Last year in December, Aamir Khan had mentioned a sabbatical from acting assignments in 2010. Answering queries about 3 Idiots,which was releasing then, he had mentioned that he would, for a better part of the current year, be playing producer and promoting Peepli [Live] (director Anusha Rizvi), Dhobi Ghat (director Kiran Rao) and Delhi Belly (director Abhinay Deo) all helmed by first- time directors. Khan has certainly kept his word—he is presently in the midst of promotions and marketing activity for Peepli [Live], a modest-budget satire directed by journalist Anusha Rizvi. But those following the publicity of the film would know that his detailed strategising has generated a tremendous interest in this small film.
Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO UTV Motion Pictures, says that Khan’s star power has added value that is “pretty much immeasurable. The sort of visibility that Aamir can bring to the table has turned it into a film that everyone is watching out for.”
“We have worked together on Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par and Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na and it has been a pleasure because he is completely involved in every aspect. Besides, Aamir is someone who is in the know about every aspect of filmmaking. Yet, at the same time he is open to feedback from everyone, whether it is his Man Friday or a studio head. He will listen to everybody before finally making a decision.”
Khan’s star-power (though he doesn’t star in the film) has convinced UTV to go in for a wide release - 600 prints within India and 150-200 prints in the international markets and the cost of the film has already been recovered due to pre-sale of telecast rights at Rs 10 crore.
Khan’s star-power (though he doesn’t star in the film) has convinced UTV to go in for a wide release - 600 prints within India and 150-200 prints in the international markets and the cost of the film has already been recovered due to pre-sale of telecast rights at Rs 10 crore.
Excerpts from a freewheeling conversation with ScreenLet’s begin at the beginning—the inception of project Peepli [Live]...
I was doing Mangal Pandey,which was also called The Rising especially in the media reportage...At about that time I got an e-mail about a script titled The Falling! I thought someone was making fun of me or pulling my leg, so I just ignored it, but Anusha pursued the matter further. And when she told me that she was a journalist (from NDTV), I took it a little more seriously as it is not often that a journalist comes to you with a script. I was curious but not getting the time to listen to it, because when I am working on a film, I don’t have the bandwidth to work on other things. It was while I was shooting for Rang De Basanti in Delhi that I asked her to come and narrate the script to me. While I liked the script very much I felt I needed to ask a couple of questions to understand it better, because the environment she was talking about was something with which I was not very familiar. I had questions about the subject and her answers had me even more attracted towards the material. I told her that I needed more clarity on the subject because it would not get across. When I heard the second draft, I was convinced.Anything in particular that you liked about the script?
I liked Peepli.. because it was saying something important in a very subtle way. Its message is layered. And then again it was engaging, funny and thought-provoking. It is also heartbreaking on a lot of levels.Your inputs to the script if any?
When I like a script there is very little left for me to contribute to it. In Peepli.. there is a character in the film that I suggested for inclusion.That was my input.Peepli [Live], Dhobi Ghat and Delhi Belly—Aamir Khan Productions seems to be tapping a niche audience with different kinds of projects...
This is our fourth project after Lagaan, Taare.. and Jaane Tu.. which were all different. That’s how I work, yaar... I get attracted to different things. It is not unusual for me to get attracted to something I have never done. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to this project. To me, the fact that something is different is good.You are not in the film, so was the lack of star-power a cause for concern?
I have always believed that casting should suit the requirements of a film. We actually had a process to test actors and see whether they suited the role. The characters have to be very believable, so if you cast a star, it would be that much more difficult to believe. In fact, a star would spoil the film. At one time, we were even flirting with the idea of me playing Natha. Anusha and I both spoke about it. We had the same thought that if I play it, it would reach a larger audience. But if I played Natha, it would have been tough for me to carry it off. That was a concern because on one hand I could bring in certain benefits and on the other, I could harm things. We toyed with that for a while and then she found Omkar, who we felt was perfect. I would have had to test for the role and would do it only if I worked in that role. But after Omkar, there was no point testing because I would not have been able to do it better than him.No stars but several theatre artistes in the film - as a producer/ director/actor in the mainstream movie space, were you comfortable with that?
