The Day India votes for Development…

Short sightedness is sometimes worst than being not able to see, as it takes away the vision, the bright things which could have been a part of our future. But we mostly tend to be short sighted; after all, we are humane.
Elections are again around the corner & we can see something all across the spectrum: Promises, Promises & more Promises! & We are voters who are humane. We get carried away when someone from our caste is standing from our constituency, irrespective of whether we will ever see him before the next elections. We get influenced if a party promises some extra quota for our community, irrespective of whether they will actually yield benefits on the ground. Then we at times get so frustrated for being promised and then ignored that we decide not to vote for anybody. But then if we need to vote again, we would prefer to vote for candidate who is from our religion and the party which promises our community the moon, even if they have been doing it for the past 5 terms! We don’t care if they are corrupt and criminals as long as they are from same caste.

It is this tendency which has been exploited by various parties to keep us engaged for over six decades now. It has been now 65 years to be precise. Different parties have ruled, some at centre, some at states. The quota has been prevalent for the under privileged sections. Endless promises have been made to the minorities by different parties. Dreams have been sold to the majority masses as well to create a paradise for them on earth. But do we see the masses having got benefit of all which was planned and promised to them. I am sure irrespective of our background & political affiliations; we all would be unanimous in our response to this query. Because if the backward sections had derived the benefits of these schemes, today they would have been at par with the advanced sections in society and we would have been discussing to phase out the quota politics rather than sustaining/increasing those numbers. The political Diaspora is well versed with this fact. It is this primary reason that instead of showcasing their development efforts in their report card, they focus on getting the “appropriate” candidate who the major chunk of constituency would relate to and then show them same old wine of promises in a new bottle. The problem is the ones who talk about development; even they do their caste calculations & constituency profiling to get on the winning side. But the bigger problem is; that it actually works!

Though the picture is not totally grim, as in the last decade we have some definite examples where masses have rewarded the development efforts of our leaders. Sheila Dixit was voted back to power for the third time in 2008, thanks to the development efforts she has made to create a Delhi which seems almost a model state as compared to its peers. Narendra Modi would wish if he could erase the dark pages in Gujarat’s history witnessed around a decade back which is used by opposition to run him down. Because apart from it, he has written such a glorious development chapter for the state that he was not only voted back in 2007 but also has been lately hinted being the party’s nominee for the PM’s post at centre. Then the most recent has been the case of the politician who has turned around the fate of India’s one of the most backward state. The state in question is Bihar and the leader being referred is Nitish Kumar. He has redefined the definition of development in the state of Bihar known to vote only for the caste, promises & stage drama! But the thumping victory for Nitish in last year’s polls has highlighted a very important aspect of Indian democracy: That we also vote for Development and if we get people who work for us, we would go all out to extend our support to them without getting into the dream world of promises. Anti-incumbency is a reflection of poor performance, but then the ruling party is aware & hopeful while moving out that it will again get a chance next time as the opposition gaining power will not be able to deliver on bloated promises. Hence it starts preparing for better & bigger promises with better target strategy in terms of profiling of masses for the next elections! Thus non-performance gives a chance to all rather than better performance!

We all would collectively pray for a day when we would see a minority voter choosing the Saffron candidate who has transformed his constituency for a better life for his family. We would be glad to see the right wing hardliner family voting for a non Saffron government which has worked wonders for their state, their constituency, their neighborhood. Let us all country men get together and start exercising our voting rights more judiciously. Let us promise ourselves; not voting is not the way out. We need to vote & make our vote count. Aam aadmi needs to vote for the future of the Aam aadmi. Lets get our message straight to our leaders: kindly PERFORM! Let us all “Humane” get over the politics of caste & creed and start voting for the politics of Development to set the precedence for our leaders to work for us. Probably our future would be brighter, one where leaders would compete to outdo each other for developing our society, our NATION. Jai Hind!

Its aLL about Marketing- (Part2 : When Politicians turn Marketing Guru's...)

