Posters: Film exhibitors shift to media publicity

As the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has tightened the noose against film makers for sticking posters, marring the beauty of public places, the latter are turning towards media for publicity.

Film exhibitors have entered into an agreement with the local newspapers for publicity in the form of advertisements. The amount spent on the advertisements is deducted from the Daily Collection Report (DCR) the exhibitors submit to their respective film distributors.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, M R Rajaram, a prominent film exhibitor in the city, and also the vice-president of Karnataka Film Exhibitors Association said that following the notices served by MCC, film makers were slowly cutting down on the practice of sticking posters in public places. As an alternative, film makers were concentrating on media publicity.

Two regional dailies, and one English evening daily have entered into a pact with the film makers, offering discounts on the advertisements, he said. Rajaram said that with changing times, film makers were also exploring the various factes of multimedia to advertise their films. As a result, the number of posters earlier supplied along with the every film released, irrespective of languages, from the distributors to Mysuru city, has been reduced from 2,500 to 1,500 copies.

However, in case the film is enjoying a successful run and it crosses 25 days or 50 days, a second round of 700 posters is being dispatched, he said. “That apart, we have already introduced inter-theatre publicity methods and have begun to put up posters at dedicated places allotted by the MCC,” he added.

A total of 19 theatres are in the city, with six theatres located in the central business district.  The rest of the theatres are spread across different localities.