Fox Star Studios’ innovative marketing strategy may spark a new trend.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: For perhaps the first time ever, a big-budget Bollywood film Bullet Raja is opening in the US before it does in India.
The unusual marketing strategy – which was announced by the film’s distributor, FOX Star Studios, is so that the film can take advantage of the Thanksgiving holidays, starting on Thursday, November 28th. It will then release in India the next day, since Fridays are typically when films are released. All other non-US territories, such as the UK and Canada, will also see the release of Bullet Raja on the 29th.
Bollywood has been making a big splash in markets outside the US for years now, with Dil Se becoming the first Hindi film to ever break into the weekend box office Top 10 in the UK back in 1998, and Taal becoming the first to break the top 20 in the US a year later. In 2007, Sony Pictures attempted to cash in on the growing popularity of Bollywood by financing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, but the film flopped.
After the success of Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, international distributors once again caught the Bollywood bug, and attempted to finance and distribute several Hindi films. In 2009, Warner Bros. Pictures released the Akshay Kumar-Deepika Padukone disaster Chandni Chowk to China, while FOX Star Studios released My Name is Khan, which broke the norm and became both a critical and commercial success.
But the release of a big-budget Bollywood film in a foreign market ahead of an India release is practically unheard of, and represents a savvy move on the part of FOX Star Studios. With Dhoom 3 gearing up for a worldwide release sometime around Christmas, it’ll be interesting to see what Yash Raj Films chooses to do with the distribution of that sure-to-be record breaker.
Bullet Raja stars Saif Ali Khan as the title character, an outlaw in the heartland of India who fights against police and political corruption. The all-star cast includes Sonakshi Sinha (Dabangg), Jimmy Shergill (Mohabbatein), and Vidyut Jamwal (Force). The film is directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia (Saheb Biwi aur Gangster).
The trailer for the film can be viewed below:
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com