“Utho, Jaago, Badlo” , “Umeed ki Cylce”, “Chad vipaksh ki chhati par, Mohar laga haathi par”

No we are not murmuring any titles of Bollywood potboilers. We are getting these for you from one of the most anticipated & important political battlefield: UP Elections 2012. This is a battle every political party & observer is closely watching expecting one of the closest & fiercest contests in recent times. In addition to the various dynamics of caste, religion & political imaging & posturing, this fight will be remembered for the Marketing carried out by various leaders to project why they deserve to get the priced chair at Lucknow. Whether it is a “Jai Ho” or an “India against Corruption”, marketing has become a key to promote political brands & ideologies and now the communication programmes undertaken are as extensive as marketing wars between top cola brands to outshine each other.


If you pull out the newspapers for recent past, you would notice that a sizeable chunk would be covered by the advertisements/news stories related to political outfits projecting the development programmes they have covered in the interest of the nation (Though readers generally wonder if so much effort was actually made for real development!!). It is not just the central government which is boasting about its efforts now; state Govts are equally active in getting their share of limelight. Thus you would find a Mayawati competing with the star leaders Rahul Gandhi & Narendra Modi having full pages in leading dailies highlighting the achievements of the BSP Govt in last 5 yrs of their rule in UP. Her 3-4 minute documentary on the state Govt’s success on channels seems a challenge which even Birla’s & Tata’s would not be keen to accept. Behenji’s Delhi counterpart Sheila Dixit is not far behind in addressing the different media to share her “success stories”.


Even social groups like Anna Hazare’s civil society seek marketing as a tool to take their cause to the heart of the masses. Irrespective of the intentions & manner of their forcing government to take affirmative action against corruption, the success of Team Anna’s movement was in the well planned and executed marketing blitzkrieg by its team which used the media machinery in the best possible manner to give the political brass a run for their money & insomnia in form of “Jan Lokpal”.


There are few clear reasons for this trend which form a vicious circle of sorts. Firstly it is important to take your promises & ideologies to the masses in this hi-tech age of ever expanding media. There are leaders whose mission is to wrestle power from the clutches of “corrupt, ill-governed & ruthless regimes”. For that they have a vision which is aptly translated into a mission by advisers. But even they realize that without marketing blitzkrieg they will not be able to realize this mission.

Thus whether it is Civil society against the ruling Congress at Centre or the Congress against ruling BSP in UP; everyone tries using this tool effectively. Not surprisingly Congress has hired as many as three agencies: Percept, Crayon & JWT to help them with their Mission 2012 in UP to nurture their heir apparent Rahul G’s dream. Even parties like Samajwadi party who used to be against concept of computers are fully supporting the need to use technology & marketing plans to project their “Umeed ki cycle” overtaking the elephant. You may have excellent development plans on paper, but is very important to sell those to the electorate to get a mandate to implement them.



Then the story doesn’t end there. Incase chosen to power, it becomes equally important to let the electorate know what you have done for them, or at least have “intended” because “actually doing” is pretty difficult most of the times! It is very important to tom-tom about the implementation of the achievements to tell masses how right they were in getting you to power! Whether it is Sheila, Narendra Modi or Mayawati, all are well versed with it.

As a constructive opposition, for attacking the Govt and broadcasting their scams, their ill-deeds & taints, media campaigns are a must or else the entire 2g scam would have died a natural death without any sounds reaching the masses. Hence it equally important to market Advani ji’s Rath yatra against corruption! On the other hand as the defense mechanism, the same marketing provides a tool to the state to defend self from the supposed “wrong doings or the debacles” the mischievous opposition has attributed it with! The beauty of your campaigns is in its flexibility to alter as per the changing circumstances, changing opposition stances & changing public opinions, the faster it adapts to these, healthier would your political standing be.


Yes if there is one thing which remains constant in all these: Politics remain at the heart of all such marketing advents. After all it is the politicians & social leaders who are at the helm of such media circus strategizing how every word can be turned into an award in their kitty and a sword for the opponents! General public just wonders: How if these leaders had actually planned & executed the development plans as good as their marketing ones :) But then the politicians would complain that even when they carry out development, they will still need to market & highlight it or else you will again end up not voting for them :) :)



“ Takaluf uthane se zyada, Takaluf dikhana zaruri hai

Kuch karei na karei hum, Tumse vaada karna majboori hai.

