PR tune kya kiya

PR tune kya kiya

…PR ka kaam hai kehna — the mantra behind publicity stunts this year!

Soumyadipta Banerjee



So, Pakistani actor Veena Malik 'went missing', actors Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri are having a rollicking affair, heroines Chitrangda and Deepika are having a cat-fight over a dress, Bollywood's Prateik is dating international swimsuit model Amy Jackson… welcome to the world of fiction spawned for a film!
Insiders and filmmakers agree that all through the year 2011, the number of PR driven stories masquerading as genuine facts have gone up tremendously.
"There are some producers, who are ready to go to any lengths to promote their film. It does not matter to them what happens to the star after the film releases —they just want to sell their films. We sit down with the producer to figure out the 'controversies' that will be lapped up by the public. Once the filmmaker approves of the 'stories', we go all out to 'plant' these stories in the media. In most cases, the actors are informed about it. There are exceptions, when a star is not aware of it," reveals a publicist.
So, what makes an actor party to false stories being generated about them? Plainly money drives them to it. "There is now a budget that is kept aside for the promotions and in some cases, the actors get another share of the promotional budget too. In cases, where the actor is a co-producer, he does it out of his own accord because his money is in it too. There's a pattern that is followed to ensure that the story catches the eye — first, plant the story and then get the actor to deny it," says a filmmaker.
Sometimes it hits the actor really hard, as was the case with actor Vidya Balan during the making of No One Killed Jessica — One story that floated around was that she and co-star Rani Mukerji did not gel well on the sets and the other was that she had tied the knot.
"I didn't have any idea where it came from. I got to know only when I started getting calls to comment on these issues. The marriage story was the most funny. I I was shooting in Hyderabad, when it was reported that I had eloped," recalls Vidya.

s_banerjee@dnaindia.net