One question that continues to puzzle me all the while is, why are producers in a tearing hurry to release their films without proper/aggressive promotion? I am referring to two of the three new releases - INTEQAM and KISS KIS KO - which opened last Friday.
It's a normal practice to start promoting a film one-and-a-half months/two months prior to their theatrical release. In the case of INTEQAM, its music was launched on October 19 and the film hit the marquee on October 29 - after exactly 10 days.
Take the case of Yash Chopra's VEER-ZAARA or Subhash Ghai's AITRAAZ, which are scheduled for release on November 12. Despite starring big names, the producers are leaving no stone unturned to promote their films.
What were the makers of INTEQAM thinking when the released the film 10 days after its music launch? Even an SRK starrer needs to be promoted aggressively for at least two months to create far-reaching awareness.
Perhaps, the makers were supremely confident of the film. Perhaps, they weren't interested at all. Could there be a third reason?
Let's face it, Manoj Bajpai is no SRK [he tries to be super-hero in this corny adaptation of BASIC INSTINCT, but falls flat on his face!]. Nor are Isha Koppikar or Nethra Raghuraman crowd pullers. So why this haste in releasing the film?
Quite expectedly, the collections of INTEQAM have been depressing all over. The film is yet another addition to the long list of 'also ran' projects this year.
As for KISS KIS KO, India's first Boy Band film, all I can say is, the poor collections indicate that band zaroor baj gaya. There was no awareness whatsoever - the promos weren't sufficient, the street publicity was negligible - and the viewers mistook it to be KIS KIS KI KISMAT [similar titles], thereby giving the film a miss.
MORNING RAGA may have won glowing reviews from critics [it's considered sacrilege/blasphemous for a reviewer to run down 'meaningful cinema', you see!], but the audiences weren't interested. Which goes to prove yet again that most critics have zero knowledge about what works and what doesn't.
Films like HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN, GADAR, K3G, MURDER, MUJHSE SHAADI KAROGI and MAIN HOON NA get thrashed by most so-called 'reputed' critics, while box-office disasters like SHAADI KA LADDOO, TEHZEEB and MEENAXI get 4 and 5-star ratings. Wow!
