The Diwali release, Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, has emerged as a huge hit at the box office. The credit, of course, goes to the film’s director, Milap Zaveri, lead actors Harshvardhan Rane and Sonam Bajwa, the hit music, and producer Anshul Garg’s determination. Two more people deserve the credit – Aman Gill and Gaurav Verma. Both not only gave a strategic release to the film but also played a huge role in correctly marketing it. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, the dynamic duo spoke about their winning strategy.
EXCLUSIVE: Post-release roadshows, pre-release silence: Aman Gill and Gaurav Verma’s DISRUPTIVE no-interview marketing model rewrites Bollywood’s rulebook with Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat!
Speaking of the marketing idea, Aman Gill said, “Gaurav kept repeating to producer Anshul Garg from the start, ‘Intense romance’, ‘Intense romance’. This was the film’s positioning. Hence, we purposely didn’t release ‘Khoobsurat’. It’s a soft, romantic number and a happy song, but it was not what we wanted to sell to the audience before release, which was intense, passionate romance. Every unit consisted of a song followed by an intense dialogue in the end.”
Gaurav Verma explained, “Since we got involved in the film from the start, we sat, discussed and finalized each unit, teaser, songs, trailer, and when to put them out in a strategic manner, which would engage the core audience during the entire campaign. We purposely didn’t cut a long trailer or reveal the story as we didn’t want to give away anything of the film, and just wanted to focus on a musical film with Pyaar and Nafrat. We enticed the audience to come to the theatres to know why the Nafrat is there in the film.”
Aman continued, “The producer has a very strong ear for music and he also has a music company. When we sat on the plan, we decided to make the music as the film’s hero. The campaign started at the end of August. On August 26, the teaser was out and on August 29, we dropped the first song though the release was 8 weeks away. This is because we knew that the music would become the hero by the time the film would be released.”
He added, “The title song reached 120 million views on YouTube. We are on number 3 or 5 on Spotify right now. It was all organic. On the radio, it was the most played song in the last 2 months apart from Saiyaara’s title track and ‘Pardesiya’. The second song, ‘Bol Kaffara’, also tracked successfully. Not just music, Harshvardhan Rane was also a hero thanks to Sanam Teri Kasam (2016). The genre was the hero. Even the girl (Sonam Bajwa) got appreciation. That way, everything fell into place.”
Aman also revealed, “Moreover, the producer has been gutsy for not selling satellite or digital. Where does that happen? Even the music hasn’t been sold as it’s on his own label. In short, he had zero revenue generated in his pocket before release. Yet, he decided to release the film theatrically. You won’t find this happening in this business. We sat down and discussed that this is what the film can do and post-release is when the producer will get their deserved value in the satellite and digital market. As for music, he owns the label for which he’ll get the value lifelong.”
Gaurav Verma exulted, “Before the release, we didn’t do any interviews or any promotional events. We need to understand the minds of the consumers. Do they react to the 1000 interviews or do they react to the assets? The fact is that 80% of the decision to watch a film is made by the latter. People ask, ‘Do I like the trailer? Do I like the songs? Is it a film I want to see?’. Apart from that, the numerous interviews and events are just noise. This noise camouflages the actual reality.”
Aman Gill added, “We at Bollywood have been carried away by this noise, assuming that it’s marketing. The marketing companies insist on taking actors to innumerable events, dandiya nights, etc. This exercise fully exhausts the actors. Despite such efforts, the result doesn’t change. Moreover, the amount spent on hiring a stylist, hair and make-up team, security, accommodation, etc. add so much financial burden. We decide to instead pump Rs. 2 crores into marketing and publicizing the songs.”
He said, “You must have realized that the songs were blasting everywhere, from TV, radio, YouTube and social media. It is not possible that you had not heard its songs. That is where we put the money. We knew that they (Harshvardhan Rane and Sonam Bajwa) would be bigger stars post-release. Any other existing marketing company would focus on events and not go behind the assets.”
Gaurav Verma noted, “Through interviews, you can talk about your product, but it can’t be sampled. People don’t realize how important it is to sample your product. All might have to go on focusing on teaser, trailer and songs. If they like any of these 3, you will be at an advantage. Songs don’t make the major decision but if 4 songs are a hit and have become a part of your life, the conversion will happen. Hence, we knew our niche and targeted that audience. As expected, the conversion happened.”
The strategy behind the ‘Vijay Yatra’
Harshvardhan Rane embarked upon a successful roadshow across various cities in the heartland but it was done only after the release. Aman Gill said, “We knew where the film was going to perform. That is why the roadshow happened post-release. We started with Gujarat, followed by Rajasthan and Delhi. Now, we are in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. This is where our audience is. Had the actors given interviews pre-release, people would have asked, ‘Aap bol rahe ho ki film acchi hai na? Humko thodi pata hai’! This tactic has been overdone in the last 10-15 years, and it’s getting monotonous and boring. The audience reads to it and hence, they have stopped reacting to interviews pre-release. They have already decided whether they want to watch the film or not. Post-release, your film is already talking. The interviews add to the buzz and entice people to see it in cinemas.”
Gaurav Verma agreed, “The content will bring your film to a certain level. The interviews will amplify and hopefully, take your word of mouth wide.”
He also said, “Now, the word of mouth is travelling and so are the interviews. Our audience still relies on word of mouth on Friday. That word of mouth gets amplified if you do your post-release marketing right. But others focus on pre-release marketing. With this film, we did pre-release advertising. Post-release, we focused on road shows and interviews. The reason why you are probably seeing a hold is because people are seeing the actors on the ground and also the word of mouth is known.”
More Pages: Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat Box Office Collection , Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat Movie Review
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