URVI MALVANIAMumbai, 23 january

A s Padmaavat gears upfor its much-delayedrelease, the buzz

around the film may have cre-ated its own self-propellingmarketing machine but,brands that are now a key ele-ment of film promotions, aremissing in action. Quiteuncharacteristically so, giventhat the movie produced byViacom 18 was mounted on amassive ~1.3 billion budgetand would have ideallyrecouped at least 18-20 percent of its cost through brandtie-ups. And marketers fear,this could be a sign of thetimes to come, as politics overpopular culture turns viciousand violent.

The film’s latest poster,with the revised name (it wasearlier called Padmavati) hasno brands displayed, saveAmazon Prime Video, theonline streaming partner forthe film. Even jewellery brandTanishq that has a special linedesigned around the filmcalled Tanishq-Padmavatiand had launched an aggres-sive campaign with lead actorDeepika Padukone in the run-up to the original release dateof the film (December 1, 2017)has preferred to keep its asso-ciation away from the lime-light. It is not the only one,there are at least five brandsthat have decided to keep off

the red carpet for Padmaavatsays a marketing executive inthe know.

Quite clearly the protestsand threats that continue topour in for the movie’s starsand all those that have playedany role in its making havekept the brands away. Theyhave all gone passive, prefer-ring to sink their investmentsrather than risk a greater lossby making them public, says abrand consultant. Viacom 18was not available for com-ment on whether any brandsare actively associated withthe film .

Over the years Bollywoodhas served as a profitable plat-form for brands. A recentreport by ESP, a GroupM com-pany, indicates that annually,companies spend close to ~1billion on co-branded mar-keting media spends for Hindifilms. In 2017, 76 out of the 134odd Hindi films that releasedhad co-branded marketingtie-ups. It is a mutually bene-ficial relationship but, the flipside is that brands are draggedinto any controversy that afilm gets into.

Padmaavat is a classicexample. While Tanishqrefused to comment on the sto-ry, it is not talking up its asso-ciation with the film althoughit still has the co-branded lineof jewellery for sale. In fact thebrand has been quiet ever sincethe first protests broke outbefore the Gujarat election.

Sandeep Goyal, founder MogaeMedia, says it is understand-able that brands would want todistance themselves. “It is notonly about bad press. A lot ofthese brands have retail outletsand using the film’s posters (asthey would be entitled to undertheir contract) could attractprotestors who could get vio-lent. In that sense, Padmaavatis bad news right now.”

Will the controversy impactfuture brand-Bollywood asso-ciations? Experts believe it will.“It’s a mess. It’s not so muchabout the money associatedwith the film. Exit clauses existfor such events and the moneycan be refunded. But the dam-age a brand suffers is different,”says a brand manager.

On the bright side, brandscan cover some lost ground byplaying up their associationsin international markets. Goyalreveals that in markets likeDubai, Padmaavat’s posters aredisplaying the big brands andsince the film was cleared forinternational distributionmuch before it got certificationfrom the CBFC in India, the off-shore publicity machines havebeen whirring for a while.

Anirban Das-blah, founderKWAN, an entertainment firmthat also facilitates brandassociations says that the con-troversy is an ominous signof the times to come. He likemany others who requestedanonymity believe that thegovernment and the law andorder infrastructure are toblame. “As long as the govern-ment continues to supportsuch vandalism with itssilence (over such matters),the industry will suffer,” Das-blah says.

There is another way to ridethe news cycle though, even ifit is negative. Online ticketingportal BookMyShow (BMS) isdoing that with a dash ofhumour. It has a promotionalvideo asking people not to missthe film or else they could findthemselves out of all conversa-tions on social media.

Brands are not the onlyparties caught in the crossfire.Exhibitors and distributorsfeel that the fear of violencecould keep people away fromthe theatre and therebyimpact all films releasing overthe weekend. “The good thingis that the film has been in thenews since almost eightmonths and so it has visibility.If there is no vandalism and ifthe film is decent, not evengreat, it has good chances.Let’s see what the weekendholds,” says ShaaminderMalik, independent distribu-tor and trade analyst for North India.

