‘What’s this new perfume?’ My friend asked me when I was going with him somewhere. He was referring to a huge hoarding put up. I also didn’t miss that blood red advertising board with a model looking woman posing in her red mini skirt with deadly looks on her face resembling to Angelina Jolie from Salt. It took me a few seconds to recollect that it was for the newly released movie ‘Dhaakad’. It was a well made poster, obviously inspired by the Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong in it. Many publicity designers follow this tried and tested path. But something I realized very next moment was that this movie bombed at the box office.
I didn’t I checked the reviews on the internet. They are not as bad as the box office results. ‘Dhaakad’ and ‘Bhul Bhulaiyaa 2’ released on the same date – 20.05.22. Dhaakad has a bigger star in Kangna Ranaut where as Kartik Aryan is yet to be proven as a bankable star. BB2 has goodwill of the first part and a very good director in the form of Anees Bazmi who’s experiencing in handling comic genre. Whereas Dhaakad has been directed by a newcomer Razaneesh Ghai. Yet, Kangana Ranaut has a reputation of pulling her part well and in turn the movie. But here, when you compare the box office results of both of these movies, Bhul Bhulaiyya 2 is doing way better than Dhaakad. In short, it’s over for the later.
Then I started thinking why this must have happened. If my friend could think of it as an advertising board for a perfume then anybody could think anything. Was this kind of publicity design one of the culprits?
Dhaakad is quite a desi name which means daring. The movie looks very sleek in the promos and Kangna’s look is also inspired by that of Angelina Jolie’s from the movie Salt or Jennifer Lawrence from Red Sparrow. The publicity designers of Dhaakad made the similar kind of posters for this desi kind of title. Even in the digital age, it’s often the poster or hoarding that decides the fate of a movie. It has to set certain expectations about the movie and if it’s not even looking like a movie poster at all then who’s going to come to know about the movie?
On the other hand Bhul Bhulaiyya 2 gives a clear idea about the genre and theme of the movie. Recently released Marathi movie Chandramukhi too gives a clear idea that it must be a ‘Tamasha culture’ based movie set in the 1960s.
I am giving these examples because that’s have posters play a role in a movie’s success. But such kind of publicity may mislead the moviegoers.
So, was that one of the reasons? What do you think?
