Word-of-mouth publicity and social media reviews have become the latest tools to promote films but they work only for content-driven movies

Word-of-mouth publicity has always worked in favour of content-driven films. But earlier it was restricted to families, friends and colleagues. After watching a film, they could only prompt their closed ones to watch the film. In the past couple of years though, thanks to social media and online ticketing platforms like Bookmyshow, small-budgeted films are getting a big push.

Audiences today do not just rely on a great trailer, songs or reviews, they also check the per cent a film has got on Bookmyshow. Or they read the reactions shared by the audience on Facebook or Twitter. This kind of helps small films.

The year 2017 saw many films benefitting this way, including Amit Masurkar’s Newton, Kushan Nandy’s Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s Barielly Ki Barfi, Suresh Triveni’s Tumhari Sulu, Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again, Saket Chaudhary’s Hindi Medium, Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha, Shree Narayan Singh’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, R S Prasanna’s Shubh Mangal Savdhan and a few others.

So why do the audiences rely more on word-of-mouth publicity and social media reviews? “Because they want to find out if it’s worth their money and time. At the end of the day, watching a film is an expensive affair. The film then has to be worth the money spent,” says film critic Komal Nahta.

There are viewers who like tweeting live; but not all have positive things to say. During the screening of Imtiaz Ali’s Jab Harry Met Sejal, a viewer from Pune — Vishal Surywanshi @vsurywanshi87 tweeted, “@SushmaSwaraj mam, I’m watching #JabHarryMetSejal at Xion cinema Hinjewadi, Pune. Please rescue me as soon as possible????” Such instant reactions immediately work for the film, if they are positive; if not, they seal the failure of the film.

An important tool
Actor-director-producer Shreyas Talpade whose Bollywood directorial debut Poshter Boyz did good business because of the positive reviews on social media agrees that word-of-mouth publicity has become the biggest marketing tool for filmmakers. “There is no denying the kind of reach positive response on social media and online ticketing platforms has. It is not possible through physical promotion,” he says.

Writer-director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari whose film Bareilly Ki Barfi was declared a superhit because of the positive responses it received, believes that no amount of promotion can create the impact that word-of-mouth publicity can. “That’s the reason the second day (or Saturday) is very important for filmmakers. People check the reviews online or check the reactions and take a decision whether to watch the film or skip it. Most viewers today do not watch a film without reading the reviews on Twitter and Facebook,” she says. She adds that reading reviews on social media has gained importance also because they are available at the click of a button.

Actor Gulshan Devaiah feels that viewers go by reviews on social media and online platforms because they trust the opinions of their families and friends. “If someone close to them has liked the film, they will give the film a chance. That’s how it works now. Also, the film which is trending also pulls audience to theatres. A classic example is Lipstick Under My Burkha. Those who loved the film, just promoted it aggressively on social media so that it could reach out to more people, and it worked.”

Content and only content
Of course, to gain the support of the audience, the content has to be good too. The audience needs to enjoy the content. Though David Dhawan’s Judwaa 2 and Golmaal Again were out-and-out commercial films, they garnered a lot of positive responses from the audience, which helped the films to run at the box-office. “The audience is hungry for good content and if you give them that, they will promote your film,” believes Shreyas.

Ashwini adds that with the audience becoming a tool to promote films, directors and producers need to be “extra careful”. “The regular audience gives instant reactions. So we have to careful about how we are telling our stories,” she says.