Promoting a film is a difficult art to master. Many assume it’s just going all out with ads what promotion is all about. That was surely the case once when the media space used to be very less and mere ads would have done the trick but today the audience have grown a lot and they sense if a movie is going to be bad just by looking at those promos. Therefore the more one shows the more the chances of disappointing the audience. Keeping this in mind the promotion today is centered on that one big theatrical trailer which sets the tone of the film.
As one can observe the theatrical trailer sets the tone and expectations on the film and hence it becomes very crucial that the makers set the right expectations. 14 Reels which co-produced Legend have in the past done superb publicity for Dookudu and gave Mahesh Babu his biggest hit but they failed when it came to their second outing together, 1 Nenokkadine. So where did they go wrong? Well they went about promoting 1 Nenokkadine in the same way as a Dookudu and set expectations on a psychological thriller in the same vein as a mass entertainer. And hence the big disappointing result.
Now it looks like they are doing the same mistake with Legend as well. The film is carrying great hype but its hype is all for the wrong reason if one goes by the words of the director. Boyapati Sreenu says that the film is more of a family drama with action in it rather than an action movie with a bit of family drama in it. There is huge difference between the two and wrong expectations here might prove costly when the film hits the screen later. The same happened with the director’s last film Dhammu as well which had a great trailer but it eschewed the fact that the film was a sentimental family drama and not a high voltage mass action entertainer like Simha.
With still nearly three weeks to go for the release of the film, one hopes that the newer promos would be released focusing on this familial aspects. What do you think, is it right to go all out in promotions without setting the right expectations and with the only aim being to bring crowds in for the first day not caring for what they may expect. Share us your thoughts.
