‘Baahubali' success set a new trend in the marketing
of films across India.
In just five days ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ grossed
Rs 200 crore, making it the fastest Indian film to achieve the rare feat. No
other Indian film before has received the kind of reception “Baahubali” has
been getting across India Including the Hindi belt.
PRODUCT:
- It didn’t feel like it’s a dubbed film.
The movie was made in the Telugu and Tamil languages, and dubbed into Hindi and
Malayalam. It didn’t feel like it’s a
dubbed film. The technical team of the film has taken utmost care to make it
look authentic. It has performed extremely well in all four language
territories. It is the first ever Indian film that transcends regional
boundaries and has a pan-India appeal.
- Meticulous Planning and training:
‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ team believed in meticulously planning, details of
sets, hunting new locales, exploring new ideas and creating something new
instead of relying on the more standard formulae. Here are a few facts and figures to describe
the scale of the production: 1
full year of pre-production; 25
artists who created 15,000 storyboard sketches; 380
shooting days over 3 years; 2,000 stuntmen; Thousands of costumes, weapons and props; Prabhas and Rana have gone through rigorous training to get that
muscular body. They underwent eight dedicated months of training to achieve the
perfect look.
- Overload of universal emotions in the art of
story telling: In interviews Rajamouli has credited
classic Indian epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as inspiration for
Baahubali, but one can also find references in the film to the biblical stories
of Moses and the Greek legend of Hercules. “This world of larger-than-life
characters, larger-than-life emotions, larger-than-life environments, I have been
living for as long as I can remember.” Said Rajamouli. Baahubali, in two parts,
is said to be the costliest Indian film ever made at a whopping Rs. 250 crore. Rajamouli explained: “The story is so big that we
can’t say it through one film. We tried compressing the entire story into one
film, but realised it was not working as we were losing some of the film’s
emotional quotient. That’s when we decided to release it in two parts, in a gap
of 10 months. ”
- Technical perfection and passion for excellence:
Rajamouli is extremely passionate about his film. As Mike McCahill put it in
his review for The Guardian: “Throughout, Rajamouli strikes a near-perfect
balance between physicality and poetics. That waterfall becomes both mirror and
measure of personal growth; one lingering slo-mo shot of a warrior’s chainmail
in motion would stir a Zhang Yimou or Wong Kar-wai into renewed action. Art Director, Sabu Cyril and his team had a
scientific approach to design weapons for Baahubali. The swords had to be light
yet strong as steel. “We used carbon fibre that’s used to manufacture
helicopter blades,” says the production designer.
- Focus on production quality instead of Star
power: Around 85% of the film budget was spent on
production and the rest on paying the cast and crew. Rajamouli has spent more
on production than on any artiste in the film — a rare feat in Indian
commercial cinema. The work on
the script took one year, shooting two years and post-production work went on
for six months. The film’s 90% part is VFX work. Not only one but total 17 VFX
studios worked on Baahubali! More than 800 technicians were used in the making
of Baahubali. With 17 VFX studios and huge team of 800 talented and skilled
techinicians.
- PROMOTION: Well crafted pre-release promotion:
The following well crafted marketing strategy helped the film in occupying the
mind share across the country even before the movie was released.
- Face book: Baahubali’s digital
presence was launched as early as January 2013. The marketing team for
Baahubali used Facebook smartly when it came to their primary requirements: a
cast. The team announced casting calls on Facebook via YouTube crosslinking.
This move was greatly beneficial to the producers and casting directors as more
than 1200 emails flooded their inbox in a matter of two weeks, indicating a
healthy response to the post on social media.
- Youtube: A separate channel for the film was created
and weekly videos of behind-the-scenes moments, dialogue promos, songs, etc
were uploaded. Around September 2014, the makers released a video that had
collated special moments of the making of Baahubali, and along with others
shorter videos, uploaded it on their YouTube channel. The official trailer of
the Telugu version of the film hit 4 million views within two weeks of its
launch on YouTube and its audio track has topped iTunes India and proved to be
a best seller.
- Twitter:
Baahubali used the hashtag #LiveTheEpic, generating immediate interest merely
by use of the word ‘epic’ which helps strike online conversations faster.
- Social
Media: The entire team of Baahubali used the social media
posted pictures of themselves at the premieres; music directors post pictures
of the promotional events; and so on. But Baahubali’s distribution partner
Dharma Productions stepped it up a notch by posting a video of an eager
audience queueing in front of theatres in order to book their tickets for the
movie. This helped build adequate buzz on Twitter, around the hashtag
#Baahubali.
- Film
poster: Baahubali also holds a record in Guinness Book of
World Record for largest film poster ever made, which is 50,000 sq feet!
- Baahubali
Fight Scenes Video Leaked: 12 Minutes war scenes got leaked
by some unknown people on before the release of the movie. The controversy
helped the movie in getting media space.
- DISTRIBUTION: Released
on 10th July 2015, Baahubali was released in nearly 4,000 screens worldwide.
Never before have so many leading production houses come together to distribute
a film of such scale. The film, produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad
Devineni, is being marketed by the producers themselves through their Arka
Mediaworks in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Rajamouli and producer Shobu have roped in leading producers in other
languages too to market the film — Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions in Hindi,
Studio Green’s K.E. Gnanavel Raja in Tamil (through Sri Thenandal Films), Global
United Media in Kerala and the U.S.-based BlueSky Cinemas overseas.