Mehmood, who is also the co-director of the film, was also the casting director and they both have a theatre background and had a fairly good idea of the casting. After they had made the selection, they ran it past me, but I don’t think there was even one casting that I felt differently about.What’s the core idea when promoting Peepli [Live]?
In the case of Peepli [Live] we are being very straight in our approach. It’s not a 3 Idiots and it is not a Ghajini and so we cannot do any big stunts with it. It will not go with the grain of it so we are concentrating on the material of the film. We want the promos to be the main promotion. Let people see the promos and decide whether they want to watch it.You mentioned that it would be released in the international markets as well. Is there an audience for a film such as Peepli [Live]?
I am working very very hard towards an international audience, because I believe that Peepli [Live] would very naturally engage or interest a world cinema audience or an independent cinema audience. It’s not a very large audience, but there are people all over the world who want to watch movies like No Man’s Land or Emily. So we are trying to reach out to that audience and with that in mind we went to different film festivals, so that the film gets showcased globally.How much does a showcasing of the film at these festivals help?
First of all, these festivals are very difficult to get into, so unless the film has a strength of its own, it is not easy to make it into these festivals like Sundance Festival. Peepli [Live] was the first Indian film to be showcased at such a festival in competition at Sundance or at Berlin. So the fact that it got selected and reviewed favourably by critics will work in its favour when reaching out to a world cinema audience.Has the Slumdog.. phenomenon got the world interested in films with Indian stories?
In the last decade or so awareness about Indian cinema has increased. I think it began with Lagaan being nominated for the Academy Award. At festivals with entries from different parts of the world, it is not so unusual to see a film that’s from India. So while Slumdog.. might have generated a general interest in films from India for a festival audience, that by itself is not unusual.Are Bollywood films likely to generate significant revenues in international territories?
You have popular cinema and then you have world cinema movies with an average business of 500,000 dollars. Indian films do really well in the world cinema space (in US).
3 Idiots raked in $ 7 million so its 14 times bigger than their average world cinema business. Let’s assume that 3 Idiots is an exception, but a lot of our films, at least with leading stars do $ 2-3 million, which is still thrice the amount that a world cinema film generates. Can we compare with their mainstream cinema business? No, we don’t. And there is no chance in hell that we will ever do that. Because why would an American audience be interested in a movie from India that is in Hindi? For that to happen, you have to make a film that interests them in a language they understand and in a grammar that they follow. And then it will no longer be an Indian film. I am not looking at any of my three films to do that.Is collaboration between actors (Bollywood stars in particular) in international projects a possibility?
I think it will be easy for actors, because people might like a good Indian actor in a mainstream film. I think that someone like Hrithik Roshan or Shah Rukh Khan or Ranbir Kapoor would be well-received internationally.What about you?
Okay !(laughs) Or me (I don’t like to talk about myself) would be able to make a good impact on the audiences in the West or anywhere else but the kind of films we do are not accessible to them. So if Hrithik was to do a Hollywood film for their mainstream audience, I am sure he would do justice and people would like him.You are working together with Matt Damon in a video?
Yes, there’s some video I am supposed to do with Matt Damon but I have not met him yet.You are attributed with an infallible sense of scripts, so could you tell that 3 Idiots will be such a runaway hit?
Well, honestly at the script level, you can never tell. It is only when you watch and test the film that you can gauge whether it will work. When we were testing 3 Idiots, I have to say that the response was outstanding. People just loved the film and they wanted to see it again, so from that I got a sense that it had the potential of being a huge success. The marketing team asked me about the revenue the film would generate as they needed to know where to pitch it. I said it would be double of Ghajini and they all cracked up because Ghajini was a very difficult target to reach and to double the business it did was unthinkable. But after the test screening, I understood that people wanted to to see it again. According to me Ghajini, while it worked well with the larger audience, did not have the repeat value of 3 Idiots because it was fairly violent. It would have a repeat value with a very male audience. 3 Idiots was about education and was more universal. Education is something that everybody is connected to, no matter which city you live in. So I did not predict but felt that we should aim at doubling Ghajini’s performance. As it turned out, it did double the business of Ghajini!You have popularised the pre-release test screening methodology in Bollywood. Comment.
