A little while ago, we had mentioned how the title and promotion of a film are so very important today. We gave the examples of Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? and Thanks Maa to substantiate the point that lack of marketing or faulty marketing and an inappropriate title can spoil the chances of a film at the box-office, all the more nowadays because a good chunk of a film’s business happens in the initial weekend. Therefore, a good opening is a must today. Last week’s Right Yaaa Wrong is another example of a film suffering on account of weak promotion. Its hero, Sunny Deol, has been away in Chandigarh since more than 20 days before the release of Right Yaaa Wrong. But in all fairness to him, he did finish his media interviews before he left for Chandigarh. What’s more, he made the most of his stay in Chandigarh (for the shooting of Yamla Pagla Deewana) by giving interviews to the press in North India. Still, his absence from Bombay and his non-availability to the makers of Right Yaaa Wrong in the last seven days leading to the film’s release did adversely affect the promotion. But Irrfan Khan, in spite of being in Bombay, played hide and seek with the producers and simply refused to promote the film. He was agitated as he felt, Sunny had been given far more importance in the film than himself. Call it unprofessional behaviour or whatever you may, but Irrfan remained absent in every media event planned by the producers of Right Yaaa Wrong. It fell upon heroine Ishaa Koppikar only to do her best to make herself available for the film’s marketing and one must credit the lady for accommodating as much as possible in spite of having a new family to look after (she got married recently). Meanwhile, Subhash Ghai, whose Mukta Arts Ltd. presents Right Yaaa Wrong, preferred to become tight-fisted with the promotional budget of the film. Resultantly, even basic awareness about the film was missing till five days before the release. It is only during the last five days prior to the release that the film’s ads in the newspapers started creating some buzz about it among the public. However, that just wasn’t enough – as was evident in the terribly poor opening which the film took on Friday. All of which boils down to the fact that today, marketing a film correctly and intelligently is as important as making a good film, if not more important.
