Forget full-length animation feature films, Bollywood has scaled greater heights in technology than ever before. And no, we are not talking about roping in videshi babes for expensive promotion campaigns here.
When off-beat filmmaker Prakash Jha needed to promote his film, Apharan, he chose as simple a look for his means as his characters in the film. Blogs.
Following a tie-up with rediff.com, Jha has placed a link in the portal’s homepage that connects you to the official website of the film and to the blogs of four key members of the crew of the film, Bipasha Basu, Nana Patekar, Mohan Agashe and Jha himself. Ajay Devgan’s blog will be added to the list shortly.
“I know that the Internet is used heavily by the Indian audience abroad and having creative websites for films is not something new to Bollywood,” says Prakash Jha. “We tied up with rediff.com to carry a microsite on their homepage and for three months they have given us that space,” he says.
“Ajay Devgan is far lesser known abroad than the Khans and the only way to make him known was through the interaction online,” says Jha.
Jha says that if the blogs ensure a good response of the film in India and abroad, he would make it a regular feature of his film promotions. “I know that it has been noticed. I keep a regular watch on the number of comments we receive and I also answers in the blog.”
Jha also admits that by far, the blog that has seen maximum response is that of Nana Patekar. “The response for his blog is phenomenal,” he says. His very first post has received as many as 166 comments.
“It is difficult to fathom the success of it right away as we have to wait till the audience comes to the cinema.”
Meanwhile he ensures that the response to the questions will be stepped up in the coming days, as the film releases this Friday.
Published in Hindustan Times Next on November 31, 2005
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