I have been doing it for 22 years since Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. It is very important that you show the first cut to an audience who is not connected to the film in any way. They are an audience that react to the movie and you just have to absorb. They might say things that don’t make sense because they are ultimately reacting as an audience and they haven’t seen the finished product. So it gives you a very good idea but you should be able to select what to use and what not to use. That’s very important because you can’t just listen to an audience and do exactly what they say. They are not filmmakers so you need to filter their reactions and see what you can use.
For Raja Hindustani, we tested the film and the people who saw the movie didn’t like it at all. They were primarily people who had come to Mumbai from Allahabad and they hated the film. I was very depressed. I went to director Dharmesh Darshan’s house and informed him that they had not liked it. But I told him that they were completely wrong. In that case, we chose not to take any of their inputs. I don’t know why I said that but it’s different for different films.Films that you act in strike that delicate balance of being different in a mainstream space - is it the same for films you produce?
For me, cinema is a mainstream medium. It is not a niche medium. As a producer I operate pretty much the same way as an actor. I decide from whether I like what I see in the script. And then as a producer it is my responsibility to make the movie as accurately and as honestly as possible. Whether it’s a film that I have acted in or produced, my emotional input is the same. Every movie reflects my taste or my instinct. Peepli [Live], for example is as much my film as say 3 Idiots. I have acted in one and produced the other but both are equally important to me.Are you a hands-on producer?
I am totally involved as a producer but in the capacity of a producer. There are these specific times that I step in as producer - selecting what to produce, then the final stages of prep when the director is finalising the casting so while I am not involved in the day-to-day decisions during the prep I am on board on the final decisions. Then before the crew goes out to shoot, they have rehearsals with the director. Once they are finished with the rehearsals, I spend three-four days with them. In which they actually play out this film in front of me so that if there is anything I want to say or contribute, that’s the time. I am not present during the shoot. I was not there during the shoot of Jaane Tu.. nor during Peepli [Live]. Then I come in once the shooting is complete and the director has done the first cut and is ready to show the film. So I watch the film and get involved in the final cut and I have to approve the print. And then of course, release and marketing which is the responsibility of the producer.Is distribution something that you look at closely as well?
I am not that experienced with distribution so I prefer to select someone who is strong. For instance, in the case of Taare Zameen Par and Jaane Tu.., my co-producers were PVR with their core competence in exhibition and therefore distribution so I went with them. Again in the case of Peepli [Live], UTV is an extremely experienced company so I go with their decisions in terms distribution.What kind of business do you think will Peepli [Live] garner?
That’s a tough one. Our test screenings have gone well. When I had read the script and decided to produce it, I saw it as more of a niche film but after the test screenings, I have realised that it is actually working with a larger audience than I had expected. I guess, probably the humour and that the movie, on the whole, has turned out well is what connects with a larger audience.Will it find a connect in the Hindi belt?
I don’t know. The audience in the Hindi belt looks for hard-core entertainment and they like to watch dances and songs. They like pure entertainment while this is a film which is entertaining but essentially a drama where the director is trying to say something. It is a story that they ought to relate to but let’s see. The distribution strategy for the film will also depend a lot on how the promos are received. Closer to the release date we will have a better understanding of how deep we should go with this film. It will also depend a lot on the exhibition centres so if there is a small town somewhere and theatres connect with UTV and says they want Peepli.., that indicates an interest in that vicinity to watch the film-enough of a desire for a theatre owner to say, “I want the film here.”The general notion is that there is no one knows the movie business better than you. True or false?
Laughs) It sounds fancy but the truth is that I don’t know it all. I would love to but I don’t. For me, it’s a learning process . I have been lucky and fortunate that a lot of my films have worked and I have not had failure for very long but that doesn’t mean anything. All these films of mine which have done well are not only my films. 3 Idiots is more Raju’s film than it is mine or Rang De Basanti or Lagaan or Sarfarosh or Taare Zameen Par, Fanaa... All of them have had a group of people who are immensely talented and so the success of the film. So you cannot give the entire credit to me.In addition to being the highest paid star for endorsements, you manage quite a buzz around every ad that you do. Comment.
The concept of an endorsement is essentially something the agency works on and I do have a say in the matter but I don’t work on it. The only big creative idea I gave was thanda matlab Coca Cola. That was a rare occasion when I came up with the concept, wrote the script - the first of those ads (the tapori at an Irani cafe) was written by me. The dialogues were written by Neeraj Vora.
