The movie marketing mania

The Hindu

29-05-2025

I met Kamal Haasan for an interview last Friday in Chennai for his much-awaited movie, Thug Life. The next day, he was at Sri Sai Ram College along with the entire team for the film's audio launch. On Sunday, he was present at the finals of a popular musical reality contest, Vijay's Super Singer Junior 10. In between these two big music events, I decided to watch an IPL match. Sure enough, Mr. Haasan was there on TV too, at a special programme hosted by Star Sports Tamil featuring the Thug Life team.
'I enjoy talking. It's a learning experience for me, because only when I talk, people get an opportunity to correct me,' he told me, when I pointed out his hectic travel schedule for the film's promotions.
It is hard to escape the film and its team, as Thug Life's PR game has been on an overdrive in the last few weeks. I'm sure even die-hard fans of Mani Ratnam and Mr. Haasan are tired of it. At the same time, it is also heartening to watch a 70-year-old Haasan croon old melodies with a little girl, or shake a leg to a fast-paced number on stage.
The world has changed a lot over the last 20 years when I began as a rookie reporter. I remember attending the launch of Mr. Haasan's Mumbai Xpress. The invite to the event was quirky: it was printed on a fake ₹500 currency note. The title read 'Raajkamal Bank of India' — a reference to both the Reserve Bank of India and his production house, Raajkamal Productions. The line below said: 'I promise entertainment for the entire family'.
Before the age of mobile phones and social media, information about a film or album was scarce, so film-makers went all out to market their films in person. Some adopted traditional ways of promoting their films, such as through newspaper advertisements, while some were others were more innovative.
Promotional material used to be a collector's delight. Cassettes in the 1990s gave us a quick peek into what to expect: the audio cassette of Shankar's Jeans, with music by A.R. Rahman, was packed in denim in 1998. I remember walking into a neighbourhood shop to buy a special edition audio cassette of Laysa Laysa in 2003. Priced at ₹10 at a time when cassettes cost around ₹50, it had just two versions of the title song in its Side A and Side B, serving as a curtain-raiser for the album composed by Harris Jayaraj. In contrast, today's audio invites arrive as WhatsApp notifications.
Over time, promotions became more and more geared towards grabbing eyeballs. I remember the buzz surrounding the launch of Madraspattinam in 2010 — the invite featured old maps of Madras and old currency, and the venue of the event, Chennai Trade Centre, was transformed into the Madras of the 1940s, replete with soldiers and people marching along shouting slogans.
Actors too have various promotion styles. While Rajinikanth did not personally promote Kabali, the 2016 film was a massive hit in terms of promotions. Mr. Rajinikanth's face was everywhere, from billboards to aircraft. Parthiban has always been the most wacky. Attendees to his Iravin Nizhal audio launch in 2022 were greeted with a mouth organ, while the invite to Teenz (2024) came with a large ruler and pen. On the other hand, actors such as Ajith and Nayanthara stay away from promotions.
Today's launches are aimed at digital audiences. 'Singles' and 'hook steps' rule the roost. Unlike earlier, people unfortunately seldom wait for an entire album with songs in different genres to drop. Songs themselves are chopped up in films given our dwindling attention spans. The goal seems to be to come up with a catchy line and a distinctive dance that will go 'viral' on Instagram. So much so that the team of Thug Life had a 'Thugfluencers' event in Chennai recently, and reels of Mr. Haasan flooded Instagram feeds. Is there any place where Kamal Haasan, aka Vinveli Nayagan (Space Hero), is not present?
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