Will 'no promotions' be the new marketing strategy for Bollywood after Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan proves a point?

Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan is busy breaking office records in India and the buzz for the film is purely driven by the love of the fans. The movie unprecedented success comes without a side of country wide tours, back-to-back interviews or any major marketing tropes which have become a regular feature ahead of any major film release.

Shah Rukh Khan’s fans have proven that their love for the movie star is enough to drive them to cinemas and make Pathaan probably the biggest success in the history of Bollywood in just a weekend. However, while the buzz surrounding Shah Rukh’s return and handful of ‘Ask SRK’ sessions on Twitter were enough to make Pathaan a trailblazer, will it set a new precent in Bollywood ahead?

Going traditional with Pathaan promotions with only songs and trailers doing the talking, may have saved Shah Rukh Khan and the cast of the Siddharth Anand directorial from gruelling sessions of interviews, however, for other Bollywood films it may be hard to re-create this set-up. Afterall, not every movie is a comeback vehicle for a star of Shah Rukh Khan’s stature.

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While in the days following up to Pathaan’s release, Shah Rukh Khan barely faced the cameras, it is a luxury that’s too hard to afford for many of the other stars in Bollywood ahead of the movie release, even the big ones. The Bollywood star promised to greet fans in cinemas and that’s what he stuck by, however, grand movie promotions aren’t going obsolete yet.

Films still need to compete for the attention of cinegoers especially in these times where movies are barely minting money through ticket sales. Bollywood is still adjusting to the changing sensibilities of the audiences and many of the big ticket films still in the pipeline need the media push to keep the talk going, especially if the content isn’t doing all the talking. Every film may not need an actor to be making reels beside influencers, but there’s still are movie plots that will need an extra hand in winning the audience over.

What Pathaan’s success and promotional strategy does lay the ground work for is critical thinking, especially for marketers. Not every movie needs the cut-copy-paste grand promotional plans, the need to the hour is curated film promotions that help sift out plans that help the films from those that become unwelcome burdens.

Bollywood actors may have become vocal about the questions they are tired of hearing and answering with the constant glare of the cameras on them, yet, innovation has long left the table when it comes to creating the right buzz. With Pathaan’s bold move to avoid the media completely hopefully, film promotions get a more focused direction instead of blind trend following.