HOW A SURROGATE CONTROVERSY CAN HELP CHENNAI EXPRE

In my last blog post, we were talking about the difference between the three Khans, and how Aamir has an edge over the two when it comes to strategizing and marketing his films.

In the corporate world, if anybody has to assign a designation to Aamir Khan then he is clearly equipped to head the marketing team. But what would Shah Rukh Khan be in the same company? Well, he would be perfect as the sales officer, who would ensure that the product goes flying off the shelves in no time. If Aamir Khan is expert at devising a sales strategy, then Shah Rukh is expert at convincing you to buy it.

This is perhaps the reason why Shah Rukh had called himself a salesman while he was promoting his last film, Ra.One.

When Shah Rukh sells anything, be it a film or a product — there's nothing he cannot do. He will do anything to ensure good visibility to his film or brand. During Ra.One, he has even spoken about the film when he had gone to dance at weddings; such is his dedication towards selling his 'product'.

The media, time and again, has highlighted how Shah Rukh Khan has developed a tendency to go overboard specially when it comes to selling his films. This tendency of Shah Rukh Khan has resulted in numerous embarrassing situations also.

Take this one for example. This happened when Shah Rukh Khan had called a press conference to sell his last film Jab Tak hai Jaan. The media wanted to know some interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Shah Rukh Khan while he was shooting for the film and a glib Shah Rukh made up a story on-the-spot. It turned out to be an awkward turn of events when Katrina Kaif butted in the middle of the 'story' saying that what Shah Rukh is saying is, in fact, a lie. Even though Shah Rukh hinted at Katrina to play along, she went on denying Shah Rukh's 'story'. Quick on his foot, Shah Rukh Khan saved his face by saying he was only trying to fool the media!

Here is the video of that press conference.

In this age, when sales figures are directly proportional to the visibility of the 'product', maybe it is the best thing to do. But what happens when the lines blur between just trying to sell a film and hawking the film in such an aggressive way that you have no escape route?

It is alleged that one of the reasons why Ra.One failed as a film is because Shah Rukh went overboard peddling it to his audience. There was a time when people started complaining that there was too much of Ra.One everywhere. Wherever you went, Shah Rukh and his marketing team had ensured that there was this superhero in his blue suit ready to greet you with a robotic grin.

Here is one such comprehensive report about Shah Rukh Khan and how he didn't leave any stone unturned in publicizing Ra.One. In fact, Ra.One is now cited by some as an example of what excessive publicity can do to a film.

The curious case of controversies

In the recent past, a big controversy has always preceded a Shah Rukh Khan film. Though the controversies seem to have no apparent connection with the upcoming film, it has always ensured that he is firmly in the news. There are times when Shah Rukh plays along and at times, he watches the tamasha from a distance and lets the controversy pan itself out.

His detention at Newark airport on August 15, 2009 because his 'name is Khan' was constantly played out in the media before the release of My Name Is Khan on 12 February 2010. Incidentally, the film also has a similar scene, where Shah Rukh is detained at the airport because of his surname. For the record, that scene was not inserted as an afterthought to the Newark incident.

Here is the official trailer of the film that was released soon after the incident.

When it came to Ra.One, there were too many controversies that preceded it. The controversies ranged from actors and directors being miffed at each other to leaking the music of the film online.

Hence the controversy of determining the sex of the surrogate baby seems curiously timed too. This controversy has come just days after the first promo of Chennai Express hit prime time slots.

It can be argued that the actor is helpless if someone spreads a nasty rumour about him. Right? Yes, he probably didn't know how the rumour surfaced. But notice how the rumour is fast gaining ground while the actor is choosing to remain silent.

Shah Rukh has a lot of options if he wants to stop a rumour from circulating. He has an army that looks after his public image. Just notice how each one of them is keeping mum as the world is discussing his 'supposed' surrogate baby and even accusing him of trying to find the unborn baby's sex (which is illegal in India).

Isn't a press statement from his manager enough to put all these rumours to rest? But no, Shah Rukh Khan is again watching from a distance as he is being given free and prime media space across platforms just on the basis of one rumour. Of course, after a point of time, the media will be blamed for trying to sell a 'news' that Shah Rukh hasn't yet confirmed.

Shah Rukh Khan's 'sudden' return on Twitter

After 9th January this year, Shah Rukh had suddenly stopped tweeting. I remember when I was trying to find out when the actor would resume tweeting again, I was told by his staff that he is terribly hurt by a section of his fans bullying him on Twitter and that he doesn't have any immediate plan to return on the micro-blogging site.

When I spoke to somebody else in his production house, I got a different answer. I was told that his absence from Twitter was a calculated move and he will reappear at 'a suitable time'. "He will remain absent from Twitter for a few months. We will start building up the possible arrival of Shah Rukh through sponsored hash-tags, fan responses etc. Then Shah Rukh will come back on twitter when we start the promotions of Chennai Express," said the insider.

That is exactly what happened later. On 25th May this year, Shah Rukh suddenly reappeared on Twitter, months after hash-tags from his fans demanding his arrival flooded tweeto-sphere and regularly trended in India. He returned to Twitter by re-tweeting a link put up by Deepika Padukone (which is a funny behind-the-scenes video of Chennai Express). Yes, the timing of the return was again unmistakable.

Here is the tweet of Deepika Padukone that Shah Rukh re-tweeted to let the world know that he back on Twitter. I am embedding the tweet below.

How a simple rumour becomes national news

We are not going into whether there is any truth in the rumour. By all means it should have been put to rest, but it clearly seems like nobody's interested in doing that right now. Anybody who's a little versed in how the Indian media works, know that when a celebrity keeps quiet in the face of a raging controversy or a rumour, the Indian media usually assumes that there is some truth in it. The more the actor keeps quiet on the controversy, the more the 'news' goes viral. Such gossips starts gaining momentum with the online audience and rapidly shared on social media before the mainstream media picks it up as 'news'.

This is exactly what is happening now. Now, this is what is going to happen next.

Shah Rukh Khan will suddenly appear on television and squarely blame the media for creating a controversy when there was none.

Before that happens, here's a bonus video for all Shah Rukh Khan fans. This is an early ad of Shah Rukh Khan where he is trying to sell you a Moped. Mopeds have become extinct in India.