Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir & now Kartik Aaryan – Bollywood’s best marketing geniuses

A film’s success at the box office is an amalgamation of many things – the story, the performances, the novelty it offers to an audience, the music, and the manner in which the film is promoted and marketed. Some experts would even go as far as to say that the way a movie is marketed could ‘make or break it’ irrespective of the content. While content may be king, a few Indian stars have truly understood the value of marketing the film correctly to ensure that content reaches the widest audience possible.

Here’s taking a look at Bollywood stars who’ve aced the marketing game to promote their films in a clutter-breaking and unique manner –

Aamir Khan - His gamut of clutter-breaking marketing techniques over 10 years have made crores in box office collections. A sheer marketing genius, Khan was the brainchild behind the Ghajini campaign where people’s hair was shaved off, to touring colleges during 3 Idiots and visiting nine cities across India with nine famous local reporters for Talaash. Every one of the marketing campaigns of the superstar’s films thereon has continued to have his stamp of expertise.

Shah Rukh Khan – While introducing an entirely new genre with Ra.One, Shah Rukh Khan promoted it like nothing short of an international film, from merchandising to partnering with 25 local and international brands. He did the Slam Tour for Happy New Year and plugged Dilwale into the 20-year anniversary of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The superstar understood the requirement of each of his films, and found the best way to reach the target audience.

Kartik Aaryan – Now this young actor has taken marketing-genius techniques to another level in the post pandemic era. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 was a massive success that brought Hindi movies its first blockbuster during the pandemic. Experts have delved deep into the film’s success story crediting Kartik Aaryan’s relentless marketing and promotional effort as one of the biggest driving factors. From touring multiple cities in a single day, visiting unconventional centres, pub-hopping, creating a whirlwind on social media with a hook step… the actor did it all at a time the industry faced a lull. Imitation is the best form of flattery and while movies were conventionally promoted prior to their release dates, major movie studios, leading stars and producers are now following the Kartik Aaryan template to promote films.

Trade expert Taran Adarsh says, “A major common factor between Shah Rukh, Aamir and now Kartik is the fact that they understand how important it is to promote and market a movie correctly. They have all in ways been front runners and introduced marketing trends that were emulated by the rest. While Shah Rukh and Aamir set the benchmark with their unique and eye catching style of marketing, a prodigy like Kartik Aaryan introduced an aggression to the game, going the extra mile to promote the film post its release. Now we see many other actors and studios following suit.”