Hakumat ki yeh kahani azab hai, Isme har kirdaar ki jagah ghazab hai

Har labz mei dava aur zeher saath hai, Kahi kamal, Kahi haathi to Kahi haath hai! “

It’s aLL About Marketing… (Part 1 : Movie Marketing)

The Story of First Weekend:

If one takes out the collections of some of big hits of 80’s, one would be surprised to note they had collected less than what many movies are collecting in first day of their release today. Though it is worth noting that making these comparisons is unjust as the inflation has taken a toll during these decades and the ticket prices and the numbers of screens today are much higher from that era. But another interesting aspect is that films during that period used to collect this amount over a long period of time, celebrating silver jubilee and golden jubilees during their run. Today the much larger collections are witnessed over a much shorter period of time and even biggest blockbusters today don’t need to (even intend to!) eye a silver jubilee if not more.

The Box office has become huge & so have the efforts to rake in moolah in shortest possible time. Today a shelf life of the film ranges from a week to month, some being very lucky to survive a couple. And thus the concept of “Bumper Opening” has become significant. This makes marketing guys relevant, having a task clearly cut out for them. The film marketing has suddenly become as important as making a movie if not more. The content and quality come more into play from the first Monday, but the weekend is all dependent upon the hype which has been generated by the stars and makers thanks to the positive/negative publicity generated before the release. Earlier marketing would mean a good Premiere of the film with few interviews, but today it is about creative hype across the media spectrum sustained over a period of time. Now even superstars like Shah Rukh Khan realize this importance and go on a marketing blitzkrieg with every release. The results are evident: Ra One has collected a humongous 80.5 Crore on an extended 5 day weekend and collapsing to a total of 115 Cr net lifetime from India (Hindi versions). Similarly Bodyguard collected a thundering 85 crore in its 5 days weekend against a total lifetime of 140 Crs from India. Irrespective of the feedback/content, films are clocking over half its lifetime business in the first weekend alone.

This brings us to a very important aspect: Today weekend is all about Right Date + Appropriate Genre + High Print + High Marketing & Huge Hype which translates into Bumper opening. This wins more than half the battle for the makers. The only rest left is to convince the people through good reviews/paid PR through media that film is good, this gets their shelf life enhanced with greater lifetime for their product. Yes, movies are not only about creative satisfaction for most today, its about a highly entertaining product which is bombarded on the paying public for significant ROI!! You would thereby find big stars like Aamir & SRK going hammer & tongs using their creative thoughts publicising their flicks. Even makers like Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiawala & Farah Khan know this bitter fact "Jo Dikhta hai, Vo Bikta hai".

With increasing channels and exploding media including social networking, the game is simple. From the day of ideation, the marketing shoes need to be ON :)
Generate HYPE to get max. public in to see your movie once it opens and then plant desired PR to get other potential audience making them believe the flick is worth watching!! The 3 M is clear: Manufacture Movies & Market them like hell, I mean well :)

Bodyguard, Rockstar, Desi Boyz : Short Synopsis!

Bodyguard:
Every Star has a time when their good films don’t work & then there are times when even the average ones ROCK! Salman seems to be having that dream run where anything he touches would turn Gold, or probably Diamond!! The film has been made to target the masses showing their star in the manner they Love to see him, and results are for all to see. Sallu bhai is HUGE!! Whether you are “Ready” or not, Salman is “Dabangg”, he is “Bodyguard”, seems currently he can be anything he wishes to be. Kareena also looks good in the movie. An Eid release and produced by Salman’s sister & brother in law, you don’t need to know anything more! 

Rockstar:
There are paintings, some of which convey a message. Then there are others which are abstract, you need to derive inferences, without being given one. This one is an Imtiaz Ali abstract, some may love it some may hate but you will have to use grey matter for this heavy stuff. It’s something different, something fresh, and something youth will relate more than their parents : "Rebellious, uncertain & unclear" are their traits which get highlighted. One of the best performances from Ranbir, establishing him further as an “Actor” with “Starpower”. He has put in his heart & soul in this one reflecting pain from his eyes & importantly it gets reflected in power backed role. Nargis looks fine and gets a debut many would look forward to. Rahman seems to be back with this effort, enhancing the story telling by notches. Every film maker has his style stamp, you would see Imtiaz’s trademark on this, the good or bad you will need to figure out!!

