A few years ago, the team of Anjaan held an event to celebrate the success of its teaser. The one-minute long video was a showcase mostly for Suriya’s hipster styling and Santhosh Sivan’s slick cinematography. It managed to reach the coveted 1 million views in just over 48 hours.
Soon after, a cake was cut to celebrate the milestone.
Ever since, movie publicists and producers have had various reasons to celebrate, sometimes even without the movie hitting screens. There are audio success meets, trailer success meets, and the more regular film success meets.
Usually, these events are a way for actors and the crew to pat each other on the back. A list of box office figures would then be presented. And, in some cases, actors might even gift gold chains, luxury cars, and other paraphernalia to the group.
In the case of VIP 2, the team promised to hand over Rs 10 lakhs from the profits to develop schools in the villages of TN.
Whatever be the offering, there’s no denying that in film parlance these days, a success meet doesn’t really mean that a movie has had a great run at the box office. Riaz Ahmed, a popular film PRO, says that it is just something people do now. “It is expected, and so you do it.”
A few days after VIP 2 released, Soundarya Rajinikanth and Dhanush held a press meet to celebrate the success of the film. The movie had received middling reviews from critics and fans alike, and the general view was that it did not receive as big a film opening as was expected.
Kalaipuli S Thanu, producer, had a different story to tell. “The film grossed around Rs 6 crores in its first day in TN. Taking into account the two holidays, it grossed around Rs 30 crores over that weekend. It’s poised to beat the previous film’s collection of Rs 50+ crore.”
This amount could not be independently verified, though it does seem to fit Sreedhar Pillai’s analysis.
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This year, several films – big and small, have held success meets for their projects. Far from being an actual celebration of success, these events seek to establish the opinion that the film is doing well, irrespective of its box office performance. It is yet another way to ensure that the crowds flock to the film, after the initial buzz dies down.
“It’s a show of strength. The general philosophy is that when you project success, people will naturally gravitate towards it. These days, the audience wants to know whether the film is a hit or not. They don’t care if it’s good. Basically, they want a certificate before spending so much on a ticket,” says distributor Tiruppur Subramanian.
The promotional activities that a film commissions in the days leading up to the release, can only sustain it for the first three days. Following this, to make sure the audience keep coming in, events like these come in handy.
A few people in the know also say that these success events are planned well in advance, keeping in mind the availability of its lead stars. Whether it would well and truly be a success is not factored into the decision. “It has to be done, and so we make reservations. In the case of big films, we have often pre-booked the place for the success event and asked the stars to keep the slot free, just in case we needed to put an event together. Only if the film has well and truly flopped, do we cancel the reservation. If it shows signs of life, we proceed with it,” a PR tells Silverscreen.
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Film trade is not as transparent as it used to be before. Producers, for the most part, keep mum when asked about the box office performance of their projects. When they do issue statements, it’s hard to know if the figures are indeed real.
“A lot of them boast about the money a film makes. Nobody is going to admit that their film is bad. There’s a lot of inflated figures going around. When people know that a film made Rs 100 crores, they’re not going to say, ‘Ok this film got enough money, let’s not go watch it’. They’ll be curious as to what made the film earn so much,” Subramaniam says.
Keyaar, a former TFPC President, is of the same opinion. “It’s all facile. It’s a declaration of success, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the film did well. Very few films this year are actual successes, trade wise. The rest are all pretenders.”
The publicity and promotions too, create an artificial veil of success around movies. “You say something is good, and is a win enough times, and people will believe it. That’s the mantra these days,” Subramanian adds.
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A decade ago, true success was measured by the number of days a movie lasted in theatres. 25 days was a movie’s first milestone, followed by 50 days and the ultimate milestone – 100 days.
Actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan reigned over a time when films (Baasha, Marocharitra) routinely crossed the 365-day mark. And only on the completion of this milestone, would a success meet be held.
Thiagaraja Bhagavathar’s Haridas ran for three years.
In that context, celebrating a film’s success on the fourth day of its box-office run is perhaps a little premature.
But then, in this age of instant fame and social media obsession, that’s all the time we have to spare for films and related paraphernalia.
Featured image: A picture from the success meet for Anjaan’s teaser (2014).
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