hype and hoopla: Aamir Khan gives a Ghajini haircut to fans; (below) Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone promote Chandni Chowk to China

A popular market in the heart of Delhi witnessed an unusual event recently. A couple of chairs were placed on a raised platform under a banyan tree to turn the place into a make-shift roadside hair cutting saloon. Then the barber walked in — none other than Aamir Ghajini Khan. A volunteer offered his head, and Khan gave him a Ghajini haircut — the buzz cut look he sports in his latest film.

Khan even walked the ramp for a popular men’s clothing brand to showcase his corporate honcho look in Ghajini at a shopping mall in Mumbai. The idea was to kindle the interest of shoppers who would then go across to the nearest multiplex to catch the movie.

Khan’s aggressive marketing of his own film is the latest trend in Bollywood — that of stars pulling out all the stops to personally promote their movies. Akshay Kumar too made it a point to appear in a children’s channel before his animation flick Jumbo hit the theatres recently. Deepika Padukone, the lead actress in the eagerly-awaited Akshay Kumar starrer Chandni Chowk to China, is also doing her bit to promote the film by sporting her reel life look in real life.

All this is a far cry from the days when audiences were treated to a thin pre-release diet of trailers, posters and the odd interview in film magazines.

“Today, actors have moved beyond acting and dubbing. Since the stakes are so high they have realised the importance of promoting their own films,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

Bollywood insiders say that the marketing blitz by stars that we have been witnessing of late is to ensure that a film has a blockbuster opening. “These days films have an extremely short shelf-life. If you don’t have a successful opening, the film is bound to be doomed. So the stars yell so that they can sell the film,” says film analyst Komal Nahata.

The yelling — and the hair cutting — seems to have paid off. Ghajini’s collection in the first week — Rs 90 crore — has broken all previous records in Bollywood. And Khan isn’t denying that marketing savvy had a role in it.

At a bash held in Mumbai to celebrate Ghajini, Khan attributed the film’s success to good marketing and distribution strategies. “Every film goes through three stages — the making, followed by marketing and then distribution. After we make the film, we hand it over to the marketing team, which plays a very important role in creating awareness about the film,” Khan said.

Of course ‘promotion’ is not new to Hindi films. A few years back, Abhishekh Bachchan and Rani Mukherji were seen as anchors on a news channel ahead of the release of Bunty aur Babli. Shah Rukh Khan too can pack a punch when it comes to marketing his films. From appearing on sundry TV shows to walking the ramp to shaking a leg with Rakhi Sawant on a reality show, King Khan promoted his film Om Shanti Om (OSO) every which way he could. There was much controversy when he turned up to watch a cricket match along with his OSO actress Deepika Padukone. His critics sniggered, saying that that too was part of his film promotion campaign. Of course he denied the allegation strenuously, but the fact remains that the buzz around OSO only went a notch higher.

“In fact, OSO was the turning point in Bollywood as far as stars promoting their movies are concerned,” says Adarsh. “The stars have realised that they have to step down from their ivory towers and come in close contact with their fans.”

Earlier this year, Rock On!! also profited from strategic promotions by its lead actors. Farhan Akhtar and the other actors held live concerts in various parts of the country, helping to build up a fan base for their film.

“The promotions of films are staged at different levels,” says Shikha Kapur, vice-president, UTV Motion Pictures. “We evolve different strategies to woo different categories of audience.” So if Aamir Khan’s barber act attracted the man on the street, his ramp show was for the upper segment of society. Again, in order to tap the youth, an online game on Ghajini was developed. The actor has lent his voice to it so as to give an air of authenticity to the game.

Television channels too are happy to cash in on the stars’ eagerness to create a buzz around their films. So while a satellite television operator regularly showed Aamir Khan’s gruelling workout regimen to achieve his eight-pack abs, a news channel repeatedly aired a special programme to show the behind-the-scenes action during the shooting of Chandni Chowk to China. Appearing as a judge on a reality show or making a guest appearance on a popular soap are other ways in which stars try to whip up interest in their forthcoming films.

Today, marketing is an all-important part of putting a film in the public domain. “There is a core strategy team that decides how best to leverage the star,” says Maneesh Mathur, chief operating officer, P9 Integrated Pvt Ltd, the marketing division of Percept Picture Company, which produced Jumbo.

As far the star is concerned, he (or she) is only too happy to be leveraged. For star power talks. And makes some blockbuster hits as well.