The marketing gimmicks in Mollywood!

Quite recently, the lead pair of a recently released film was said to be having an affair. The story made the rounds for a few days but after it failed to make much of an impact; everyone conveniently seems to have forgotten it. Now, linking the hero and the heroine was an age-old trick in Bollywood but a new one in Malayalam. Still, the news didn’t find any takers.

Cut to the ‘April Fool’s Day’ this year, when a relatively new English lifestyle and film magazine carried some shocking reports about Mohanlal’s drinking habits. Though the story did make several faithful fans of the star seriously worried, it was later known that this was actually a curtain raiser for the actor’s forthcoming film Spirit, in which he is dealing with alcoholism.

Welcome to new ways of marketing in Malayalam, where websites, especially the social networking ones are regarded as great ways to get more publicity. No wonder, you can get the latest pictures, videos and every snippet about the forthcoming films. Also, there are well-crafted reviews which start appearing in the sites, just moments after the film’s release.

The actors, technicians and their cronies rave about their films and try to bring in more crowds regardless of the film’s real merits. There are also agencies who work on behalf of the technicians and actors who get involved in ‘designer reviews’ and flood the comments box of various sites praising the films and lashing out against ‘unfavorable reviews’.

But the problem is that all these gimmicks mainly cater to the urban crowd and not necessarily translate into box office merits everywhere else. Of course, such marketing techniques can influence a section of the gullible media in the process.

Need an example? One of this year’s ‘path breaking film’, as per most of the media reports, is said to have made its producer poorer by a considerable sum. When the artistes, technicians and those involved are showered with praises from all quarters, how many will know the real picture? So, who’s benefitting here in the end and whose agendas are being served here?

Well, mull over it, if you are interested!