Usually, I have suggestions but the creative material comes from the agency as also the directive on how to use me is decided by the client and the agency together. Of course they tell me how they plan to use me and if that makes sense then I go ahead. I feel that I enjoy playing characters. It will be extremely boring for me to strut around being Aamir Khan (in an ad).Would you agree with the title of marketing genius? Deconstruct the process for us.
Marketing is just common sense. Essentially at its core is your excitement as a creative person with what you have made. Suppose there is a party going on and you are asked to tell a nice story. You will think of something and start. So then there will be a certain attitude or energy when you start telling the story. Imagine the same situation in a different way - there’s a party going on, music playing with 30-40 people and you walk in. You walk in and say, “Guys, you won’t believe what happened.” The difference between the two scenarios will be the difference in the way you tell the story. In the second instance, there is a certain enthusiasm and because you have a story to tell. There is something inside you that you want to communicate and because it is coming from within, there is a certain energy and excitement with which you will tell it.
This analogy is about filmmaking and storytelling and that’s what I am looking for in a director. Does he or she have a story to tell? A story which is bursting to come out? I think Ashutosh had a story to tell when he was making Lagaan. I think Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra had a story to tell when he was making Rang De Basanti. Anusha Rizvi has a story to tell with Peepli so that energy they are coming with is important.
Now we come to the marketing part. So you say, “Guys, you won’t believe what happened! Abhi main aa rahi thi wahan se...arrey music band karo yaar! Guys listen to me, Suzanne come back from the room yaar...”
You are reaching out. You are grabbing the attention before you tell the story. In marketing, you are trying to tell everyone that you have something really exciting to tell them.
If you are excited about it, you will make a certain attempt. If you not, then you won’t. If I ask you to tell a story and you say, hmm.. what to tell? Then you are not excited about the story, so how will you market it?
My excitement stems from being excited with what I do. Now that I am ready to release I want everyone’s attention. That’s where it stems from but each film has a different style of marketing because there is different material for each. Ghajini is a very physical film so the ideas, whether it was me getting a haircut in Bengali Market in Delhi or doing a press conference in a gym or the ushers across India getting a Ghajini—haircut-were all physical ideas. And the reason behind it is because the film is physical. Each film is unique and one has to be honest with that. So if you are telling the story and you say, guys, “I just fell in love.”
And then go on to add that “Main bhoot bangle mein thi,” people would wonder. Marketing has to be honest or it can put people off. You have to be accurate in what you promise. That’s all. It’s just reaching out to people.The year has been unimpressive so far and unrealistic inflated budgets are being blamed.. Do you agree?
This is not the first time that films have been rejected. Every year some movies do well some don’t. Sometimes small films do well, big films don’t. That’s been happening across the ages. What is disturbing though is that increasingly the creative talent or the core team is less inclined to take responsibility for what they do. So when I say responsibility, I mean that you have to take financial responsibility. You have to make sure you get it back and a little more.[Image][Image]
I was doing Mangal Pandey,which was also called The Rising especially in the media reportage...At about that time I got an e-mail about a script titled The Falling! I thought someone was making fun of me or pulling my leg, so I just ignored it, but Anusha pursued the matter further. And when she told me that she was a journalist (from NDTV), I took it a little more seriously as it is not often that a journalist comes to you with a script. I was curious but not getting the time to listen to it, because when I am working on a film, I don’t have the bandwidth to work on other things. It was while I was shooting for Rang De Basanti in Delhi that I asked her to come and narrate the script to me. While I liked the script very much I felt I needed to ask a couple of questions to understand it better, because the environment she was talking about was something with which I was not very familiar. I had questions about the subject and her answers had me even more attracted towards the material. I told her that I needed more clarity on the subject because it would not get across. When I heard the second draft, I was convinced.Anything in particular that you liked about the script?
I liked Peepli.. because it was saying something important in a very subtle way. Its message is layered. And then again it was engaging, funny and thought-provoking. It is also heartbreaking on a lot of levels.Your inputs to the script if any?
When I like a script there is very little left for me to contribute to it. In Peepli.. there is a character in the film that I suggested for inclusion.That was my input.Peepli [Live], Dhobi Ghat and Delhi Belly—Aamir Khan Productions seems to be tapping a niche audience with different kinds of projects...