Brands play a silentrole in Padmaavat

| Brand associations are a big partofBollywood;in 2017, more than half the Hindi moviesreleased had co-branded marketing tie-ups

| Brand activations are attheir peak justbefore amovie releases, butnotfor Padmaavat

| Mounted ata budgetof~1.3 billion, the movie isproduced byViacom 18.It releases january25

TAKING A HIT

18 BRAND WORLD MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY, 24 JANUARY 2018>

Controversy and uncertainty over the movie are forcingbrands to rethink their Bollywood connections

ACROSS8 All together, holding firm,

the man is about to gainvictory (8)

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risky challenges (7,8)18 In some matches, remains to

count takings (4,2)20 Daughter is at hand to

uncover... (8)23 How a bag of fruit gets

around to the blooming red,white and blue - and black(8)

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DOWN1 Bird-shooter ? (6)

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15 "Man in Lead Collapses" for

instance (8)

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> BS SUDOKU # 2408

SOLUTION TO #2943

SOLUTION TO #2407

MMeeddiiuumm::

Solution tomorrow

HOW TO PLAYFill in the grid so that everyrow, every column andevery 3x3 box contains thedigits 1 to 9

Max/min temperatures inOC

NNAATTIIOONNAALL

Ahmedabad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 27/12Aizawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 21/6Bengaluru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 29/15Bhopal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 28/11Bhubaneswar . . . . . . .Partly cloudy 29/16Chandigarh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rain 16/8Chennai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 29/21Delhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Partly cloudy 19/7Guwahati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 26/15Hyderabad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 30/14Imphal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 23/8Indore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 28/11Kochi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Partly cloudy 32/22Kolkata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 27/13Lucknow . . . . . . . . . . . . .Partly cloudy 32/27Mangalore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thundery 29/24Mumbai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 30/19Pune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 31/16Srinagar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 11/-3Surat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 30/16Thiru’puram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sunny 30/24

> WEATHER TODAY’S FORECAST

> THE BS CROSSWORD # 2944

PUBLIC NOTICENOTICE is hereby given that, (1) MRS. MAINA DEVI BAJORIA alias MRS. MAINADEVI TOLARAM BAJORIA and (2) MR. RAMAN BAJORIA alias MR. RAMAN KUMAR BAJORIA (the Owners) are the owners of Flat No. 404, area admeasuring 706 sq. ft. Carpet, on the 4th Floor, in “E” Wing, Society known as Serenity Shree Sai Wing 'A', 'D', 'E', 'F' Co-Operative Housing Society Ltd., situated at Serenity Complex, Off Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri (West), Mumbai – 400 053, on the land bearing C.T.S. No. 121, 122, 151 to 155 and 172 (parts), Village Osh iwara, Ta luka Andher i , M.S.D. (hereinafter referred to as "said Flat"). Our client MRS. JAYSHREE CHATTERJEE (the Purchasers) is negotiating for acquiring / purchase all the rights, title and interests of the said Flat from the owners.A n y p e r s o n / s , g o v e r n m e n t / s e m i -government/private origination/institute, Bank, Financial Institution who has/have any claim in, in respect of the said Flat or any part thereof, by way of lease, lien, gift, licence, inheritance, maintenance, sale, exchange, easement, mortgage, charge, trust, possession, encumbrances, lis-pendens, Agreement, or otherwise howsoever, should make the same known to the undersigned in writing at the address mentioned below specifically stating therein the exact nature of such claim, if any, together with documentary evidence within 14 days of the publication of this Notice. In case no objections are received within the aforesaid time, it shall be presumed that there are no claimants to the aforesaid Flat.

Advocate for the client,Mrs. Suman Rathi

Sd/-RATHI LEGIST ASSOCIATES

Office: 602/31, “Sanskruti”, 90 Feet Road, Thakur Complex, Kandivali (East),

Mumbai - 400101.