DHOOM 3 IS A SUPER SUCCESS; AAMIR’S STRATEGY WORKS YET AGAIN!

The last biggie of the year, Dhoom 3, took an earth-shattering opening as expected and is on it’s way to becoming the biggest blockbuster ever. The response is kind of mixed but it’s obvious that everybody is curious to see the film. No wonder, the film sustained very well on Monday and Tuesday. Many felt that Aamir-YRF’s strategy of going very low on promotions would backfire! After all, we are at a time when films are promoted left, right, centre. Going on multiple city tours and making an appearance on Comedy Nights With Kapil and Bigg Boss 7 is a must! Also, makers nowadays reveal all song promos of their film. Dhoom 3 on the other hand had no or limited city tours and absolutely no promotion on television shows. Only the end credits song - Dhoom Machale - was unveiled fully. Well, not fully as the action scenes shown in between were replaced by some unique scenes of Aamir in the film! Malang and Kamli too were unveiled but only 30 seconder promos of it. This was a splendid idea as both songs are well shot and would have lost charm had they revealed more than 30 seconds of these tracks. This is a wake-up call to all those filmmakers who reveal all songs of their film before release. This is not always a good idea as songs then don’t make the same impact since people have already seen it from start to finish multiple times on TV/internet. Moreover, Tu Hi Junoon and Bande Hai Hum Uske didn’t come out at all. Yet, the film made an impact as the buzz for the film was tremendous thanks to the ‘Dhoom’ brand, star cast and most importantly, the theatrical trailer of the film. The trailer seemed to have given away important things about the plot. But we get proved wrong as the film has loads to offer and not to forget, the twist at the interval point!

This is not the first time Aamir’s films have been promoted in this manner. 3 Idiots promos promised college and hostel fun and the Aamir-Kareena cute chemistry. Viewers got to see it but they also got a chance to enjoy Chatur Ramalingam and Viru Sahastrabudhe’s antics, which weren’t shown at all in the promos! Similarly, in Ghajini, audiences went to see expecting a revenge drama which they got to see. At the same time, they were presented with the comedy of errors in the first half, which was also damn enjoyable! This ‘umeed se dugna’ trait is unique only to Aamir and hats off to him!

Thankfully, we’ll get to see more of Aamir soon, in June 2014, with P.K., directed by 3 Idiots’ director Rajkumar Hirani. Once again, it’ll be fun to see what Aamir comes up with, in terms of promotion, and I am sure it would be unique and something that would immediately excite viewers. Hats off!
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MAHABHARAT RELEASES TOMORROW

The 3D animation film, Mahabharat, is all set to release tomorrow and the buzz is shockingly low. That’s because some of the biggest stars of Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol, Manoj Bajpayee, Shatrughan Sinha – have voiced for the film. And it’s bewildering why no one is promoting for the film. In the west, Hollywood actors go all out to promote the film in which they have done voiceovers. In India, that never happens. Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Jaaved Jaaferi did nothing to promote Roadside Romeo, easily the best animation film till date. During Delhi Safari’s release, only Urmila Matondkar cared to give interviews while the rest made no efforts.

Coming back to Mahabharat, the film’s animation looks outdated and in no way appealing especially when compared to films churned out by the West. Hence, it’s obvious that viewers would be giving this big-budgeted animation film a miss.