This is our fourth project after Lagaan, Taare.. and Jaane Tu.. which were all different. That’s how I work, yaar... I get attracted to different things. It is not unusual for me to get attracted to something I have never done. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to this project. To me, the fact that something is different is good.You are not in the film, so was the lack of star-power a cause for concern?
I have always believed that casting should suit the requirements of a film. We actually had a process to test actors and see whether they suited the role. The characters have to be very believable, so if you cast a star, it would be that much more difficult to believe. In fact, a star would spoil the film. At one time, we were even flirting with the idea of me playing Natha. Anusha and I both spoke about it. We had the same thought that if I play it, it would reach a larger audience. But if I played Natha, it would have been tough for me to carry it off. That was a concern because on one hand I could bring in certain benefits and on the other, I could harm things. We toyed with that for a while and then she found Omkar, who we felt was perfect. I would have had to test for the role and would do it only if I worked in that role. But after Omkar, there was no point testing because I would not have been able to do it better than him.No stars but several theatre artistes in the film - as a producer/ director/actor in the mainstream movie space, were you comfortable with that?
Mehmood, who is also the co-director of the film, was also the casting director and they both have a theatre background and had a fairly good idea of the casting. After they had made the selection, they ran it past me, but I don’t think there was even one casting that I felt differently about.What’s the core idea when promoting Peepli [Live]?
In the case of Peepli [Live] we are being very straight in our approach. It’s not a 3 Idiots and it is not a Ghajini and so we cannot do any big stunts with it. It will not go with the grain of it so we are concentrating on the material of the film. We want the promos to be the main promotion. Let people see the promos and decide whether they want to watch it.You mentioned that it would be released in the international markets as well. Is there an audience for a film such as Peepli [Live]?
I am working very very hard towards an international audience, because I believe that Peepli [Live] would very naturally engage or interest a world cinema audience or an independent cinema audience. It’s not a very large audience, but there are people all over the world who want to watch movies like No Man’s Land or Emily. So we are trying to reach out to that audience and with that in mind we went to different film festivals, so that the film gets showcased globally.How much does a showcasing of the film at these festivals help?
First of all, these festivals are very difficult to get into, so unless the film has a strength of its own, it is not easy to make it into these festivals like Sundance Festival. Peepli [Live] was the first Indian film to be showcased at such a festival in competition at Sundance or at Berlin. So the fact that it got selected and reviewed favourably by critics will work in its favour when reaching out to a world cinema audience.Has the Slumdog.. phenomenon got the world interested in films with Indian stories?
In the last decade or so awareness about Indian cinema has increased. I think it began with Lagaan being nominated for the Academy Award. At festivals with entries from different parts of the world, it is not so unusual to see a film that’s from India. So while Slumdog.. might have generated a general interest in films from India for a festival audience, that by itself is not unusual.Are Bollywood films likely to generate significant revenues in international territories?
You have popular cinema and then you have world cinema movies with an average business of 500,000 dollars. Indian films do really well in the world cinema space (in US).
3 Idiots raked in $ 7 million so its 14 times bigger than their average world cinema business. Let’s assume that 3 Idiots is an exception, but a lot of our films, at least with leading stars do $ 2-3 million, which is still thrice the amount that a world cinema film generates. Can we compare with their mainstream cinema business? No, we don’t. And there is no chance in hell that we will ever do that. Because why would an American audience be interested in a movie from India that is in Hindi? For that to happen, you have to make a film that interests them in a language they understand and in a grammar that they follow. And then it will no longer be an Indian film. I am not looking at any of my three films to do that.Is collaboration between actors (Bollywood stars in particular) in international projects a possibility?
I think it will be easy for actors, because people might like a good Indian actor in a mainstream film. I think that someone like Hrithik Roshan or Shah Rukh Khan or Ranbir Kapoor would be well-received internationally.What about you?
Okay !(laughs) Or me (I don’t like to talk about myself) would be able to make a good impact on the audiences in the West or anywhere else but the kind of films we do are not accessible to them. So if Hrithik was to do a Hollywood film for their mainstream audience, I am sure he would do justice and people would like him.You are working together with Matt Damon in a video?
