Eminent Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s highly anticipated directorial venture ‘Ponniyin Selvan Part One’ is geared up for its grand theatrical release on 30th September. The film, as you know, is based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s 1955 novel of the same name, and chronicles the account of the early days of Arulmozhi Varman, who later became the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I.
The riveting source material has tremendous potential, and the ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ film adaptation has a proficient filmmaker at the helm coupled with an ensemble cast and backed by passionate producers. Considering all this, it seems that the makers should have created more curiosity around the film to fully capitalize on all these aspects. And that too, much before the film’s release. The buzz is there but the promotions so far haven’t done justice to such a high calibre and massively mounted project.
For instance, the makers of Kamal Haasan’s recently released film ‘Vikram’ revealed their trailer during the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2022 and received a positive response. Previously, Aamir Khan had unveiled his film Laal Singh Chaddha’s trailer during the IPL final match. Though the film didn’t do very well, the trailer reveal strategy increased the buzz amongst audiences.
Likewise, ‘Ponniyin Selvan-I’ makers should have utilized one opportunity that was there right in front of them. We’re talking about the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival, which is scheduled to conclude on 18th September. The TIFF 2022 festival was the perfect platform for a film like ‘Ponniyin Selvan-I’ to showcase a sneak-peek into the grandiose cinematic world of ‘Ponniyin Selvan-I’.
The promotions for ‘Ponniyin Selvan-I’ are apparently kicking off from today and we hope the entire team will pull up their socks and aggressively market the film in the biggest way possible. The subject deserves it. They might as well show the film’s promo or a new teaser or something on iconic spots like the Burj Khalifa or Times Square – a tried and tested marketing strategy.
Because nowadays, promoting a film in the right way is the key. Take the example of Brahmastra – despite mixed feedback, the film opened quite well at the domestic and international box office. There’s still about 15-days’ time left for team ‘Ponniyin Selvan Part One’ to pull out all the stops and do the best they can to promote the potential blockbuster.