Mumbai: Picture this: Star filmmaker Karan Johar interviews each and every celebrity in Bollywood. Actors Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherji speak to camera on their roles in Tara Rum Pum. Eklavya’s A-list star cast talks about Making Eklavya to each other. And Aamir Khan answers questions at a press conference asked to him not by a journalist but by the host of the evening.
So, promotions are on in full swing. But where is the media? Where are the film reporters? Well, the trend is to simply keep them off-limits.
But if journalists are kept at bay, who will ask those hard-hitting controversial questions about the Income Tax Department eyeing Bachchan’s new cars and SRK’s tiff with the stamp duty department and Amar Singh? And what about Saif being single again?
“They (stars) prefer their own clan people doing the interviews. If Karan (Johar) does interviews they feel safe. They know he will not touch issues that they don’t want but journalists will,” said senior film journalist Rauf Ahmed.
Insiders say that stars have started to tell filmmakers that they will be a part of promotion campaigns but will not face the media.
The reasons are clear: when there's no media around all the stars are expected to talk about is what they wish to talk about!
In a trend started by Bollywood's powerful Yashraj Films, they first put an 'off-press' Aamir Khan for an interview opposite Kajol to promote Fanaa. They wanted publicity and got it, minus unwanted pesky journalistic questions.
“If I keep a press conference I have to call 150 journalists today. It’s not possible for a star to give 150 interviews and say the same thing. So it is better to do few but nice interviews,” said filmmaker, Vipul Shah.
But who are we trying to copy - Hollywood? This is how film promotion works in the west: studios and production houses shortlist journalists across the world and they are the ones who get to interview the star cast of the film.
The best way stars prefer promoting films these days is through contests, a way by which their fans have direct access to them and they have to meet only the winners. No facing the crowd, no answering questions.
