Dharma Productions’ much-talked-about Jug Jugg Jeeyo hit theatres this Friday. Not that it’s a piece of information that’s hard to miss. After all, the film seems to be EVERYWHERE! Wherever you look on social media, you’ll find yourself face to face with Jug Jugg Jeeyo’s cacophonous marketing overdrive. Jeez, good or bad movie aside, we’re literally sick of looking at the same four fake-happy faces of Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani on every nook and corner of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, et al.
Dharma Productions have unleashed a media blitzkrieg for their cinematic baby that’s over the top, aggressively in your face, and with no let-up whatsoever. Which brings us to the question – what’s with the marketing overdrive for Jug Jugg Jeeyo?
The answer lies with the battering that Bollywood’s received in recent days. The evidence is out there, as clear as day. Much to the shock of trade pundits, Bollywood A-lister Akshay Kumar has suffered two humiliating flops back-to-back in the first half of 2022 – Bachchhan Paandey and Samrat Prithviraj. The latter is a big-budget spectacle from the mega production house, Yash Raj Films. The flops are unexpected and hit where they hurt most. Yash Raj Films’ other notable release, Jayeshbhai Jordaar, also had a dismal run at the box office. It starred another Bollywood star Ranveer Singh.
But fickle audiences do not bother about A-listers or how prestigious is the production house. They only care about the buzz a film generates before release. More the initial buzz, more are the footfalls at the theatres. And better the word of mouth, higher is the box office collections in the days after the release date. All the aforementioned flops lacked these crucial elements.
The wily Karan Johar, head honcho at Dharma Productions, picked up the best lesson that was to be learnt from the recent debacle of Bollywood films. And decided to look South for inspiration – more specifically S S Rajamouli’s recent media blitz for his RRR. If one notices carefully, Jug Jugg Jeeyo’s marketing campaign is quite similar to RRR’s – multi-city promotions, multiple social media entertainment handles praising the film sky high, Tweeple posting appreciation tweets for Jug Jugg Jeeyo about how they loved the film, and so on.
Jug Jugg Jeeyo has posted good numbers at the box office, riding on the back of all the positive word of mouth floating around on social media (never mind that most of it seems like paid promotions). It remains to be seen if the film sustains the momentum into the rest of the week, and breaks the bewildering Bollywood jinx.
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