While product placements and branding in films is an old trend in Bollywood, Tollywood is soon catching up in a big way . Telugu film industry trade pundits estimate that over 20 per cent of the movies made in the industry have either in-film branding or post film branding that saves the producers any where between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 70 lakh on a movie's budget .In fact, its no more just a strategic placement of brand in movie scenes, but whole movies are being funded by brands and many producers don't spend a penny on production. A classic example to this trend is the upcoming film 'Village Lo Vinayakudu' which is one of the lowest budget films made with Rs 1.39 crore. The film makers roped in about 12 brands to be a part of this film. While a retail store took care of the costumes, AP Tourism department managed the locations, an FM radio station and a private news channel to take care of promotions, a telecom service provider to provide hoardings, print adverts, standees, posters and are even giving away a free sim card with every audio CD, an animation studio gave free 3D animationfor the movie there by saving huge money for the producer. The producer claims that he has not spent a single pie from his pocket for the movie.
"We got around 12 brands, the primary objective is to leverage on each other strengths and create value addition for both the parties. I sold the overseas rights of the movie well in advance that gave me some cash to pay remuneration to the star cast. The rest of the movie is all taken care of by our brand partners. In all, our movie saved about Rs 60 lakhs due to branding without compromising on the quality of the film" says Mahi, the producer of Village Lo Vinayakudu.
While a few film makers include dialogues and songs with the mention of brands,a few of them show the stores or brands in the movie. Interestingly, a few automobile firms also supply their vehicles to be used in chasing scenes, a few TVchannels pay huge money to the film makers to ensure the hero works for their channel in the movie, a few telecom service providers will offer free download of movie ring tones in exchange to the heroine visiting their store in the movie. It is now a trend in Tollywood to have a partner for everything that goes into making a film be it costumes, promotions and locations.
Sreedhar Reddy, the director of upcoming movie Snehageetham says he saved Rs 30 lakh on his movie, thanks to branding. " A retail store sponsored us costumes, an animation firm managed graphics, a telecom operator and an electronic goods retail store tied up with us for sharing hoarding space and a film web site, radio station and a private entertainment channel to handle the promotions of the movie. In all I could save about Rs 30 lakh on the movie. We included two dialogues which has the mention of the brand that sponsored us costumes. This kind of branding which is mutually beneficial is soon catching up in the industry." Reddy says.
Ravi Kumar Panasa, the executive producer of the upcoming movie 'Fruits Salad' in which there is a song which mentions the name of a retail stores agrees that, in-film branding is gradually catching up and that the business community is interested in branding films of top actors like Ram Charan, Prabhas, Ravi Teja ,Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Allu Arjun. A few brands give cash to the producer forusing their brands while a few others give their products to be used in the movie. In turn, the film makers are choosing to release their audio at the brand stores oractors to go for luck draw and other business promotional events at the stores.
"Corporate houses certainly know the importance of branding in films, especially those in which big actors are cast. If its a movie of a big star, then the producer can easily save about Rs 50 lakh due to branding in the movie" he says.
Sravanti Ravikishore, a senior film maker claims that producers can save huge amount due to in-film branding than that of post film branding."We had a tie up with a mobile retail store and a telecom operator who shared ourhoarding space. We got about 40 hoardings free of cost due to this across the state.This is post film release branding. But we can save a lot of money with in-filmbranding. If its a huge budget movie, producer can even save Rs 1 crore due tobranding in the movies" Ravikishore claims.
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