Desi Boyz:
Fresh treatment by debutant director Rohit Dhawan. Narrative is good, however content could have been better. It is a descent one time watch but probably the basic idea may not have too many followers. But these days even “Fine/OK” films work well @ Box office if promoted aggressively (Did I hear Ra1??). This one could certainly have been pushed better for a bigger opening. Deepika, John & Chitrangada are fine/ok. Music is descent, "Subah hone na de" being the best of the lot.
Irrespective of his performance and quality of overall content, would just like to ask one Question to Akshay Kumar as a fan : “Akki, would any of the other current Superstars have taken up this role at this point in career??” I am sure that a majority of the film going public would not revert in affirmative if tossed with this query. Barring a "Patiala House" (which was also not commercially successful), I am waiting for the day I would be able to write a review like the one below sketched in 2007 for my star!! But then I am sure, that day would come soon:)

http://www.mymovies.net/reviews/review_item.asp?t=Namastey+London+-+Rochak+Vig&filmid=6196&rid=4689&s=3&n=3

The Last Over Syndrome!!

I have faint memories of my childhood, watching those cricket matches where India would find itself slogging it out in the penultimate overs of the match. We may have seen many one side losses, but when it came to winning, we almost invariably tried to ensure we took the fight to the last over!! With Commonwealth games around the corner, I am having flash frames of those moments all over again!

We are still trying to fire all our cylinders in the last over of the match trying to come out victorious. With less than a week for the games to kick start, the OC for CWG, the CWG federation and the Indian Govt, all have collectively woken up to the fact that we need to deliver almost a boundary off every ball to pull this off… Not getting into the merits of charges and counter charges over corruption, lack of preparation and quality of the deliverables, we must try and cover the last mile now. As PM Manmohan Singh has stated, we need to ACT now to get things right and ensure a successful games. But its interesting to note this from another perspective. Yes, it is true that last minute glitches do prevail at times, yes it is unfortunate that the media seems to be going overboard at times to make an overkill of the underlying situation harming national pride but then the fact of the matter remains we have waited for the last week of Sep 2010 to act when the games where awarded to India some seven years back.

Whether it is a cricket match, a global event like CWG or any other plans we undertake, the basic psychology of waking up in the end remains a constant feather on our caps. It would be unjustified to just blame the authorities for such advent; it seems this habit has become a way of our everyday lives. Even if we peep into our routine daily activities, we would realize that whether it is sending our children to school, attending the classes in college, reaching office on time or turning up for a marriage function; the last minute adrenaline rush gives us that high which we has become a part of our blood. This rush gives us a sense of security that we are on track and a satisfaction that yes: “All is Well”…

We have made it a habit of redefining IST as Indian Stretchable Time, and then stretching it to the extent of needing a six off the last ball as maybe the case with CWG! Whether we win such adventure games or concede loss as in the case of the famous (or the Infamous) last ball hit from Miandad off Chetan Sharma, we consider any match competitive only when we are present on the field till the very last! On the contrary, our immediate neighbor China has become a Superpower in its own right with sheer hard-work, detailed futuristic planning and flawless execution of the laid plans. It seems they wish to finish the matches right in the middle overs to ensure no uncertain moments are seen on their way to Victory.

I wish either our neighbor learn something from us or unlearn to us some of its abilities to plan the wins well in advance! Till then, we will continue with our endeavors to witness more CWG’s and live life King size with the “Last over Syndrome”:) Jai Hind!

Where Media takes the Public for a Ride…

If Shiv Sena seems to be on an unjustified rampage against the Shah Rukh Khan starrer "My Name is Khan", the media is no different in taking the general public for a ride by championing the cause of democracy by provoking the masses to go and see the movie in order to show their solidarity for their star. It is not the noble motive behind this extreme reporting but it is the manner in which the media has gone overboard which mars the shadow over the intent. Its interesting to see the reporters prompting the people on the road to see the movie and then cheering on the 90+% occupancy of one single show in the riot marred zone in Mumbai. The reporting from the champions of democracy has gone to an extent of becoming PR machinery for Dharma productions or a tool of the “King Khan” to prove his mettle to the other “Ace Khan” in the light of the recent success of latter’s movie 3 Idiots. It seems that the makers wanted to match the media wave the 3 Idiots team created over the Chetan Bhagat controversy and ensure they dint disappoint Fox Films (global distributors of MNIK) by not using the media blitzkrieg to create unprecedented hype!

