By Surendra Bhatia
Press conferences and first-look releases, and trailer launches in Bollywood follow a predictable pattern that sometimes borders on boredom — largely because event managers just go through the motions and don’t come up with anything different. These functions generally do the usual razzmatazz and then the lead actors are called on stage to be quizzed by the media. The questions, too, are the usual put up by the usual suspects in the media fraternity, so no big surprises here. And then someone with the mike proclaims that a nice time was had by all and the function comes to an end.
Fortunately, Karan Johar proved a lot more enterprising at the trailer launch of his Good Newwz, which should become the norm, hopefully, or a template for other production houses to follow. At the launch, the event started and continued on predictable lines till Karan handed the mike to Akshay Kumar and the show turned a fresh colour. Instead of directly promoting the film, Akshay started off by offering a ‘Karan Hamper’ — loaded with goodies that only the Johar can put together — for those in the audience who came up with the correct answer to his question. Not exactly rapid fire, but it injected life in the event that could have got over without a fuss — since the norm had been adhered to.
Akshay’s questions to particular members in the audience were on the lines of ‘which day was your child born’ — day, mind you, besides the date and the year — and almost all got it wrong! And how many bones does a child have and, most interestingly, what is unique about crying of a child? (children cry without tears!).
With this quiz section, the press conference became a fun event, with people from a cross section participating, including TV news camera persons and media technicians. It could be said that this had a limited purpose since only those at the function would have enjoyed it, but fortunately, modern life is not as simple as that. The function was videotaped and loaded on the web where it is available for the entire world to catch. The online video has had many hits and has generated much interest, which adds to the film’s promotion. The general public gets an insight into the launch and Akshay’s informal style (and one particular joke that shall not be mentioned here) was endearing and gave a real insight on how much fun was had.
It is possible that the launch video has not gone viral but certain portions of it certainly might… all in all, a great effort by Karan Johar, to be different and truly entertaining. If Good Newwz is the same, Dharma will surely have another hit in its catalogue.
