* Films with a high marketing budget and successful in the first three weeks are called blockbusters or super hits.
* Films with a low marketing budget which fail to pull audiences to the theatre initially, yet run for 4 to 5 weeks later are called sleepers.
* Movies that fail in first week itself are called bombs or flops.
A very talented director who gave us plays such as Ajab Nyay Vartulacha, Hayvadan, Vada Chirebandi, Purush, Barrister, Hamidabaichi Kothi, Nagmandal and Sandhyachhhaya. She has operated on both the parallel and professional stage.
Her father was the secretary to Anie Beasant of the Theosophical Society. She lost her father when she was six. They stayed at Bhivandi. Her uncle was varkari. She was reared by the family of V.B. Karnick. He was a humanist. She was influenced by Rashtra Seva Dal and Bhausaheb Ranade. She was born in Mumbai.
Post-independence, the cultural rennaisance took roots in India. In her teens, she was influenced by Ganpatrao Bodas, Nanasaheb Phatak, Kestavrao Datey and Mama Pendse.
Al Kazi returned from England. He took a drama workshop at Bhulabhai Memorial Institute, Mumbai. Vijaya Mehta participated in it.
She chose Marathi theatre as per profession. She got the grounding in this from Al Kazi. They formed a Girgaon group. In that group, the members were Tendulkar, Vijaya and Madhav Vatave from theatre. Music was represented by Jitendra Abhisheki, Kishori Amonkar and Shobha Gurtu. Prafulla Dahanukar and Gaitonde represented art. All these people mingled. This led to an institution called Rangayan under the leadership of S.P.Bhagwat. Almost 1000 members each contributing Rs. 10 were enrolled for Rangayan.
Vijaya Mehta has a twelve year itch. She then becomes restless again. After Rangayan, she turned to professional theatre. She came across Peter Brook when he produced Mahabharat. They did Shakuntal together. She turned to tele-films without knowing the shot division. She learnt the ropes soon. She worked as an assistant to Shyam Benegal. She learnt film making and made Raosaheb, Pestonji and Lifeline. She worked as the Director, NCPA. She is optimistic about the future of theatre in India.
Raja Harishchandra was screened on April 21, 1913 at the Olympia Theatre in Mumbai for a select audience—it means the Indian feature films have entered their 100th year in April 2012. Dada Saheb Phalke was the first-Indian to make a feature film. Though Pundalik was released a year earlier i.e. on 18th May, 1912 at The Coronation theatre, still the honour of being the first feature film goes to Raja Harishchandra because Pundalik was photographed from a play. There is no evidence of an independent script and shot division at different places. There is also no evidence of editing.It too was an Indian film project, but its makers employed British cinematographers. As Phalke himself put it, Raja Harishchandra was fully ‘swadeshi’. It was later released commercially on May 3, 1913.
Price may exert a non-conscious influence on expectations of product quality. These expectations affect the actual product performance. These expectations can be induced through advertising. Baba Shiv, University of Iowa ( Stanford ) and his colleagues Dan Ariely, Ziv Carmon did a fascinating study to examine this phenomenon. The findings were summarised by Akshay R. Rao, University of Minnesota. In the study, two groups were given a mental acuity enhancing drink—one costing $ 1.89 and the other $ 1.0. They were asked to solve the puzzles after consumption of the drink. The group which had consumed full-priced drink solved more puzzles than the group that received discounted price drink. The discounted price receiving group had less expectations about the efficacy of the drink as far as their problems solving ability is concerned. These lessened expectations sub-consciously and affected the actual product performance. It is a demonstration of price-quality effect. In many instances, psychology is more important than engineering in product design.
According to the research study done by Akshay R. Rao, Carlson School of Business, University of Minnesota, a consumer prefers a bonus extra quantity promotion of a product, rather than a price discount for the same quantity. A 100 gm coffee pack with 80 p.c. extra quantity is preferable rather than a 100 gm coffee pack at a price discount of 30 p.c.. Essentially, this occurs because of the ‘base value neglect’ when dealing with percentages. Adding of percentages as if they are whole numbers is also erroneous. A store offering 20 per cent off Diwali sale and another 25 per cent off Diwali sweets is not offering a total discount of 45 per cent. If suppose the base value is 100, 20 p.c. off reduces the price to Rs. 80. Another 25 p.c. of the base of value of 80 is Rs. 20, reducing the price further to Rs. 60. It means overall discount of 40 percent.