‘Baahubali' success set a new trend in the marketing
of films across India.
By: Hanif Lakdawala
In just five days ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ grossed
Rs 200 crore, making it the fastest Indian film to achieve the rare feat. No
other Indian film before has received the kind of reception “Baahubali” has
been getting across India Including the Hindi belt.
Lets
us look at the reasons for ‘Baahubali’ success:
PRODUCT:
- It didn’t feel like it’s a dubbed film. The movie was made in the Telugu and Tamil languages, and dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam. It didn’t feel like it’s a dubbed film. The technical team of the film has taken utmost care to make it look authentic. It has performed extremely well in all four language territories. It is the first ever Indian film that transcends regional boundaries and has a pan-India appeal.
- Meticulous Planning and training: ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ team believed in meticulously planning, details of sets, hunting new locales, exploring new ideas and creating something new instead of relying on the more standard formulae. Here are a few facts and figures to describe the scale of the production: 1 full year of pre-production; 25 artists who created 15,000 storyboard sketches; 380 shooting days over 3 years; 2,000 stuntmen; Thousands of costumes, weapons and props; Prabhas and Rana have gone through rigorous training to get that muscular body. They underwent eight dedicated months of training to achieve the perfect look.
- Overload of universal emotions in the art of story telling: In interviews Rajamouli has credited classic Indian epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as inspiration for Baahubali, but one can also find references in the film to the biblical stories of Moses and the Greek legend of Hercules. “This world of larger-than-life characters, larger-than-life emotions, larger-than-life environments, I have been living for as long as I can remember.” Said Rajamouli. Baahubali, in two parts, is said to be the costliest Indian film ever made at a whopping Rs. 250 crore. Rajamouli explained: “The story is so big that we can’t say it through one film. We tried compressing the entire story into one film, but realised it was not working as we were losing some of the film’s emotional quotient. That’s when we decided to release it in two parts, in a gap of 10 months. ”
- Technical perfection and passion for excellence: Rajamouli is extremely passionate about his film. As Mike McCahill put it in his review for The Guardian: “Throughout, Rajamouli strikes a near-perfect balance between physicality and poetics. That waterfall becomes both mirror and measure of personal growth; one lingering slo-mo shot of a warrior’s chainmail in motion would stir a Zhang Yimou or Wong Kar-wai into renewed action. Art Director, Sabu Cyril and his team had a scientific approach to design weapons for Baahubali. The swords had to be light yet strong as steel. “We used carbon fibre that’s used to manufacture helicopter blades,” says the production designer.
- Focus on production quality instead of Star power: Around 85% of the film budget was spent on production and the rest on paying the cast and crew. Rajamouli has spent more on production than on any artiste in the film — a rare feat in Indian commercial cinema. The work on the script took one year, shooting two years and post-production work went on for six months. The film’s 90% part is VFX work. Not only one but total 17 VFX studios worked on Baahubali! More than 800 technicians were used in the making of Baahubali. With 17 VFX studios and huge team of 800 talented and skilled techinicians.
- PROMOTION: Well crafted pre-release promotion: The following well crafted marketing strategy helped the film in occupying the mind share across the country even before the movie was released.
- Face book: Baahubali’s digital presence was launched as early as January 2013. The marketing team for Baahubali used Facebook smartly when it came to their primary requirements: a cast. The team announced casting calls on Facebook via YouTube crosslinking. This move was greatly beneficial to the producers and casting directors as more than 1200 emails flooded their inbox in a matter of two weeks, indicating a healthy response to the post on social media.
- Youtube: A separate channel for the film was created and weekly videos of behind-the-scenes moments, dialogue promos, songs, etc were uploaded. Around September 2014, the makers released a video that had collated special moments of the making of Baahubali, and along with others shorter videos, uploaded it on their YouTube channel. The official trailer of the Telugu version of the film hit 4 million views within two weeks of its launch on YouTube and its audio track has topped iTunes India and proved to be a best seller.
- Twitter: Baahubali used the hashtag #LiveTheEpic, generating immediate interest merely by use of the word ‘epic’ which helps strike online conversations faster.
- Social Media: The entire team of Baahubali used the social media posted pictures of themselves at the premieres; music directors post pictures of the promotional events; and so on. But Baahubali’s distribution partner Dharma Productions stepped it up a notch by posting a video of an eager audience queueing in front of theatres in order to book their tickets for the movie. This helped build adequate buzz on Twitter, around the hashtag #Baahubali.
- Film poster: Baahubali also holds a record in Guinness Book of World Record for largest film poster ever made, which is 50,000 sq feet!
- Baahubali Fight Scenes Video Leaked: 12 Minutes war scenes got leaked by some unknown people on before the release of the movie. The controversy helped the movie in getting media space.
- DISTRIBUTION: Released on 10th July 2015, Baahubali was released in nearly 4,000 screens worldwide. Never before have so many leading production houses come together to distribute a film of such scale. The film, produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, is being marketed by the producers themselves through their Arka Mediaworks in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Rajamouli and producer Shobu have roped in leading producers in other languages too to market the film — Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions in Hindi, Studio Green’s K.E. Gnanavel Raja in Tamil (through Sri Thenandal Films), Global United Media in Kerala and the U.S.-based BlueSky Cinemas overseas.
