10 Times Bollywood Stars Used The Most Bizarre Promotional Strategies For Their Films

You must have read and heard about Bollywood stars going to unimaginable extents to promote their films. From selling tickets on the ticket window, to wearing a prosthetic baby bump, dubsmashes, reality TV show promotions, stage shows at local malls and visiting colleges, Bollywood has explored numerous techniques to sell films. While some of these strategies are unique and successful, sometimes our celebs cross the line and leave us astounded by their bizarre promotional activities.

Recently Shah Rukh Khan took a train from Mumbai to Delhi to promote his film Raees. The actor’s journey was full of fandom, media and his memories of having travelled in train as a young man. Unfortunately, a man lost his life at Vadodra station, who was there just to catch a glimpse of SRK. This is not the first time a star took a train to promote his movie. In 2015, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Imtiaz Ali took a train from Mumbai to Delhi to promote Tamasha. Crowds did go berserk even then, but fortunately there was no reportage of any mishap.  

We’ll take you down memory lane and tell you how some filmmakers and stars used the most bizarre techniques of marketing their movies.

Film: Bewakoofiyaan

Contest: Get a job @ YRF

The marketing studs at YRF rolled out a contest where the winner would get a job in the marketing department of the company. The selected candidates were interviewed by the film’s cast, Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana.

Film: Ghajini

100 employees of Big Cinemas shaved their heads to promote Aamir’s look in Ghajiini which was that of a bald psychotic man with tattoos all over to make a signature look.

Film: 2 States

Alia Bhatt literally took social media by a storm with the announcement of her engagement as a publicity gimmick for her film 2 States with a wedding invite.

source Twitter

Film: Khamoshiyan

Sapna Pabbi became a part of a late night social media chat with men to promote her erotic thriller Khamoshiyan. The questions however, were filtered. Did that help? We’re still wondering!

Film: Raaz 3

Bipasha Basu sold her movie on ‘superstitions’. Yes, you read that right. She went around distributing ‘neembu-mirchi’ to autowalas.

source mid day

Film: Jism 2

This was a dream come true for every Sunny Leone fan! The makers had put her undergarments on auction. Beat that!

Film: Agyaat

The makers of the movie used a dummy dead body to promote the movie which was hanging from the hoardings of the film. Blood was oozing out of it! Gross! Isn’t it?

Film: Jhootha Hi Sahi

John became love guru with this one because a phone number was mentioned on the posters via which fans could speak to John and seek advice on relationships and love.

source youtube

 Film: Chance Pe Dance

Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza spent a whole night in a car to promote the movie. (For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Shahid lives out of a car in the movie) That promotinal event had all die-hard Shahid fans biting their nails the entire night!

source india forums

Film: Ragini MMS 

Before the release of Ragini MMS, the back of auto rikshaws read “Ragini ka MMS dekha kya?”, to create a hype. We are sure, the number of searches for Ragini MMS must have shot up!

source glamsham