Bajrangi Bhaijaan's TV premiere rakes in Rs 60 cr in sponsorship

New Delhi: In less than three months after its theatrical release, actor Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan is set for a television premiere on Star India Pvt. Ltd's flagship film channel Star Gold on 11 October.

The blockbuster movie is expected to fetch Star India, part of US media conglomerate 21st Century Fox, over Rs.60 crore in advertising and sponsorship revenue in a year's time. A big chunk of this money, about Rs.40 to Rs.50 crore, will be made from the first two television screenings of the film, said a person familiar with the matter.

The second screening of the film will take place after a gap of a few weeks.

Star India has the broadcast as well as digital rights to the film that it plans to exploit on its mobile-streaming app Hotstar.

"Right after the television premiere is the digital exclusive for us on Hotstar," said an executive who is close to the development, also on condition of anonymity.

At least six sponsors have been signed up by Star India for the film's television premiere. These include e-commerce firms Amazon India, Askme.com and Carwale.com and telecom operator Vodafone India Ltd.

"As a brand you want to be heard and seen during the festive season. I picked this film before I'd seen it and even before it released in the theatres because Star had bought the rights of the film at a pre-release stage," said Manav Sethi, group chief marketing officer and head (digital strategy) for Askme.com.

Askme.com has signed up to sponsor four films on Star India including Drishyam,Hero and Guddu Rangeela.

Amazon India, which is the presenting sponsor for the film, is estimated to have spent Rs.8 crore to Rs.10 crore on the deal. The deal with sponsors includes visibility across outdoor hoardings, mailers, promos on the Star India network and ad time when the film is aired.

Amazon India did not respond to a query from Mint.

The Bajrangi Bhaijaan team is looking forward to the film's television premiere.

"Bajrangi Bhaijaan has been a remarkable box-office success across world markets. But it's tragic how under-screened we are in India, which means there's a large audience which will watch the film for the first time on television," said Amar Butala, chief operating officer of Salman Khan Ventures, the film's producer. "Our expectations are for that audience to discover the film and love it the way theatre-going audiences have," added Butala, who is in Korea where the movie is being screened at the Busan Film Festival.

The film has garnered close to Rs.500 crore in worldwide box-office collections, according to film website Bollywood Hungama.

Butala emphasized that films such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan usually follow the 12-week transition window to second screen which is pre-determined. "A three-month window allows us to exploit the film across the country and then reach out to a large audience (on television) while it is still fresh in memory," he said.

"Even for satellite broadcasters, this is a period that has worked well. Unlike the West, which has other premium windows before a film airs on television, in India these things are still at a nascent stage."

Considering the massive success of the film, premiering it on television would have been a lucrative opportunity for any channel. Butala stressed that the Star India network is more than a broadcaster for the production house. The Star India team worked almost like partners on the film, he said.

"The network has been part of our marketing endeavours right from the start, be it the launch of the first teaser, or the road block (media splurge) across the network when we launched the trailer, and again during the week of release. The Star team has put their muscle in pushing the film to theatres," said Butala.

The channel's support for the film has been further amplified during the promotion of the satellite premiere with promotions across the network on all channels. Butala mentions an aggressive outdoor campaign has been up since 2 October in Mumbai and Delhi, along with many online websites. Another activity involved people getting a chance to "Dance with Salman" and also get a digitally modified selfie with him.

Star India will be airing Bajrangi Bhaijaan as part of a five-year deal that, according to media reports, was signed in January 2013 and gives the channel exclusive satellite rights to broadcast all films featuring Salman Khan that are released from January 2013 to December 2017.