Film-makers are leaving no stone unturned to create a noise about their movies. From multi-lingual songs to offbeat marketing activities, film-makers are finding ways to improve box office collections and hold their sway to digital-empowered consumers.

Yash Raj Films recently came up with a unique multi-lingual song for its upcoming film Fan . The production house has created a song ‘ Jabra Fan’ for the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer to capture the spirit of fandom.

Following the success of the song’s Hindi version, YRF released ‘ Jabra Fan ’ in eight regional languages to reach out to a larger audience. Dubbed in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Oriya and Bhojpuri and Arabic, YRF has roped in the most popular regional playback singer from the respective State for a larger impact.

Film analyst Komal Nahata said that, “It is a very intelligent strategy by YRF as the move intends towards giving a local flavour and connects with the audience instantly. The songs have gone viral, thus, speaking volumes about their popularity and connect with the local or regional audience.”

He, however, said that it would be difficult to gauge as how much of this will translate in the box office collections, but the movie is estimated to garner over ₹25 crore on the opening day.

An YRF spokesperson said that, “We have always pushed the boundaries when it comes to reaching out to cinema audience and localisation of content helps make this even more effective.”

Similarly, the recently released The Jungle Book has curated two specially tailored ‘Mowgli Trails’ itineraries in association with Taj Safari. The trails will be organised at its lodges in Pench and Kanha National Parks, Madhya Pradesh, India.

According to film analysts, movie promotions today are probably as important as the film itself. The need for visibility and the desire to generate curiosity around the film make stars and film-makers adopt quirky promotional strategies. According to FICCI, movie promotion accounts for as much as 40-50 per cent of the overall movie budget.

Regional content A recent FICCI-KPMG report said Bollywood is constrained by the slow pace of screen growth and also has been facing increased competition from Hollywood and regional content. Better performance at the box office by regional films has also resulted in increased budgets and marketing spends.

Experts feel that growing regional content is also a trigger why production houses are looking at promoting movies through regional content.

Last year ahead of the theatrical trailer of Sunny Leone's Ragini MMS-2 was launched on various adult websites. When asked about this unusual promotional strategy, the makers said that they wanted to do something that has never been attempted before.

This was the first time that the trailer of a mainstream Indian film was released on adult sites. The film's producers clearly cashed in on Leone's adult star status.

Bipasha Basu, who is being billed as the queen of horror films, promoted her 2012 film Raaz 3 by distributing neembu-mirchis (lemon and chillies) to the Mumbai autowallas.

While promoting her film Bobby Jasoos , Vidya Balan dressed as a beggar and sat among the beggars outside the Hyderabad Railway Station. Similarly, Aamir Khan went on an incognito mode and interacted with audience in small towns before the release of Three Idiots .

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