If you have good command over two languages, there are employment opportunities in the subtitling work in the entertainment industry. Subtitling carries a movie from the audience of one language to that of another language. It is necessary to understand the AV medium and the arrangement of the scenes. Each shot is to be translated into one or two lines. There is a demand to translate the regional films into English. The festival circuit has made this necessary. Hindi films are being marketed abroad with English subtitles. The audiences are also getting used to appreciate the movies through subtitles. Subtitles enable the transport of the movies of one language and culture to another language and culture. A person translating into English must not exceed 38 words in one line while doing so. The lesser the words, the better. If you exceed 38 words, you have to start a new line, which again should not exceed 38 words. A movie’s subtitling gets done in 8-15 days. Sometimes, if the festival is close by, there are very short dead lines. A regional film fetches Rs. 30000 as remuneration whereas a Hindi movie fetches Rs. 100000. However, there is no hard and fast rule. The remuneration varies from project to project. It is necessary to indicate your availability to the concerned persons regarding this work.
Imagine you are travelling in a train. You check for your ticket in the pocket. It is not there. You search for it in your handbag.You get it. You get a sense of relief. Thus not finding the ticket in the first place was Bad News, followed by finding it which is Good News. This sequence gives a sense of relief, which would not have been there, had you found the ticket to begin with. At the time of relief, you are psychologically vulnerable—your cognitive resources to process bad news have been depleted. Your tendency to be loss-averse increases. Extend this situation to a car show room. There is an attractive advertised deal. The customer walks into the show room. He learns that the deal is not available on his selected model ( Bad News ). After some time and consultation, the salesman offers the deal on the model chosen by the customer, (Good News ).The salesman says an exception has been made just for you. You accept the deal as you do not want to lose the car. You negotiate with less vigour. Had you not been subjected to the bad news-good news sequence roller coaster in the first place, you would not have wound up the deal mostly on their terms.
The dancers accompanying the hero and heroine in Hindi film industry are trained dancers these days. They do back-up dancing. They were called extras formerly. They master various dance forms and take their profession seriously. Most of them are a part of a choreographer’s troupe. They pass a number of years in the profession before being a part of the troupe. Initially, they are paid a few hundreds per show. They are busy in practice and rehearsals. They hardly get the time to rest. In spite of hard work, they do not get recognition. They work hard and ultimately become choreographers. They become very close to the leading pair. These days their remuneration has improved—it varies between Rs. 15000 and Rs. 35000 depending on the level of expertise. They charge RS. 50000 to RS. 90000 per stage show and film.
They are given a health insurance. Some of them become assistants to choreographers. Some of them become administrators of dance companies.
According R.A. Mashlekar, the innovation culture must be promoted in India by believing that the ‘ I ‘ in India stands for ‘ innovation.’ Secondly, innovation must be directed to the national goal of, ‘ inclusive growth’ by creating an ‘access equality ‘ despite the ‘ income in equality.’ The Indian innovation must move quickly from mind to market place. There are bottlenecks here. ae must recognise that research labs need funding, and produce output. They thus convert money into knowledge. The real challenge comes after the research output is available again for conversion into money. Thus we have to create monetisable knowledge. The skills in patenting too must be mastered. Fourthly, we must recognise the innovative potential of each Indian. Fifthly, we must build a national innovative eco-system.
Displays work at the level of the stores i. e. point-of-purchase ( POP ). These help move the merchandise and add to the ambience. Each display should contribute to the store image and must be consistent with its display policies.
A display brings about dealer involvement. It allows sales to take place anywhere in the store. It allows the organisation of product line. It improves brand identity. It is a good input for marketing research.
Principles of Display
A good display is one where the trade channels participate enthusiastically on account of some incentive. In a display, the customer must be brought closer to the product, so that he can physically inspect it, try it and feel it. A display attracts the customers to the retail outlets and builds up traffic. A package must be used strategically to enhance the effect of display. A display should be designed keeping in mind the outlet—say a neighbourhood store or a super market or a shopping plaza. Graphics and copy must be consistent with the advertising. A display should be easy to set up . Some companies provide pre-packed cartons, which unfold into a display. Timing of the display is also important, say Deepavali or Christmas. Product must be emphasised, and, it should not be dominated by the display.
Displays allow people to experience the product and to come closer to it. Packaged products come out of the package, say a perfume spray which must be sprinkled on the handkerchief or the body of the customer.