We are awaiting this season's most talked about film. As Mr. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra likes to put it, "The script had almost everything from agony, anger, passion to joy and love". The director, who is known to put enormous research in finalising the script has never disappointed on box office. The lead actor, Farhan Akhtar is a noted film director, producer himself. He is often touted as the talent powerhouse in Hindi film industry. The efforts he has put in to imbibe the character are very clearly seen and are being admired by the audience watching barely 2-3 minutes trailers. Shankar Ehsaan and Loy have clearly delivered a masterstroke as music directors. The combination of Farhaan and the music director trio has worked many times over in the previous projects they undertook. So all in all, this product does have all the ingredients required to cross milestones at the box office. Speaking of recommendations, Mr. Milka Singh has praised the crew of the film and also gone on to mention that this will probably be the first film he would watch in many years. So our first 'P', product has passed the test. Moving on to the next 'P', Pricing will look similar to the traditional methods deployed by film makers. One thing that stands out is, the movie budget is merely Rs. 30 crores. The production house saved big time by signing Sonam Kapoor for a less significant female lead role. Also, Farhan's charges as an actor are currently in the phase of upward revision. So that helps on the cost minimization front as well. This coupled with a decent production budget puts the film far away from traditional big budget tag (Rs. 50 Crore+).So the film looks to have strong prospects of recovering the costs within the first weekend itself with no major project clashing with it. Third 'P', Place of product sale will remain to be multiplexes primarily. The urban crowd is expected to throng the screens to know more about the sporting legend of India. The smaller towns or rural parts of the country may not receive a similar footfall. These places are meant for more masala films than well crafted character films. And the last but the most important 'P', Promotions have taken off well in time, both online and offline. The teasers released more than a month in advance have received more than 3 million hits all combined. On ground activations include the bill boards showcasing chiselled physique of Farhan and they do give a feel of passion the passion the movie is sure to be filled with.
Verdict- Filmymarketer believes that the recipe is well chalked out with all the ingredients put in right proportions. The audience are most likely to put a garnishing touch to the delicacy.
Go Goa Gone released all over India on May 10th 2013. The film was unique in many ways. It was a comeback vehicle for Saif's Illuminati Films which suffered in its last attempt, Agent Vinod. Saif took all the precautions this time. He did choose a different topic but did not invest much in the budget. The film was produced in collaboration with Eros. It remained at a modest Rs.18 Crores. The movie grossed Rs. 19 Crores in the first week of its release; total collection pegging at Rs.35 crores. The target consumer segment for the movie was primarily youth in the age group 20-32 years. The promotion was carried out keeping this fact in mind. Heavy stress was laid on catchy tunes of songs, 'Khoony Monday'and "Slowly Slowly'. Saif's star value was leveraged upon while keeping significant portion of trailers for the fresh cast. The trailer did feature abuses very significantly. 'Bhen$##d' and 'Gaa#d phat gayi' addded to the adult jokes aired in trailers. The movie in short, proudly featured an 'A' certificate from Censor board. It worked in its favour. The movie got all the buzz it wanted. Youngsters flocked the theatres, shared and discussed the songs and dialogues. They could see themselves in the shoes of three leads, Hardik,Luv and Bunny. Tired of failures and boring routine, these fellows unknowingly get into an interesting encounter with Zombies (first time this concept of 'ZomCom' came to India). The movie did live up to the expectations and offered the kind of entertainment its audience expected. Revenues show that the movie scored an 'Above Average' rating. Together with a good product, the marketing function did its job pretty well. The question is whether this was a sustainable formula and the answer is, No. Very unlikely that a Goa Goa Gone 2 would see the light of the day.
But again, Bollywood never really works on formulas and calculations.....!!!!
