The films these days are, for the most part, not able to attract the audience. Well, content not connecting is fine, and that used to happen decades ago as well.
But many people do not even know that a particular film is coming, despite the makers doing aggressive promotions in their own way. Why is this happening?
Let us analyze in detail.
Decades ago, cinema in theatres was the only entertainment. There were no alternative entertainment options.
On top of that, there used to be fewer promotion platforms like radio, newspapers, film weeklies, and rickshaws with loudspeakers announcing about films on rural streets.
That used to be enough to bring awareness about film releases. Audiences of all age groups used to come to theatres.
The 18 to 25 age group used to watch their favorite heroes' films with romance and fights in them, middle-aged women used to watch devotional films, and the rest of the middle-aged and older audience used to watch family stories and narratives reflecting their struggles.
But eventually, TV came, and then satellite channels came into existence with serials. With that, women and middle-aged audiences, who used to go to films for family stories and devotional content, got restricted to TV serials, as they provided that content as daily entertainment.
Thus, film theatres lost a huge chunk of their audience. However, the 18 to 25 age group population increased over time, and they continued patronizing the theatre business. Heroes continued to entertain by targeting mainly this age group.
The youth used to watch TV programs like Bioscope to understand what was happening in films, which shoots were ongoing, and when films of their choice were coming.
They also started visiting websites from around the year 2000 and learned about films through advertisements.
Weekly magazines coexisted for quite a long time, and promotions were targeted toward the 18 to 25 age group. Even the 40 plus audience had some awareness, though they were no longer the primary audience.
But eventually, as social media became widespread, the scenario changed. Promotion costs increased for makers, who began feeding online platforms like Twitter. But the reasult is not positive.
Makers assume that by targeting their audience through event postings on YouTube and then sharing them on Twitter, they are reaching everyone. Seeing engagement in lakhs on twitter, they assume it is all real and feel satisfied.
Since YouTube views are publicly visible, makers sometimes even buy views, likes and comments to project that their film is in demand, essentially deceiving themselves.
The key point to underline is that they are completely forgetting whom they are targeting with their film.
For example, Timmarajupalli TV has the content that appeals mainly to the 40 plus audience because it carries nostalgia from the 1990s. But the makers made no attempt to reach that specific audience.
They simply followed a generic promotional approach targetting social media and finally ended up with empty theatres. Similarly, Papam Prathap is targeted at the 40 plus audience.
Even Dacoit, for that matter, many people in rural areas did not even know a film with that title was releasing.
Shockingly, posters were not even sent to theatres until the last hour of the film release. How can anyone know about the arrival of a film if traditional methods are completely ignored?
Well, cracking the right platforms, the right channels, and the right way to reach the target audience amidst this huge noise and traffic of social media is the real game. Whoever cracks that formula will be the successful person.
Making a film is easy today. Making it reach the audience and creating awareness about its existence is the bigger challenge. And after reaching them, bringing them to theatres is an even bigger challenge altogether.
Keeping the very high budgets aside, any middle range and small budget film should reinvent the promotion strategy.