Small films need big or creative marketing, says Dinesh Vijan at Jagran Cinema Summit

One of the key points of discussion at the Jagran Cinema Summit on Friday at a hotel in Santacruz, Mumbai, was the secret to help small films survive in an extremely competitive distribution sector. Dinesh Vijan, producer of Rajkummar Rao's first Rs100-crore film - Stree, maintained that small films require big marketing budgets to help capture the attention in a competitive market.

Our confidence grew at every stage, says director Amar Kaushik as Stree crosses Rs100 crore mark

Vijan, founder of Maddock Films, explained, "Without marketing, you cannot put a small film out." He added, "If you cannot spend the money on marketing, or come up with innovative marketing, then I believe the film should directly go digital."

Explaining the strategy behind Stree's marketing campaign, Vijan said that while he had thought of taking the film to 1,900 screens, several industry insiders suggested that Rajkummar Rao might not command the audience for it.

Vijan said, "I think the most important part was the genre we chose. This is what my distributor, Anil Thadani told me when he saw the film. I just made the film because on a gut level, I felt this was a film I wanted to make."

Stree review: When a brilliant cast takes on consistently good comic writing

The initial marketing strategy, according to Vijan, was set in its teaser campaign of hoardings across the country featuring the film's eponymous character, Stree. Vijan explained, "With Stree, we went very aggressive. We used a line 'Mard Ko Dard Hoga' without any actor's face, just the stree. We put a ridiculous number of hoardings across India, saying trailer will be out in one week."

The line, the producer added, was a take on the famous Amitabh Bachchan dialogue 'Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota' from the film, Mard (1980). "I am a huge Bachchan fan, so I went with the line," he added before saying, "It could have blown up in our face, but we followed it up with a trailer which I thought was banging."

Despite the impressive trailer, Vijan believed that music played an essential part in the marketing strategies of smaller films. He said, "In terms of music, when you do films that are entirely content driven, the entire distribution system is through television, only through music. Which I think is shocking."

He added, "I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you don't have music, people will forget that your trailer came out four weeks ago. Most of my films, we try and put music in it."

Rajeev Kumar, Danny Wilson highlight role of VFX in Indian films at Jagran Cinema Summit

The producer also confessed that some of the songs for the Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer were shot specifically as a promotional tool. "We shot specific dialogue trailers. We saved most of the film for the theatres, so if you saw any visual or songs they were shot to highlight a moment in the film, not exposing the film. So most of the film was safe for the theatres," Vijan said.

Stree, which was released on 31 August, went on to make Rs110.50 crore in domestic business as on 21 September. The film is the first Rajkummar film to cross the Rs100-crore mark.

Does Stree's success mean Rajkummar Rao is now a commercially viable star?

The Jagran Film Festival will be held from 27 to 30 September.