Page 93 - From Bombay to Bollywoord The Making of a Global Media Industri

80 << Marketing and Promotions in Bollywood

Screen capture from Yash Raj Films’s promotional website for the film Hum Tum.

you simply look at what is available and do something with it. Like with
MTV, ek big picture banate hain, ek love line banate hain aur jitne bhi shows
hain, usmein hum apne stars ko dalte hain aur publicity mil jayega [let’s do
Big Picture, one Loveline, and in all the other shows that exist let’s place our
stars and that will generate publicity]. You don’t use your mind to figure
out how to exploit a medium in a specific way. Hum Tum was when we
said ok, enough of all this.” Big Picture and Loveline were popular shows on
MTV-India that had, since the late 1990s, regularly featured film stars and
served as promotional platforms for upcoming films. Pointing to a string
of other successful films produced and/or distributed by Yash Raj Films,
Tripathi went on to offer his take on the changing place of marketing and
promotions and more broadly, shifts in conceptions of the audience in
Bollywood:

Karan Johar created one of the biggest hits of Bollywood with a tagline that
said, “It’s all about loving your parents.” You know, K3G. But you need to
realize that Karan Johar knows very well that it’s also all about knowing
your audience. When you have to talk about branding and promotions,
you need to be able to speak the language of market research. It is no lon-
ger enough to say arre sir, badiya picture hai, gaane bahut acche hain, for-
eign locations hain, hit hogi pakka, hum keh rahe hain. [It’s a terrific film,