Confessions of a Movie Marketer

“If he is a good actor, but his movies did not do well, we think twice before taking him on. For us, acting talent is not a criterion”

There are no ethics in movie marketing. We make a list of stories that have to be floated before the movie releases. Of the stories you read of actors falling sick or having accidents, some may be true but a lot of them are part of the big plan. The media is fed on these stories throughout the time the movie is being made. This is done to make sure that the movie does not go into oblivion and to raise audience anticipation. Sometimes, it’s easier if we have friends in the media.

While selecting actors, we check their past records, specifically how much money the actor’s movies made. If he is a good actor, but his movies did not do well, we think twice before taking him on. For us, acting talent is not a criterion, we think about the money. There is always an argument of creativity versus saleability. People may say good things about a movie, but that does not always translate into numbers. That is why we prefer not to clash movie releases. If there are no movies releasing with ours, then even a bad one sells.

Production houses can go to any length to get publicity for their movies. Take, for instance, the sudden footage leak phenomenon. All the movies that have released recently have had leaks either on the internet or television. In reality, we ourselves leak film clips to create hype around the movie. We then cry foul to get media attention.

Dealing with actors, especially smaller ones, is a big task. Neither are they in the big league nor are they common people. Thus, they are insecure. In such a case, a marketer, to get his way, sometimes has to reaffirm the false notions of stardom the person has.

Most newcomers are ethical and want to sell the movie on merit. But that’s not how it works today.

(This person has been a marketing professional with a production house for a year)

As told to Jahnavi Sanghvi

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