Yes, there’s some video I am supposed to do with Matt Damon but I have not met him yet.You are attributed with an infallible sense of scripts, so could you tell that 3 Idiots will be such a runaway hit?
Well, honestly at the script level, you can never tell. It is only when you watch and test the film that you can gauge whether it will work. When we were testing 3 Idiots, I have to say that the response was outstanding. People just loved the film and they wanted to see it again, so from that I got a sense that it had the potential of being a huge success. The marketing team asked me about the revenue the film would generate as they needed to know where to pitch it. I said it would be double of Ghajini and they all cracked up because Ghajini was a very difficult target to reach and to double the business it did was unthinkable. But after the test screening, I understood that people wanted to to see it again. According to me Ghajini, while it worked well with the larger audience, did not have the repeat value of 3 Idiots because it was fairly violent. It would have a repeat value with a very male audience. 3 Idiots was about education and was more universal. Education is something that everybody is connected to, no matter which city you live in. So I did not predict but felt that we should aim at doubling Ghajini’s performance. As it turned out, it did double the business of Ghajini!You have popularised the pre-release test screening methodology in Bollywood. Comment.
I have been doing it for 22 years since Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. It is very important that you show the first cut to an audience who is not connected to the film in any way. They are an audience that react to the movie and you just have to absorb. They might say things that don’t make sense because they are ultimately reacting as an audience and they haven’t seen the finished product. So it gives you a very good idea but you should be able to select what to use and what not to use. That’s very important because you can’t just listen to an audience and do exactly what they say. They are not filmmakers so you need to filter their reactions and see what you can use.
For Raja Hindustani, we tested the film and the people who saw the movie didn’t like it at all. They were primarily people who had come to Mumbai from Allahabad and they hated the film. I was very depressed. I went to director Dharmesh Darshan’s house and informed him that they had not liked it. But I told him that they were completely wrong. In that case, we chose not to take any of their inputs. I don’t know why I said that but it’s different for different films.Films that you act in strike that delicate balance of being different in a mainstream space - is it the same for films you produce?
For me, cinema is a mainstream medium. It is not a niche medium. As a producer I operate pretty much the same way as an actor. I decide from whether I like what I see in the script. And then as a producer it is my responsibility to make the movie as accurately and as honestly as possible. Whether it’s a film that I have acted in or produced, my emotional input is the same. Every movie reflects my taste or my instinct. Peepli [Live], for example is as much my film as say 3 Idiots. I have acted in one and produced the other but both are equally important to me.Are you a hands-on producer?
I am totally involved as a producer but in the capacity of a producer. There are these specific times that I step in as producer - selecting what to produce, then the final stages of prep when the director is finalising the casting so while I am not involved in the day-to-day decisions during the prep I am on board on the final decisions. Then before the crew goes out to shoot, they have rehearsals with the director. Once they are finished with the rehearsals, I spend three-four days with them. In which they actually play out this film in front of me so that if there is anything I want to say or contribute, that’s the time. I am not present during the shoot. I was not there during the shoot of Jaane Tu.. nor during Peepli [Live]. Then I come in once the shooting is complete and the director has done the first cut and is ready to show the film. So I watch the film and get involved in the final cut and I have to approve the print. And then of course, release and marketing which is the responsibility of the producer.Is distribution something that you look at closely as well?
I am not that experienced with distribution so I prefer to select someone who is strong. For instance, in the case of Taare Zameen Par and Jaane Tu.., my co-producers were PVR with their core competence in exhibition and therefore distribution so I went with them. Again in the case of Peepli [Live], UTV is an extremely experienced company so I go with their decisions in terms distribution.What kind of business do you think will Peepli [Live] garner?
That’s a tough one. Our test screenings have gone well. When I had read the script and decided to produce it, I saw it as more of a niche film but after the test screenings, I have realised that it is actually working with a larger audience than I had expected. I guess, probably the humour and that the movie, on the whole, has turned out well is what connects with a larger audience.Will it find a connect in the Hindi belt?
