It was heartening to see power couple Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan posing happily with a fan. The pictures that have gone viral turned out to be a breath of relief for all Abhi-Ash fans who were disillusioned by news of their reported rift.
So guys, Nimrat Kaur is out of the picture and the Bachchans are back together. But when did they separate? Did they? Or was it a clichéd Public Relations (PR) gimmick?
If you are accustomed to marketing tactics in the film industry, rest assured planted stories should be taken with a pinch of salt. Yours truly, with a very modest stint as a journalist, has had the experience of getting calls from PRs and stars to spread a canard just to stay in the news or ahead of a movie release or even otherwise.
Now, did the Bachchans resort to such a cheap stratagem? But do they really need to fall back upon such a contrivance all in a bid to stay in reckoning?
Certainly, they don’t, yet buying into such a blind belief may also be a bit quixotic because in our film industry, anything or everything is possible.
Recall Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine with Kareena Kapoor Khan in the lead. Mahi (essayed by Kareena), ostracised by her peers and others, is desperately looking for a hit to resurrect her career – but a B-Grade movie has no takers and enters her PR Manager Pallavi (Divya Dutta) who ferrets out an intimate clip involving Mahi and co-star Aryan (Arjun Rampal) and shares it with the media – the rest as they say is history.
The erstwhile lack of hype turns into hysteria as the movie opens with a bang.
That’s what you call a superlative PR strategy which resonates with the real avatar of the tinsel town, triggering such a desperation amid cutthroat competition – a rat race that can either make or break your career.
And why confine yourself to just the Bachchans? Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara is the talk of the town, smashing records at ease, yet the producers are hungry for more it seems. Hence, the leads Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda are now linked with videos and reels running amok all over social media. But are they really in a relationship? The Almighty perhaps has the answer.
By the way, didn’t Yash Raj Films shun aggressive marketing before the film hit the theatres? So, what happens now?
Back home in Kolkata, estranged lovebirds Dev and Subhashree are back with their much-awaited film Dhumketu. A film lying in the pipeline for years needs a robust marketing plan to draw the attention of the audience. So, what’s the way out?
Their cosy moments at the trailer launch are cashed in on with the social media inundated with memes and envisioned captions just to reignite the old spark as if Dev and Subhashree are reinvigorating their chemistry of the days gone by.
Their enticing statements on stage are adding fuel to the fire. But wait guys, both have moved on, but won’t abhor such a mystery if that accentuates the publicity campaign of their film.
It’s a sad state of affairs, but guess what – it’s easier said than done. Without an invincible marketing ploy, a release fails to gain momentum. Bought, but let’s face it, fair and square – if the content bites the dust, so do your relentless efforts.
ALSO READ: Farhan Akhtar-backed Manipuri film ‘Boong’ selected as “Spotlight Film” of IFFM 2025
And it’s not always centred around a film – out in oblivion, bounce back with a provocative comment and here you go.
But who is taken for a ride at the end of the day? It’s a travesty of the emotions of those fanatics who swear by their icons.
