Orkut beats Facebook in India
Mumbai: Social networking sites seem to be the hottest new marketing tool for promoting movies now. Before every release, film-makers are tapped into this space by opening groups and fan clubs or accounts with their movie names on Facebook, Twitter and "Orkut. Film-maker Vipul Shah says, It (Internet) is an important sphere of communication. Since the core audience is usually gathering its information from the Internet, it’s important that films communicate through this media. Facebook, "Orkut and Twitter are all mediums that can be used. Film-maker Gurinder Chadha also gives a thumbs-up to this trend. The Internet has no boundaries, most importantly it has the youth connected all the time. So it becomes an extremely important medium to promote your film. I have been using Twitter for some time now and have been in continuous dialogue with my audience, she says. Apart from this, films also have dedicated sites where actors blog and constantly update their fans about the movie thereby keeping it in the news. Some stars also announce ‘Internet chatting dates’ so that they can directly interact with the audience. Film-makers have also tried out other forms of new-age publicity like opening a caller phone chat line where their fans can directly talk to the stars. Among the actors, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Riteish Deshmukh, Sonam Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Genelia D’Souza, Konkona Sen Sharma etc. are very active in cyberspace. They talk about their forthcoming projects and some even put up their movie stills as their profile pictures. Salman says, There was a time when only a certain kind of publicity was enough to tell people about your movie. But now it's all about attracting the audiences to the theatres because there are many options of entertainment for them. Why would they come and see a particular film? It’s about telling them constantly about the good points of the movie and highlighting the hard work that everyone has put in for the project. I don’t see anything wrong in that. Youngsters are the biggest movie-going audience and they are hooked on to the Internet 24x7. So, we better keep them updated about our project.
