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Marketing ‘Baahubali’: India’s Biggest Blockbuster
EXCERPTS
MARKETING
According to observers, Rajamouli wanted to aggressively promote Baahubali as his earlier film Eega (meaning Fly) though high on content and visuals did not fare well at the box office because of lack of proper marketing. This time around, the talented director wanted to ensure that his efforts were not wasted, they added. The promotion of the movie Baahubali started in 2013, two and half years before the movie was released.The makers of Baahubali came out with some innovative and cost-effective marketing strategies to create a buzz around the movie. They sought to leverage the power of social media to promote the movie. The promotion of the movie started with a digital marketing campaign that included updates and videos on the progress of the film on social media platforms like Facebook , Twitter , and YouTube... |
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DISTRIBUTION
Baahubali got a direct release in four different languages – Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam. The film was distributed by the producers themselves through their Arka Mediaworks in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. For other markets they roped in leading producers to distribute the film such as Dharma Productions (North India), Studio Green in Tamil, Global United Media (Kerala), and the US-based BlueSky Cinemas for overseas markets like the US. Analysts felt that never before had so many leading production houses come together to market a film of such scale...
RESULTS
Baahubali was released worldwide on July 10, 2015 in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam in nearly 4,000 screens to packed theaters and collected US$31million in a span of four days. It collected US$9.0 million worldwide on the first day of its release, which was the highest opening ever for an Indian film. The film collected US$2.2 million in the United States alone on its first day. The film’s first weekend collections stood at US$24 million worldwide from all its versions, the third biggest ever for an Indian film...
THE ROAD AHEAD
Analysts opined that it was commendable the way the Baahubali team had used social media to promote the film. Some analysts opined that the team believed in what they were making and executed what they had planned despite the roadblocks. According to experts, Baahubali had set a new trend in the sense that regional Indian movies could now break into the national commercial movie scene...
EXHIBITS
Exhibit I: US Top 10 Movies List (based on ticket collections as on July, 2015)
Exhibit II: Screenshot of Baahubali Website
Exhibit III: Baahubali Merchandise
Exhibit IV: Baahubali Poster
Exhibit V: Bahubali Worldwide Box-Office Collections
Exhibit VI: Top 10 Highest Grossing Hindi Films (as of August 2015)
Exhibit VII: Baahubali at International Film Festivals
