Abstract

On December 25, 2008, the much-awaited Hindi film, ‘Ghajini’ (a revenge drama) was released and it went on to become an instant hit. It opened to packed houses and grossed Rs. 320 million in one day worldwide. Its first week collections amounted to Rs. 1 billion in India. According to trade observers, it had broken all records set by earlier Bollywood films. The success of the film was widely attributed to aggressive promotional strategies adopted by the film maker (Geetha Arts) in conjunction with the lead actor of the film, Aamir Khan (Aamir), one of the top actors in the Hindi film industry, who played a vital role in the promotion of the film. The promotional strategies included viral marketing, ambush marketing, television advertising, multiplex promotion, tie-ups with several well-known brands, and merchandising. In addition to this, a 3D PC game based on the film was also launched. The distribution strategy was also unique. Experts felt that the makers of Ghajini had raised the bar for film promotion in India. They felt that the rules of film promotion have changed as film makers were becoming more and more aggressive in their marketing strategies in their bid to ensure that the movie was viewed by the maximum number of people.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the promotional campaign for Ghajini and understand the factors that led to its success
• Understand how the company managed to get huge publicity for the film
• Study how the promotions of films had changed with the emergence of new media channels such as the Internet
• and Study the Indian film industry and explore strategies that film promoters could adopt to ensure good openings and longer shelf life for their films.

Keywords

Marketing strategy, Promotional strategy, Advertising, Public relations, Ambush marketing, Viral marketing, Word of mouth, e-marketing, Multiplex promotion, Brand association, Distribution Co-branding, Merchandising, Paid previews, Indian Film Industry, Ghajini, Aamir Khan