I don’t know. The audience in the Hindi belt looks for hard-core entertainment and they like to watch dances and songs. They like pure entertainment while this is a film which is entertaining but essentially a drama where the director is trying to say something. It is a story that they ought to relate to but let’s see. The distribution strategy for the film will also depend a lot on how the promos are received. Closer to the release date we will have a better understanding of how deep we should go with this film. It will also depend a lot on the exhibition centres so if there is a small town somewhere and theatres connect with UTV and says they want Peepli.., that indicates an interest in that vicinity to watch the film-enough of a desire for a theatre owner to say, “I want the film here.”The general notion is that there is no one knows the movie business better than you. True or false?
Laughs) It sounds fancy but the truth is that I don’t know it all. I would love to but I don’t. For me, it’s a learning process . I have been lucky and fortunate that a lot of my films have worked and I have not had failure for very long but that doesn’t mean anything. All these films of mine which have done well are not only my films. 3 Idiots is more Raju’s film than it is mine or Rang De Basanti or Lagaan or Sarfarosh or Taare Zameen Par, Fanaa... All of them have had a group of people who are immensely talented and so the success of the film. So you cannot give the entire credit to me.In addition to being the highest paid star for endorsements, you manage quite a buzz around every ad that you do. Comment.
The concept of an endorsement is essentially something the agency works on and I do have a say in the matter but I don’t work on it. The only big creative idea I gave was thanda matlab Coca Cola. That was a rare occasion when I came up with the concept, wrote the script - the first of those ads (the tapori at an Irani cafe) was written by me. The dialogues were written by Neeraj Vora.
Usually, I have suggestions but the creative material comes from the agency as also the directive on how to use me is decided by the client and the agency together. Of course they tell me how they plan to use me and if that makes sense then I go ahead. I feel that I enjoy playing characters. It will be extremely boring for me to strut around being Aamir Khan (in an ad).Would you agree with the title of marketing genius? Deconstruct the process for us.
Marketing is just common sense. Essentially at its core is your excitement as a creative person with what you have made. Suppose there is a party going on and you are asked to tell a nice story. You will think of something and start. So then there will be a certain attitude or energy when you start telling the story. Imagine the same situation in a different way - there’s a party going on, music playing with 30-40 people and you walk in. You walk in and say, “Guys, you won’t believe what happened.” The difference between the two scenarios will be the difference in the way you tell the story. In the second instance, there is a certain enthusiasm and because you have a story to tell. There is something inside you that you want to communicate and because it is coming from within, there is a certain energy and excitement with which you will tell it.
This analogy is about filmmaking and storytelling and that’s what I am looking for in a director. Does he or she have a story to tell? A story which is bursting to come out? I think Ashutosh had a story to tell when he was making Lagaan. I think Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra had a story to tell when he was making Rang De Basanti. Anusha Rizvi has a story to tell with Peepli so that energy they are coming with is important.
Now we come to the marketing part. So you say, “Guys, you won’t believe what happened! Abhi main aa rahi thi wahan se...arrey music band karo yaar! Guys listen to me, Suzanne come back from the room yaar...”
You are reaching out. You are grabbing the attention before you tell the story. In marketing, you are trying to tell everyone that you have something really exciting to tell them.
If you are excited about it, you will make a certain attempt. If you not, then you won’t. If I ask you to tell a story and you say, hmm.. what to tell? Then you are not excited about the story, so how will you market it?
My excitement stems from being excited with what I do. Now that I am ready to release I want everyone’s attention. That’s where it stems from but each film has a different style of marketing because there is different material for each. Ghajini is a very physical film so the ideas, whether it was me getting a haircut in Bengali Market in Delhi or doing a press conference in a gym or the ushers across India getting a Ghajini—haircut-were all physical ideas. And the reason behind it is because the film is physical. Each film is unique and one has to be honest with that. So if you are telling the story and you say, guys, “I just fell in love.”
And then go on to add that “Main bhoot bangle mein thi,” people would wonder. Marketing has to be honest or it can put people off. You have to be accurate in what you promise. That’s all. It’s just reaching out to people.The year has been unimpressive so far and unrealistic inflated budgets are being blamed.. Do you agree?
This is not the first time that films have been rejected. Every year some movies do well some don’t. Sometimes small films do well, big films don’t. That’s been happening across the ages. What is disturbing though is that increasingly the creative talent or the core team is less inclined to take responsibility for what they do. So when I say responsibility, I mean that you have to take financial responsibility. You have to make sure you get it back and a little more.[Image][Image]
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