Though it was a tough day, with important
news developments like the court decision on discharge plea of Amit Shah, BJP's
national president, Narendra Modi's Number 2, second most powerful figure of
the political establishment running India now, from charges in Sohrabuddin and
Tulsi Prajapati fake encounters; the ongoing India-Australia test match; and the ongoing developments in missing AirAsia flight incident, that was
bound to take the airwaves time away, the team behind PK, the movie, expressed
its gratitude to the round of much needed publicity that accrued to it in past
few days.
Their spirit of recognizing self-motivated and selfless efforts remained undaunted, when, in the end, even the reduced coverage
that was expected, didn't come after the shocking news of unexpected
resignation' of Mahendra Singh Dhoni from test cricket swept the agenda of the
day.
The Team PK sent praising notes of their
heartfelt thanks to the top leadership and members of outfits like Hindu Yuva
Vahini, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Mahasabha and many others who
have been working relentlessly making outreach of PK even wider, when the movie was
fading in appeal. Also, the team has sent specially packaged messages to express its
feelings to Ramdev and Subramanian Swamy, the two stalwarts of the pack.
After all, because of their efforts, the movie is
again in news, is registering more footfalls and is headed for more views.
Though PK, the movie, was an 'inspired'
production with less of original elements, including the idea, the narrative
was developed well around a subject of mass-importance and thus mass-appeal -
religion and its quirky and ostentatious elements - and the Team PK hoped to
cash on Aamir Khan's star-power, Rajkumar Hirani's track-record and a
well-crafted marketing strategy to enter the big league, the super-blockbuster league of Indian Cinema, with earning ranging in hundreds of crores.
It worked well, initially, with the star-power,
the narrative and the hype keeping the cash stacking up. But, being not the
first time, with ample gyaan and slow pace in the 2nd half, it soon became clear that the narrative was
not expected to get to the 'super-blockbuster' status - until the push to its
2nd life arrived.
As expected, after the days of hype and
marketing influence were over, the cash inflow started flattening out and was
well on the way to get into the stagnation zone.
And then, it happened. The 2nd life
arrived, and in style, keeping the nation and the audiences hooked to the TV
screens with intensely debated discourses on the movie.
The Good Samaritans, from the evergreen, overworking Hindu fundamentalist outfits, jumped in the fray, carefully picking elements from the movie
to enlighten the nation, pushing more to watch the movie, to know about the
elements they were highlighting. There are even the sort of viewers who had
watched it earlier but are going to watch it again as they could not notice the
element(s) in the context these 'Good Samaritan publicists' are presenting.
And there could not be a better timing. It is perfectly opportune, maximizing the
resource utilization.
After all, had it coincided with the release, it would
have wasted the resources used in marketing and promotion of the movie. Coming
after the days that could be attributed to the 'influence of marketers', the well crafted, coordinated and increasingly synchronized move
is a brilliant exercise in exercising the Public Relations tools.
After the
first wave lost its appeal, fully exhausting its capacity levels, the second wave,
that was voluntary in nature and had no official access and took time to
research and study the finer elements of the PK content to be used as the
central themes of their campaigns, had found the opportunity to chip in and they did
it with full commitment, and too, without informing the production house and commercial stakeholders of the movie. Such exemplary selflessness is rare and is to be given due notice as has been happening.
Now, it is certainly debatable that how
much the movie has earned so far, with differing figures putting the movie in
different leagues - from Rs. 200 crore to over Rs. 400 crore clubs (hyped up
box-office collections, that is again an increasingly used brilliant film marketing tool)
- but it is clearly visible that its cash-pile is adding more stacks now, and
at a handsome pace.
And the team that has produced a sensible
cinema in PK, the movie, cannot be expected to act insensibly, by not saying
thanks to these altruistic well-wishers.
And it also came with perfect timing. The 'tomorrow' could not have been better than the 'today' to say thanks as it was a frustrating day for the volunteers with Dhoni's resignation stealing the show and the airwaves even if they worked harder and launched the campaign in many other cities.
The words of recognition, appreciation and gratitude by the Team PK will certainly lift their mood and morale up from today's frustration and would recharge them for a more action-packed tomorrow.