04 January,2010 08:27 AM IST | | Waleed Hussain
The age-old PR saying goes 'No publicity is bad publicity'. And, going by the amount of free publicity that the Four Idiots u2014 sorry, was that four or three? u2014 are getting, that saying seems to be coming true all over again.
It all began with a little 'credit' issue that spilled over and resulted in ringing the cash counters a little louder u2014 for all four that is. Initially, when the cribbing about the scriptwriter taking credit for the plot and the book not getting its due began, no oneu00a0 u2014 including the fourth estate u2014 took it too seriously.
However, as soon as the public mud slinging began, all eyes were on the 'balatkar' (for the uninitiated, in the movie, a speech praising the college's principal becomes rather hilarious when the word 'chamatkar' is swapped with 'balatkar') that was unfolding at the press conferences.
The author accused the director, the producer shot back at a scribe u2014 some holy war it was! Both parties are accusing each other of being indifferent, or rather being different from each other.
The director held a press conference and briefed everybody u2014 'live' on national television u2014 about the scenes in the film, the plot, the sub-plot, the characters, basically everything under the sun, and invited the aam aadmi to go watch the film. Good move.
The author did pretty much the same thing, yet again through prime time 'breaking news' television, and invited people to go read the book. See a trend here?
Not only have the sales of the book gone up, ticket windows at cinemas showing the movie often have the 'house full' board on display.
The buzz created by this live balatkar has caught the imagination of the country and would make any PR manager jump with joy at the sheer brilliance of it all.
The number of people reading the book in buses, local trains and in every other possible mode of commute across this ever-buzzing city, is indeed a proof of that phenomenon. The movie is a good family watch, and would have done well even without all the headlines it grabbed in this mud-slinging episode. But as they say, no publicity is bad publicity.
