How Brand Shahrukh made Pathaan a massive hit

As per reports, the movie has already entered the Rs 1000 crores club. Not only is it an excellent performance, the movie can also teach the modern marketers a lesson or two.

Shahrukh Khan has ruled the industry for the better part of 3 decades now. He started his movie career in 1992 with “Deewana”. After that the star has consistently delivered critical as well as commercial successes such as Kal Ho Na Ho, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Swades, Chak De India and many more.

However his recent run at the Box office had been far from successful. Shahrukh had acted in a variety of roles in movies such as Fan, Jab Harry Met Sejal, Raees etc. None of these movies excelled the expectations and many wondered if the “King of Romance” had lost his charm. After a wait of nearly 4 years, SRK finally returned to the theaters with the multi-starrer action movie “Pathaan”. The movie has been an iconic success and has been reported to be the highest grossing hindi film in the history of cinema.

A close study reveals that strategic marketing played a huge role in the film’s success. We tried to analyze the marketing tactics used by the Yash Raj Productions and learnt some interesting lessons. Here are some of them:

•  Brand Shahrukh

Even though the megastar was missing from the big screen for 4 years, his brand value remained steady as ever. According to a celebrity brand report, SRK’s brand value stood at $46.3 million in 2021. Shahrukh was seen regularly in advertisements, cricket games and other events. Srk also has a strong online presence with around 35.9 Million followers on Instagram 43 Million followers on Twitter. The organic marketing that was done by his fans was of great help to the movie and created a substantial buzz.

• No more interviews

Bollywood actors would generally stick to tried and tested ways of marketing. This could include promoting their movies on TV shows such as Kaun Banega Crorepati, Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma etc. However, we find a different tactic being adopted in recent times. Movies such as Pathaan, Drishyam 2 etc have not asked their stars to give any interviews to media persons. Instead, they have focussed on small teasers and songs to create the hype for the movie.

• SRK’s new avatar was used

Everyone is used to seeing Shahrukh as the romantic hero. That is why we were all taken aback when pictures were released of a topless Shahrukh Khan flexing his ripped physique. His beard and long hair also added to the hype for the movie. The look was used in a carefully curated manner. For example Shahrukh flaunted the same look in the new action packed ad for Thumbs-Up. All this created an excitement amongst the viewers who could not wait to catch this new avatar.

• The advantages of multi-starrer films

One of the biggest advantages of having a multi-starrer film is that you can leverage the marketing positions of other stars as well. This is exactly what Yash Raj Productions did with Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. Both these stars did multiple appearances and kept the buzz high. In addition to this many other bollywood stars such as Anil Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Salman Khan also promoted the movie on their social media platforms.

• New content

Shahrukh is famous for his razor sharp wit. The marketing team of Yash Raj used this to their full advantage by starting the hashtag AskSRK. Excited fans could send Shahrukh their questions and he would answer the selected ones. This created excitement and at the same time helped Shahrukh interact with his fans directly. It also made for really fresh and interesting content.

Conclusion

It is good to see that Bollywood has beaten the commercial effects of the pandemic. With the help of clever marketing strategies, Pathaan has managed to become the highest grossing hindi film in the history of cinema. Do you also have a business that needs marketing help? Then take the help of the best digital marketing agency- Webeasts.