The weeks leading up to the release of Alia Bhatt’s latest jailbreak actioner Jigra saw the internet getting convinced that it was Karan Johar, who grabbed an unfinished script from director Vasan Bala, and handed it over to Alia, without his consent to have her headline the project. Clarifications followed, statements were issued, fan clubs fought and all of that culminated with Dharma Productions dropping a bomb: In the future, it won’t be screening their films in advance for critics, and they begin their move with a film titled Jigra. But what went wrong?

The promotional cycle of any Hindi film gearing for release begins with a teaser, followed by the trailer and then song units. Once these assets roll out, the makers decide if they want the actors to give media interviews — a practice that has gone down tremendously post-pandemic.

The last end of the cycle, irrespective of whether interviews happen, is the press screening, where the movie is shown to critics a day or two in advance. Sometimes the reviews are on embargo–that is, they can only be published on Friday–or, if the makers are confident, they can be out on the screening day itself. Dharma has now announced that, as a move to “adapt” and “innovate”, it would forgo pre-release screenings for their upcoming films. It starts with Jigra.

Indianexpress.com spoke to stakeholders in the industry to understand the implications of this decision, and truly what could’ve triggered the production house to put an end to a tradition that has been going on for decades.

Industry sources, working across various branches in the Hindi film industry, including Dharma Productions, shared that more than one reason was at play to motivate the Karan Johar-led production house to stop pre-release screenings and instead do media shows on Friday itself. The only other production house which follows this policy is Yash Raj Films.

A Dharma insider claimed that with this, the production house is stating that the audience is the king, not critics. “It is subtle statement to end corruption in a section of film critics, because when there are press shows, then monetary conversations happen for rigging the reviews. This way, review management might stop because Bollywood right now is in a severe credibility crisis.”

Indianexpress.com has extensively reported on the “credibility crisis” in the Hindi film industry, where producers pay “trade influencers” on social media to hype their films and also engage in “paid reviews”– where a certain sum is locked in exchange for good ratings to a film.

A reputed filmmaker, known for helming prestige projects, shared a “rate card” of influencers who claim to be “critics”, willing to give glowing reviews for a film if they are paid their fee, which ranges from Rs 15,000 per tweet to Rs 60,000. This barter, the Dharma insider claimed, works both ways.

“If you can buy a positive review, you can very well plant negative reviews as well. When there is so much at stake, egos are high and the market so vulnerable, you don’t want to take any chances with negativity spoiling the party.”

A top-level image management executive, who also has the experience of cracking “deals” for paid reviews, said over the years this has become an “extortion” and a move like this by Dharma can help put an end to it. A move producers resorted to ‘buy’ good reviews for their films has come back to haunt them.

“The sanctity of movie reviews and reviewers has become non-existent and word-of-mouth publicity largely involves hearing opinions from friends, family or co-workers rather than professional reviewers. If anything, the move, if joined in by others in the industry will discourage the blatant menace of extortion. Since years YRF has followed this norm, similarly Dharma and their films will continue to garner word-of-mouth and acclaim by the first day first show movie going audience, if the content is worthy,” the executive shared.

 

 

A post shared by Vasan Bala (@vasanbala)

The menace of paid activities in the execution of a publicity campaign, the executive explained, leads to an environment of paid media tie-ups which do not always work out well.

“If a producer or film team has decided against opting for paid promotion, media portals, ‘journalists’ and so-called trade influencers run negative campaigns as means of extortion. In terms of a multi-starrer, each actor is expected to pay up and do individual tie-up in order to gain significant mention by them. Earlier this year, Kalki’s team opted not to pay media, trade and influencers and there was a coordinated negativity done against the film, that lasted until the box office figures became monumental enough,” the executive claimed.

While industry insiders are happy with the move, professional film reviewers aren’t. Journalist Shilajit Mitra, who writes reviews for The Hindu, said Dharma’s move is “disappointing” and “reeks of double standards.” Mitra said it’s strange to expect film critics to write “fair, meaningful, and, in industry parlance, balanced” film reviews and then rob them of the time and convenience to do so. The move will hit genuine film critics and not the ‘paid’ influencers who can still get away with their reactionary takes.

“Pre-release press shows are an accepted convention the world over. They are essential to patient, considered and thoughtful writing about cinema. They’re also healthy and impersonal meeting points for filmmakers and journalists – not just critics – and assist in important context-setting before a film’s release. Oftentimes, a film is rescued from controversy because journalists had seen it and understood its nuances. It is a bit hard to believe that pre-release screenings won’t happen categorically. Perhaps they will just happen under the radar and for a select bunch of critics,” he added.

Several critics spoke to Indianexpress.com anonymously and shared that there is a consensus within the community how this move will lead to “worse writing and less thoughtful, considered opinion” on films. Nuanced reviews will be replaced by more “reactionary” takes, which can impact a film.

“Critics are more pressed for time, and the level of conversation and writing on the movie could well suffer,” a critic said, noting, rather disappointingly, that there are hardly a few “credible” reviewers in the film business, whose opinions truly matter, which makes it harder for a production house to separate the genuine from the “paid garbage.”

“What this will also lead to, is less pressure from some of the makers or actors. If you are big enough for them to matter, then calls are made for a ‘positive’ review so that it helps in building a certain word of mouth even before that Friday. A lot of times some genuine people feel cornered and under pressure– which this Friday-only screening now completely removes,” the source added.

Film exhibitor Vishek Chauhan believes this is a “wrong” strategy by Dharma, explaining that “certain films” need to be shown early to cash in on the glowing reviews, which will help give it a push when a film eventually releases in cinemas.

 

 

A post shared by Alia Bhatt ???? (@aliaabhatt)

“If you make that kind of cinema, the only reason why you don’t want to show it to the world is because you are not confident. That’s a sign of weakness. Even a Marvel Studio shows films beforehand, by putting an embargo. But in certain cases, people can tweet about it. I understand that if it is a big commercial opener, you don’t want critics to come in, but a film like Jigra, made by a credible celebrated voice like Vasan Bala, was probably greenlit because the team thought it is going to be a fantastic film. So why not show it to the world?”

Vishek said production houses shouldn’t have a “blanket” ban on screenings as a lot of times, even big films, which have the potential to also get acclaim, benefit from it. Last year, Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani was screened for media in advance, which led to an instant spike in buzz on social media as glowing reviews started to come in almost instantly.

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