Maine PR kyun kiya! 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, November 24, 2005 - 06:10 IST
Pardon us for the bad joke! But it sure makes the point!
To know why Chimes ne PR kyun kiya, read on…
Bollywood is certainly a different place from what it used to be in the yesteryears. Things are more organized today. As a result everything is becoming more and more specialized. And this specialization has resulted in the development of a new entity: The PR firm. These firms do much than merely getting five interviews conducted with different publications. We spoke to Reenaa Pillai, a partner of Chimes on what her company is all about and what it is attempting to accomplish.
How Chimes was formed…
Chimes was formed by three partners, Gopa, Rahila and Reenaa. All three of them come from diverse backgrounds. Gopa has done political PR and has lived in the US for 12 years. Rahila, has also lived in the US for a while and has worked with NBC, a leading television network. The last of the trio is completed by Reenaa, whose family has been involved with films for over 30 years. This gave her the inclination to get into the field.
It’s about exploiting the existing opportunites…
According to Reenaa, Public Relations is at its peak today. Not only corporates but the film industry itself has realised the importance of good marketing and publicity. Realising this need, they took the opportunity to create their own company.
What Chimes has to offer..
They offer production houses, a complete bouquet of services which includes two important factors .i.e. Marketing and Strategising. What makes them different is that they believe and strive towards making sure that publicity does not stop with just the stars, the film and interviews. Every aspect is looked into.
On their forthcoming project, Ek Ajnabee
Chimes has helped profile people behind the scenes who do not get the recognition that is due to them. For example, they are doing the promotion for the film Ek Ajnabee. The lead actors in the movie, Amitabh Bachchan and Arjun Rampal have very distinct looks. In keeping with the idea of promoting people behind the scenes, their promotion includes the hair stylists and other people involved with the look, talking about the looks.
As part of the promotions, there will be children's day special with a leading radio station..and a children's channel wherein Mr. Bachchan will interact with children keeping the theme of the movie in mind. The reasoning behind this concept is that since the film is primarily based on the relationship about a man who has lost everything he loved on this planet, the viewers and listeners will get involved with the film.
Also, the producers of the film specially flew back to Bangkok to manufacture exclusive one of a kind packaged merchandise (Exclusive boxed trendy t-shirt) for the film as give aways. They believe in creating a brand out of the movie.
And some other project…
Some of the prominent movies that Chimes has been associated with include Main Hoon Na, Black, Phir Milenge and most recently Chocolate. Phir Milenge was showcased in Delhi, within the political fraternity, to create a lobby and awareness within the government to extend further support for the cause. This was very well attended with the city personalities. For Meenaxi which was associated with the greatest painter of India - Mr M.F.Hussain, they worked a theme for the music launch wherein an "art gallery" was created where paintings for the film were showcased. In Main Hoon Na, a back to school theme with classroom benches and school sweaters was created, which all the stars wore. More recently, with Paheli, they ran a contest with NDTV where people could call in and speak to Shah Rukh Khan. They are also promoting choreographer turned singer Ganesh Hegde’s debut album G. A contest in a newspaper was started wherein they asked the readers “What is G?” It was a teaser of sorts. Hence, there was a lot of curiosity about the album. Apart from Ek Ajnabee, forthcoming projects include Fight Club and Aryan.
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Item number in Ek Ajnabee
