengurlekar, the marketing manager at CMM. In recent times, Zor made a lasting impact with its blast-image title. “We tried out a different look with the three dimensional lettering of the title, the blast together with the sound effect did the trick,” beams 24-year-old Tarun Aggarwal. Rajtaru studio has been named after him and his twin brother Rajeev, both of whom have been trained the world over in computer graphics and animation. Film promos on TV have indeed hit the big time now, considering the fact that Amitabh Bachchan personally supervised the making of the promos of his forthcoming film Major Sahab. “Amitji spent nearly a fortnight with us while we worked on the Major Saab promo. We have used the latest animation effects by simulating a missile which charts its trajectory before blasting off in front of Ajay Devgan and Amitji. It took us a good two and half months to create the missile,’ informs Tarun further. Having directed the Yes Boss promo earlier, Shah Rukh ventured out to shoot and direct the special promos of Duplicate recently. “Double Shah Rukh in single rate was Shah Rukh’s idea, he wanted the characters to lean against and leap over the Duplicate lettering, we translated his idea into visuals. It was a co-ordinated effort, we suggested how he should shoot for the desired impact. And look what waves the promo has been making since then,” asserts Ramesh Aggarwal. While Shah Rukh is rather pleased with his labour of love,”Yes, I have directed the promos of Duplicate. I am happy that people have liked them. But I have no intentions of turning a director in the near future,” he clarifies. “They are all sincere actors, they know the importance of the promos and that the first impression should be the lasting impression. They recognise the power of TV publicity. Promos are bringing in the audience to the theatre, after all. Promos are directly responsible for the initial draw of the film,” says Aggarwal. Take for instance, Ajay Devgan who had dreamt of a very novel concept for the publicity of his home production, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha. All through the movie, the hero and the heroine are unable to express their tender feelings for each other and so for the promo Ajay visualised the two walking apart on a rain-soaked promenade while in the reflection the two walk hand-in-hand. “It was a challenging job for us and we enjoyed working on this promo immensely. It gave us tremendous creative satisfaction. The SFX of this film cost about Rs 4 lakhs,which by far is the most expensive promo made so far. We dare our clients to dream and we assure that we could translate their dreams into virtual reality. Given the vision and budget, we can make a Titanic in India. We have the equipment as well as the expertise,” says Tarun Aggarwal. “Promos have become so important that they require the approval of the stars today. Like the Ghulam promo is being closely scrutinised by Aamir at every stage,” observes Ninad. “Sohail would supervise the promos of Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya and take home the VHS copy for Salman,” discloses Ravi Badda, consultant at USL studio. Most promo-making studios work on Flint, Flame and Fire software packages that are being used in Hollywood today. “We are the only ones who have the Inferno package in the whole of Asia,” claim the Aggarwals of Raj taru. Inferno, incidentally is the most advanced software yielding the highest ratio and resolution of film images. While the other software can stretch upto 99 multilayers, Inferno can go beyond 200 multilayers. “We certainly are at par with international standards, we have a HAL machine which has the capacity of 33 billion colours and an amazing multiplicity with which we can multiply a crowd of 10 people into that of 1000s. As we can give the same results at much affordable rates, several international parties have approached us for their post-production work,” reveals Pushpa Kaushal of Crest. The trends in promo making are to give a glossy look to the select action and song sequences. “Colour upgradation and multi-layered jobs are in vogue today. The whole idea is to impart surreality to the promos. While the SFX in films have to be life-like, promos must have fantastic visuals. We make jazzier logos with solid three-dimensional lettering, make the visuals glossier with colour corrections and with the multilayered effect we get to run the visuals in the foreground as well as the background. The basic idea is to be different each time,” surmises Ninad. Basically he brings in his concept of the promo which is executed at the post-production studios. “To begin with we have a 10-second teaser to arouse the viewer’s curiosity, then song-bits are added to make a 30-60 second song trailer to popularise the songs and finally action and main characters are highlighted in the 90 second promo which is an invitation to the viewers to come and watch the film in the theatre. Most promos are aired couple of months before the release of the film. “Generally nine different versions of a promo are made for a film,” says Hemant Chavan of Avitel. That promos guarantee an initial draw is an irrefutable fact. Daud, Ziddi and Zor are points in case. But isn’t there any moral code in the promo-making business? Aren’t the audiences being cheated with such misleading promos? “Who are we to decide about the merit and substance of a film? Our job is to bring the audience to the theatre, the rest is left to the director,” remarks Aggarwal. While Ravi Badda of USL studio defends, “If we won’t do it, somebody else will.” And Ninad of CCM says, “We can’t afford to be judgmental, We make the best of what we get.” Ramesh Aggarwal points out that Keemat had a fairly decent opening as compared to the Akshay Kuamr starrers in the past only on the merits of its promo. The sources at Venus, the producers of Keemat, do acknowledge that the film has had a fair opening but they do not attribute it solely to the Rajtaru promos. Mahesh Kothare, the maker of Lo Main Aa Gaya says, “This is the age of media and consumerism. TV is the main source of publicity as it has a wide reach to our consumers sitting at home. The initial draw of the film is decided by the quality and appeal of the film promo. Earlier the most we could do on DD was to sponsor one odd song in Chitrahaar, but with the private channels entering the fray, the scene has changed dramatically — it has opened floodgates of possibilities for TV publicity. not surprising then if T-Series, who have the music rights of my film are spending to the tune of Rs 20-25 lakhs on publicity alone. Promos on TV have become an integral part of filmmaking today,” he stresses. But with the increasing use of technical gizmos and gimmickry isn’t creativity taking a back-seat in the bargain? Special effects are becoming an overkill now. “The promo must retain the mood of the film. We can’t allow technology to override the true image of the film,” opines Aggarwal. “ZIddi and Aflatoon promos had funky special effects, Pyar Kiya ... relied on the romantic mood and we concentrated on the graphics for this promo,” discloses Ravi at USL. Ninad at CMM admits to indiscriminate use of technical whizardary, “The buzzword is to be different and in achieving that our clients do push us into overusing SFX and we do end up making gimmicky promos as per the client specification. But in the times to come, they are bound to realise the importance of concept promos. Creativity will always overpower technology,” he prophesies. The redeeming factor of the promo making today is thata quality hasn’t yet taken a beating. “ The trouble is that all the channels are bombarding the viewers with promosround-the-clock. There is no media planning done for the trailers, resultantly there is no exclusivity. Sooner or later we will have to chart out a proper media strategy to position a promo. Chhota Chetan promos were aired during the India-Australia Cricket finals, now that was a smart marketing move,” notes Ninad. Interestingly, TV promos haven’t been used as film trailers in the theatres so far. For technical reasons that hasn’t been tried as yet. But no denying that the film trailer business is losing out to TV promos. Lesser attention and budgets are being assigned to the theatre publicity these days. Print publicity however, remains unaffected by the boom time in TV promos, as Atmanand Golatkar of Studio Link says, “TV promos have given us a new vision, we work in co-ordination with them. The uniformity in pattern only makes the publicity campaign stronger. Though the print media has its own standards, we are learning a lot from the TV spots,” he admits. This fast moving industry is now getting breathless keeping pace with the changing trends, as Ninad introspects, “Clients are demanding a new look each time. We have a challenging job in keeping them happy.”
Essence of
surreality
Trail balzers
now trail behind
Balancing out
technology with creativity
Teenage
prodigies
EXPENSES KEEP
ASPIRANTS AWAY
CHENNAI
CALLING |
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Titanic
claims
