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As fans, our natural desire is for you to reach the pinnacle of success. In your own words, ‘Criticism Is Always Welcome’ so we have some suggestins that we hope will be of assistance in helping you attain excellence.
Interaction with fans: We do know that your busy schedule, both personally and professionally does not leave you with much spare time. However, we hope that you would consider the creation of a portal wherein your fans can interact with you once in a while. By this, we do not mean you follow the steps of your contemporaries in maintaining a blog which is something we do not wish to see either. However, something along the lines of posting your thoughts occasionally for your fans on the progress of your movies and other topics or tying up with a website for a chat with your fans atleast once in a year whereby giving your fans an opportunity to discover more about yourself.
Photoshopping of Pictures- We have recently observed that in the new print ads, John Players have photo-shopped away your extra thumb. Previously, pictures were taken at a certain angle hiding it from view. To us, it is a part of who you are, and changing it hurts our ego, as to us you are Perfect!! If it was an attempt to cover up your identity so the clothes are the focus, they just need to become conscious that firstly, we observe YOU, secondly, how good YOU look in the clothes and then the outfit themselves. It is your presence that matters above all.
Health Care- One of the most important characteristic that all of us admire in you is your total dedication to your role and the extra hard work that goes into making sure that every scene and every moment on-screen looks authentic. But in doing so, we feel you over-exert yourself and perhaps try too many dangerous and tough stunts. We know that you have been injured several times but have continued to work despite your pains. As the saying goes, ‘the show must go on’, but perhaps not to the detriment of your health. Bodies need time to heal and they have restricted capability so please do not take any toll. Thus, we hope you take more precautions in regards to your health, particularly your back and knee.
Tan Usage- As you probably have guessed by now, many of us call ourselves your biggest fan not only because you are such an incredible actor but since you are not so hard on the eyes. Many of us have attended your shows where you have performed and have taken notice of your tan. Being the ardent fans that we are, we are aware of your usage of tan or bronze sprays to enhance your look but we are concerned about your use of this product. We say this only out of care and concern since we truly feel that it does not enhance your look in performances. Moreover, it can be highly dangerous. These products are not good for the skin and they contain a chemical called DHA, dihydroxyacetone which could be hazardous if inhaled or swallowed. Even a warning about DHA has been issued, recommending people to cover their eyes, plug their nose, and protect their lips whenever using spray tans. For some characters, we do understand that a tanned look is required, like your fabulous turn as Mr. A in Dhoom: 2. Yet, we wish and request very sweetly that for concerts, award shows and perhaps public appearances, you refrain from using the spray of tan or bronzer. We love how our Duggu looks just as he is!
Promotional Strategy - We feel it is important, in being more open to the media about your films is one way to enhance the buzz surrounding your movies. Shahrukh Khan recently said that he uses the media and they to a certain extent use him as it is an advantageous partnership. So, allowing more media access to interviews and tidbits about the film not only helps the film but will get the journalists on your side and not against you. Although being secretive about a film does have its advantages of building excitement but in addition it creates massive drawbacks of having people forget about the film or create wrong impressions by fabricated stories until right before its release. This causes a huge blow similar to what happened with all the protests after Jodhaa Akbar’s release. Also, following in Aamir Khan’s track by using more media outlets such as the internet for creating a buzz about the movie, such as setting up a director’s blog, forum or video and continuously being in touch with one’s fans and getting live feedbacks on what areas to improve when promoting the movie is highly beneficial. However, if not moderated well, this could be a tragedy, as was seen with the forum created for Jodhaa Akbar. When the forum was initially set up, it created a lot of buzz amongst fans for the movie and they continuously provided feedback about the promotion contributing innovative ideas. Several assurances were given by the makers with stars coming live for a chat with members of the forum, creating immense buzz and excitement. Nevertheless, much to their disappointment and ours, the forum was not properly managed and moderated with no response from the filmmakers frustrating fans, leading them to abandon the forum. A lot of publicity could have been gained if the people in charge had planned out tactics to use the forum in a better regard. We do not want you to trail others’ way, but at the same time, we consider it won’t be harmful if you get in touch with fans and also get involved with the promotional activities openly. With Jodhaa-Akbar, even the theatrical promos were unevenly distributed causing perplexity and the first promo also missed out on a major audience. Sadly, many people were not even aware of the release date of the movie too. The more exposure a film gets pre-release, the more excitement is built amongst distributors and audiences, in turn, translating into advance bookings and long lines at the theaters. Interviews, posters, and stunning promos - these are the best marketing tools to make use of. Hence, we also want you to be involved in all those aspects because at the end of the day it is YOUR movie. We love to see and hear little glimpses of the film coming, love to be able to show them to our friends, family groups and generate curiosity amongst them for the movie too. Of course, we appreciate the end product also needs to be superior to be victorious, but the initial hype and buzz about the movie is also equally important to grab eyeballs. Thus, marketing and promotion is possibly the best things you can do to help make a film break all previous records at the box-office and emerge The Super-Duper Hit!
Brand Promotions- We cannot help but mention the poor promotion done by few brands on the TV or in Print. Many times, when a new advertisement is released, it is hardly played for a day or two and then the videos come down to as low as once in every 3 hours. Two major such examples would be Hide & Seek and John Players. The advertisements rarely run on the TV for a week and that too in such low frequency that it is literally impossible to expect people to know about their new products. As fans we ensure that we catch the advertisements no matter what but the general public may not bother. Even their print ads are limited to one every week or so while other companies go out of the way to promote their new products at least in the initial week till it catches the eye of the public.
Disapproving DVDs- To declare that, we were highlydisappointed with the DVD of Jodhaa Akbar would be an understatement. When the DVD release was postponed, the reason given was the addition of special features and naturally, as fans, we had lofty hopes for evident reasons. We were extremely happy with the Krrish DVD for it was loaded with specials that made the DVD invaluable. In contrary, the Dhoom: 2 DVD was also substandard in the sense it missed out some probable goodies from our point of view. And now, the Jodhaa Akbar DVD also turned out to be an inadequate fare. The only new additions were the deleted scenes and the rest was just a repetition of the interviews shown on television prior to the release of the movie. A historical movie like Jodhaa Akbar had immense potential to release numerous special features, some of which are mentioned below:-
•The making of the movie showing the struggles that were involved during the shooting;
•The set up of the grand sets by Nitin Desai;
•The research involved for the gorgeous costumes and exquisite jewellery by Neeta Lulla;
•Bloopers with errors occurred whilst shooting;
•Interviews with the cast and crew post the release of the movie talking about their experiences shooting and their feelings prior and post the release of the movie
•Training sessions such as sword fighting, horse riding, etc.
•The creation of the music numbers by the music maestro A.R. Rahman.
As you can see, the list is endless. What could have been a collector’s edition and a treasure for fans turned out to be just like any other ordinary DVD where the price simply was not justifiable. We don’t know if you would be able to help out but certainly hope our plea doesn’t fall flat. It would be great if you could request Ashutosh to release another edition just like he did for Lagaan - he owes it to the fans of the movie and it would be heartbreaking and a squander if the world does not get a chance to see all the hard work that went into the making of this Classic film!
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