In all such events, it is ultimately the general masses that are forced to form an opinion or act in a desired manner by hijacking the entire communication mechanism. Some free observers feel that this SRK stand, though an individual choice was a double edged sword for the Box office fate of the movie where in a major territory was being sacrificed seeking the huge media galore in return which resulted in mileage for the film to an extent where viewing the movie was presented as a means to support democracy!! If that was not enough, the icing on the cake was the HUGE box office figures being circulated by the makers through media citing victory of their star over the political vandalism!! Trade analysts had however ascertained that despite a good opening thanks to the controversy, the collections started sliding from the 4th day of the release and this hot gas balloon is not going to have long legs at the box office as it is only section of classes, critics and overseas audience which is appreciating the movie where in the general masses have rejected it due to heavy content and lack of entertainment. The public in general is coming with negative feedback for the film criticizing the media for their reviews and promotion for this caper.

Sometimes one really wishes that the Indian media is more responsible and balanced in its approach while disseminating information for social good. If the recent reporting trends are any indication, we are heading towards a society where in we just don’t need to be very selective in reception of news content but also analyze the same to reckon the real worth of the message. There are couple of major challenges with the current reporting which one can witness : Firstly the media content needs to be reviewed as it tends to have issues/topics least relevant for the development of the society and nation. Secondly the topics which are relevant, mostly witness biased reporting which sometimes is far from reality. Coming back to the former one, we can see every channel is interested in covering Rakhee Sawant’s valentine day "fight" with her beau, how the filmstars are "back-biting" or how Harbhajan lost his "temper" to physically assault someone. Such special packages are screened across the clock and are lapped by the masses asking for more. This vicious circle prompts endless software being aired with matters which have no contribution to the growth of the society or the country. The other prominent trend is the bias which seems evident in the news coverage where inclination and judegements are an integral part of the communication.


The biggest excuses which can be seen as an unjust justification to these trends can be attributed to few major reasons:
1) The objectivity in reporting has been lost due to the self induced bias and prejudices with in the media think tanks over social issues which are closely followed by the presumption of being in the chair meant for pronouncing the judgments. The ring leaders in this media circus are self pronounced social aristocrats who have been bestowed the responsibility of getting the justice for the victims such as SRK!!

2) To run 24 Hour news channels, it is very important to have such “breaking news” as this is the staple fodder for churning out high TRP’s in the competitive media space where every India TV has an increasing set of audience and the other comparatively subtle channels need to follow such breaking news to keep their viewers intact.

The supporters of this trend however would come up with the logic that media is not just a tool for reporting, it has to be an effective means for socio political change where it has with it the responsibility of creating public opinion over anything and everything for empowering and uplifting the public at large. They will point out that it was media which has forced those in power/judiciary to bring to justice the powerful criminals in cases like Jessica Lal Murder and more recently Ruchika suicide case. They would defend such media activism and suo moto campaigns are necessary in booking those who would have otherwise escaped from the clutches of law.

But then one would agree that there is a very thin line demarcating the issues where media intervention and lapping is a pre-requisite for creating appropriate public opinion in the interest of the society to the others less relevant events where media becomes a PR tool in the hands of individuals seeking communication umbrella to serve their interests. The Indian diaspora needs to urge the legal framework and freedom which has been granted to media by the law of the country to exercise some restraint in their reporting mechanism and also evaluate the issues and events which really need attention. 24 hour run time should not be an excuse to sensationalize non news worthy content just for the heck of TRP’s resulting in the more important and focal stories taking a back seat. Till then we can enjoy this role reversal on going in the media circus where in Bollywood entertainers will make political and media headlines; where as the politicians and media personal will Entertain you to the hilt :)