Bhediya, Bollywood's very own creature comedy dropped in theatres and to reach the masses across India and abroad, the makers chose both traditional and digital media. Here's a look at the Bhediya marketing strategy.
Following Bollywood’s new favourite genre horror-comedy, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon starring ‘Bhediya’ follows the life of Bhaskar played by Varun, who on a very uneventful night, gets bitten by a wolf and gets the ability to turn into a werewolf on full-moon nights. This ‘retelling’ of sorts of ‘Teen Wolf’ takes a humorous route with a classic Bollywood under Maddock Films’ banner. Bhediya Marketing Strategy synces seamlessly with this theme.
To reach the masses, the makers of the horror flick chose digital and traditional platforms. Here’s a look at the Bhediya marketing strategy that crossed several borders.
Announcing the Series
Dinesh Vijan, the producer, announced prior to the movie's release announced that Bhediya is set to be his third installment in the horror-comedy universe. The makers also announced that it would be shot in Arunachal Pradesh with Arunachal rapper K4 Kheko featuring in the movie’s soundtrack.
This announcement opened up the regional audience for the movie prior to its release.
Trailer Drop
Little over a month before the movie hit the theatres, the banner’s social media platforms were flooded with anticipation posts around the trailer release. Finally, on October 19, the creators released the movie trailer in three languages - Hindi, Telegu, and Tamil. Thus expanding their reach among the regional audience.
Bhediya's team further initiated #FridayFanLove on their Instagram handles, sharing their favourite fan art. With this, the movie makers maintained engagement with fans and created conversation for the upcoming movie from the very beginning.
Like many, the makers of Behdiya made sure to use the movie’s soundtrack to grab the audience’s attention. To reach the fans, the creators came up with the ‘Thumkeshwari Challenge’ on Reels.
Apart from a dance number, following the humorous mood of the movie, yet another song titled - ‘Baaki Sab Theek’ was released as a ‘Road Trip Song’ piquing the interest of travel enthusiasts.
Going along with the regional touch the makers of the movie have established from the very start, they released the soundtrack of the movie in Tamil and Telegu as well, thus opening the movie to a wider set of audience.
At an event held by Meta India - #MetaCreatorDay, Varun Dhawan made an appearance with actor and influencer Avneet Kaur and later collaborated and created a dance reel on the movie’s song ‘Apna Bana Le’.
Apart from the digital reach, the makers had an extensive around-the-nation promotional event covering various major cities. The event at Kolkata also saw a veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, who is a popular name in the Bengali movie industry, host the makers and stars. This further helped in reaching the audience in the Eastern region.
The makers also travelled to other parts of the country to reach the audience -- covering Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Delhi among other cities.
Soon after the national tour concluded, the makers crossed international borders and unveiled the movie's poster on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa captioning it #BhediyaHowlsinDubai.
The best way to make your presence seen is by reaching the audience’s home. This is exactly what the makers did, with reality show appearances and interviews on digital platforms.
The actors were seen appearing on a variety of different reality shows.
Apart from this, they were also seen interacting with digital platforms like IMDb, Fever FM, and Curly Tales.
Brand Association
Varun and Kriti are two stars who are already associated with the brand Fossil and this aligned perfectly with their newest release. Unveiling the latest fall collection for the brand, Varun and Kriti were seen posing for the brand.
With the movie releasing in time for Christmas, the star cast was also seen unveiling Top 10 Toys for Christmas 2022 for the international toy brand Hamleys, which opened their world’s first Hamleys Play Store at Jio World Drive BKC, Mumbai.
Actor’s Social Media
The last piece of marketing was leveraging the lead actors' owned media. The actors were consistent in sharing multiple snaps, behind-the-scenes from the sets, and during the process of promotions as well.
Additionally, during the filming of the movie, Kriti Sanon shared mini vlogs of her time and experience filming on the set in Arunachal naming them #ArunachalTravelSeries. The series consisted of 4 episodes and it chronicled various parts of the filming process.
With the last piece of marketing wrapping, the movie was released on the big screens on 25 November. Will Bollywood’s first werewolf-themed horror-comedy travel borders like the makers did?
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