The marketing mantras of Bhaag Milkha Bhaags success

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart… A story of a forgotten hero, with a not so popular star cast, ruling the box office! Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, according to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was rejected by innumerable distributors. It was then that Viacom extended its support to be a part of this venture. When asked Marketing Head of Viacom, Rudrarup Dutta about the reasons behind signing up this venture, he says, "We are the studio which likes to break the norm. In Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, we saw the potential to be a game changer. It had a great script and a great concept. Hats off to Rakeysh and Prasoon for making such a beautiful script! The fact that they had written a story during the partition but with contemporary touch and the way it was relevant to the current generation was what inspired us to take the story and move it forward."

As rightly put by Dutta, Bhaag Milka Bhaag turns out to be a 'gamechanger'. While critics can't stop gushing about it, the audience is going gaga over the stunning performance given by Farhan Akthar. The movie did not turn out to be just any blockbuster, but is also exempted from entertainment tax in many Indian states.

What would make a biopic of an athlete so intriguing that it becomes one of the finest films of the year? While the movie surely has some fascinating content and par excellence performance to boast about, their pitching techniques surely played a huge role behind the success of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. We at Bollywood Hungama analyze the marketing strategy of a film which has currently left the audience and critics in awe.

While the biggest challenge for the marketing team was to revive a legend who hasn't faced the media for over a decade, Prabhat Choudhary of Spice PR thought it was the easiest one. "He needed to be convinced but he bought all our arguments. He understood the mechanics of marketing and PR. He is a very sharp guy. People of his age consider marketing as a gimmick. But Milkha Singh is different. He understood the importance of it and supported us at every step," says Prabhat. Prabhat's company Spice also handled the promotions of Lootera, Fukrey and Ship of Theseus recently.

In an era where a movie releases in a few months after its first look launch, this film followed a different strategy. It was announced three years before its release. Elaborating on the kind of strategy that the team of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag had to follow over a span of three years, Rudrarup Dutta says, "While we released the first teaser in November 2012, we started building it in people's psyche since then. And finally when we were nearing the release, there was high pitched media campaign and co- branded partnership which accentuated the campaign. Elements of commercialization reflected in the way the songs were made, the promos and the traditional marketing which represented the current generation."

Adding further about the strategy, Prabhat says, "Everything about Milkha was very credible." According to him, it is very important to gain the trust of the audience. "Normally, when a film is promoted, a lot of times the audiences reject the content because there are lot of gimmicks involved and hence people lose trust in the film. But when it came to Milkha, the audience absorbed it because of its credibility and the audience also started respecting it."

Supporting the fact that movie did not have any cheap publicity tricks, Rudrarup Dutta says, "This was one campaign that did not have anything negative about it. We did not sensationalize any news for the film. There was no misrepresentation of anyone or anything and it still worked."

Though Bhaag Milkha Bhaag did stay away from masala news, it didn't mean that the movie was completely away from the media glare. Keeping the biopic on Milkha Singh alive on the news circuit for a span of 3 years in itself was a huge task that was accomplished quite successfully by the producers and their team. "We constantly kept making news to keep it alive in the audience's mind. Right from the time that we bought Milkhaji's shoes in an auction to constant visibility during the shoot of the film, the movie was a talk of the town," says Dutta.

Despite taking so much of efforts to keep the publicity real, the movie however became a victim of controversy after rumors were rife about Bhaag Milkha Bhaag being banned in Pakistan. Also what raised a lot of eyebrows were the intimate scenes Farhan Akhtar shared with actress Rebecca Breeds. While the actors as well as the director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra did clear the air about these controversies, so did the production house. "Our intension was never to make anything sensational. The most important element was we had Milkha Singh's approval. Moreover, his family too was supportive in this campaign. And as far as the controversies surrounding Pakistan was concerned, there hasn't been any official denial of the release of the film out there. The film is made in an unbiased manner with no offence to any religion or community. In fact, Milkha Singh was a great representation of unity," says Dutta.

Talking about the athlete's story, what further made the film so unique was that the movie did not just have Milkha Singh's approval but he appeared at all important promotions and there wasn't any conflict regarding his portrayal in the film. Prabhat believes that Milkha Singh was the backbone of the film and played an important role in gaining the trust of the audience. "Every biopic was always stuck in dispute. But here, he is the one who played the most important role in establishing the credibility. When the movie was announced in September 2010 in Chandigarh, it had no star cast, no studio, no budget that was finalized but the launch had Milkha himself supporting this venture of a biopic," says Prabhat.

One of the strongest advantages of the film happened to be the fact that it was made on an icon who is hail and hearty. Milkha Singh himself has extended his support tremendously to the film. "In case of a biopic on someone who isn't alive, he will not be able to endorse the film. In such cases it is important to understand that their family sees them in a different light. In this case, we are fortunate that Milkha Singh is alive. But that was not all. Bandit Queen was a biopic too which was made when Phoolan Devi was alive. But she hadn't promoted the film; rather she had differences with the filmmaker. But, when Milkha himself officially endorsed this biopic, it made a crucial difference. Unlike others, he didn't drag us to court for misrepresenting anything. He is truly the marketing Hero of the film," adds Prabhat.

But was non-controversial story of a legend who is still alive, the only reason for this commercial success? Often biopics are considered to be a part of parallel cinema, especially when there is no glamour attached to it. One such example is Paan Singh Tomar, a biopic on the athlete cum dacoit. So how did this one achieve commercial success? According to Dutta, it is mainly because of the way the movie was presented to the audience. "Making a biopic that is relevant to the contemporary society was a big challenge. Our main idea was to pitch it as an entertaining film, rather than a historical one. Visuals and music played an important role. We used music as a driving medium which represented the entertainment side of the film. Every creative used was very contemporary. Nothing was periodic. It was pitched as an inspirational film and not a sports film. Also, we focused more on the fact that this story is about a man who achieved his dreams despite all odds, rather than promoting it as a story of a successful athlete," says Rudrarup.

While the movie had all its odds against it – from reviving a forgotten legend to issues faced by the director to selling the movie, today the movie has become one of the highest grossers of the year and joined the 100 crore club. One of the important reasons behind such a tremendous success is the high pitched and well planned marketing strategy that not only made the film the 'crowd-puller' of the season but also managed to create an aura of respect around it, without resorting to any unwanted publicity stunts and controversies. The film here proves that true and sensible marketing techniques is one of the strong success mantras in Bollywood.

Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more