Baahubali, VFX, CGI and creativity…we have heard it all through several reports along the year 2015 and we have felt it ripples in 2016 as well. So much so that we know the the sequel to the film Baahubali: The Conclusion is due to release next year. But, one question stays predominantly- though Baahubali:The Beginning had the right story with phenomenal visual effects, how did a Telugu Tamil film travel so far and wide? What was the marketing and sales strategy that convinced audience in US to watch a down south film of India?
At FICCI Frames 2016, some of these threads were highlighted by a group of panelists of team Baahubali that consisted of the film producer Shobhu Yarlagadda; production designer Sabu Cyrill; cinematographer Senthil Kumar; International Sales and Marketing Sales Head Francois Da Silva along with the moderator of the discussion Makuta VFX technical director Pete Draper.
On the marketing of the film in India itself, Shobhu Yarlagadda explained, “The film is a Tamil and Telugu film, therefore making the film travel at the national level and abroad was difficult. A lot of co-operation and collaboration with Dharma Productions for the Hindi version and with other regional production houses, helped to produce the film in different languages appealing to the Indian audience.”
On this Francios Da Silva added, “Though the film has earned around 7 million dollars in US and but still there are a lot of places it has to open. The first territory where the film will be released is Germany, followed by Latin America (Peru specifically).”
However, while creating the film, the director S.S. Rajamouli didn’t have any international audience in mind. He just wanted to narrate the story in the right way. Senthil Kumar added, “The war sequence has an Indian feel and we wanted to retain it; for the story was very Indian. A film has to be done in an Indian way or international way does not matter. What matters is that the film has to be done in the right way.”
Well, if the film was Indian and had the Indian feel then how and why did the film fare so well globally? The answer is quite justified – ‘Story and VFX’- led to the success of the film worldwide. But, while marketing the film to a foreign audience, the story can’t be revealed completely then how did the marketing strategy facilitated?
Francois answered, “For us while marketing or promoting the film, it was not an Indian film or a Telugu film, it was just a simple ‘film’. It was a good story with extensive VFX work. The marketing was difficult especially at the the global level and it took lot of time to convince the key players.”
While on the content front, a paramount revelation brought about at the panel discussion. A special edited version of Baahubali: The Beginning has been created for the international audience. Francois revealed, “This version has been edited by a well known film editor Vincent Tabaillon who has previously worked on Clash of the Titan, The Incredible Hulk and Now You See Me. Around 20 minutes of the original film has been edited and this edited version of the film will only be showcased abroad as it is more appealing to the international audience.”
Thus, the marketing strategies have helped the film to reach to global audience by tweaking the content a bit so as to appeal to that particular audience. However, Shobhu Yarlagadda admitted, “When we saw the edited version of the film for the international distribution, we couldn’t find any difference. We couldn’t spot where the editing was done; it was that crisp and perfect.”
Distributing the film globally was also a tough task as it led to the need of finding international sales agent who could take the film far and wide. This was a tedious process and heavy on the budget of the film too. The producer of the film then finally thought of the idea of selling the film themselves instead of searching these intermediate sales agents. Therefore, a conceptualised marketing strategy was put in place and the film was marketed worldwide.
The basic idea behind the marketing of the film began with the film being sent to various film festivals. This gave the film a wide audience to be showcased, varied feedback and credible recognition at a larger platform.
Baahubali: The Beginning was made on a budget ofRs 120 crore ($18 million), released on 10 July, 2015 to become the highest grossing Indian film within India. Amassing Rs 600 crore ($89 million) worldwide, it became the third highest grossing Indian film globally.