I wasn’t going to bother with a post about this, but we have already talked SO MUCH in the comments about how much we hate it, I thought I might as well give us one central place to discuss the new stupid Yash Raj promotional strategy.
Let me back up and look at where they are coming from. Yash Raj says “Gee, it’s a lot easier to promote a film if people care about the stars. You can do that by casting an established lead. But that’s really expensive and complicated. Or you can do that by casting a star kid who is already familiar to people from all the paparazzi shots of their childhood. But Karan Johar has cornered that market. So what if we try to create our own stars?”
This is kind of a path they have been on for years. Heck, even before it was a big studio, back when Yashji picked Shahrukh to be in Darr. Building those personal connections with young talent can pay big dividends when they are old talent.
And then in recent years, they have picked up Anushka Sharma, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, and made them all into stars. And then kept them working for the studio for a while until they kind of paid off their debt. They weren’t like Shahrukh in Darr (or Amitabh in Deewar) with a decent amount of work behind them but nothing that had really “hit” yet, they were complete newcomers who could be crafted as the studio desired.
And now we have reached the point where they are trying to make people with no body of work at all into stars. Which is SO STUPID!!! If you want us to care about these people, show us something real. I understand the thought of creating buzz and launching them just like you would a film. But the point of buzz around a film is that, eventually, THERE’S ACTUALLY A FILM!!! There’s a purpose for all the buzz, and an end point. But in this case, it’s just sort of “here are people! Like them!” But, why?
(I don’t care about this girl. Beyond wanting to fix her skirt because it really doesn’t seem like it should be that way)
To bring it back to the Star Kids example, the reason we care about Jhanvi or Aryan or Sara is the same reason you care about the kids of your college roommate that you just see in Christmas card photos every year. We have watched them grow up, there is a natural connection through that. And we “know” their parents, which makes us care about what their parents care about, and thus their children.
You can’t create that sort of bond out of thin air. Aadar Jain is not Ranbir Kapoor. We didn’t watch him grow up, we don’t care about his parents. Just saying “And he’s a Kapoor!” doesn’t do it. And Anya Singh is even less so, just some random actress that we are supposed to bond with because we see an interview. We need to see years of interviews, decades of photos, then we will have that bond.
(Well, if you are just an aspiring actor, why is his face all over your shirt?)
More importantly, Ranbir Kapoor isn’t Ranbir Kapoor! The “star kid” bump really isn’t that big of a deal. You spend your entire life in the public eye and it buys you, what, about 5 crore extra in box office for your first film? After that, you are on your own. Speaking purely in terms of public interest, the whole “producers cast you because they know you” thing is something else. But box office wise, Ranbir is about as starry in background as you can get, and he still can’t “open” a movie a decade into his career. Varun Dhawan, who has those industry connections but not the “I watched you grow up” effect on the audience, he is closer to it than Ranbir right now.
You know why Varun is right there? Because he makes good movies! If you want your homegrown stars, just make better films! Starmaking films. Student of the Year, as I said at length in my post on it, was a starmaking film. The whole purpose was to introduce these 3 fresh faces in a fun way. The movie works because we enjoy watching these actors, and these actors worked because the movie worked. Along with the film release, Karan took his kids on the road, they made public appearances and gave interviews up and down India. But, the film was the centerpiece. All the other stuff, that was just to get people in the door to see the movie. And then the movie was the closer which made us actually care about them.
(See, it’s not just about seeing a photo of them it’s a photo of them in costume for the movie they are promoting. They are promoting their work, not just themselves)
But here, there is no “closer”. We are just being given the fluff around the edges, nothing real. And Yash Raj expects us to fall for it, which is I think what we are all finding so infuriating. Really, Yash Raj, how dumb do you think we are?
dontcallitbollywood 
It’s laughable how bad this promotional campaign is! Without a film to promote, you’re right, these are just random glamour shots and not even clever or well thought out shots. I would be mortified if I was Anya Singh. I’m not a prude, but that shot is not classy at all. And the “it’s not nepotism but it really is nepotism” of the Jain boy is hilarious. Both do nothing for me in terms of their “fresh faces” but I’m willing to give them both a shot once I see their work (her more than him just based on her outsider status and she seems to be signing films fast so she must be auditioning well?). I don’t generally get worked up about the whole star kid thing. I’ll honestly admit to being curious about what Sara Ali Khan, Jhanvi Kapoor, and Shahid’s brother will be like on screen, so I can’t claim that I’m offended by the nepotism thing generally. However, YRF’s missteps here are so out of character with how they handled other debuts like Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra’s. Again centered on their very interesting film!
These shots also totally remind me of the random aspiring actor pages in Filmfare magazine.
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I have the same problem with Anya’s shot. I believe women can wear what they want, but they literally sell her like a piece of meat. Panties in almost all pictures. The more I think about it the more disgusting I find it. She should be dressed more classy but still sexy.
And the guy is not even handsome (yeah I know it’s superficial but I don’t know about him so I can only judge his look)
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Yes! To Anya. And it doesn’t match the “narrative” they are trying to set up with her. She is supposed to be the average girl from Delhi with the big dreams. And then they give her this super sexy photoshoot, instead of of something simple like jeans and a Salwar and a big smile, which would feel like the average Delhi girl they are selling.
On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 4:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was thinking about the FilmFare thing too! And in FilmFare, we all know it’s just a filler page with a pretty face on it, it’s not like they are actually promoting these people at us, it’s just there to look at and forget.
With nepotism, see, that’s the thing, I am interested in Shahid’s brother and Jhanvi and Sara because I’ve been seeing their photos for years and I like their families. But even there, that just gets me in the door, I still need a film that will grab me to keep caring about them. And this kid, who I have never even heard about before just now, I’m not coming in the door just because he reminds us that he is Raj Kapoor’s grandson! I need more than that. And he better have an actual acting talent to show me if I give him a chance!
On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 3:31 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more! How dumb do they think their audience is?
I think you’re right on the money in your comparison of these two with the star kids. The star kids do get a first break, but it isn’t about being a star (at least at first); it’s about a movie they’re going to do.
I really hope this approach fails miserably because it is just so stupid!
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Exactly! The star kids get their first break both from the industry and the audience. But that’s it, they only get one chance. From both of us. The audience is going to give them a chance because they were so cute in their baby photos, but if the film is bad, we will be done with them. And the industry is going to give them a chance because they know their parents, but if that first film fails, they will have to work darn hard to make it in their next one.
On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 3:41 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My question is: what happened to Adi? Talk about being an industry kid..He should know better. Karan and Shah Rukh and everybody talk about how smart he is. How did he make this huge marketing misstep. It is NOT the same as a film going “wrong”. You can believe in a film and have it not liked..But a marketing strategy? Why didn’t he wait for them to have a movie. This seems so wrong, so odd and out of character. Maybe the reason Adi took so long to marry and have children is because he knew it would distract him and this proves he was right. He is distracted.
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I wonder if it was a miss step in delegation? I saw something about their superstar casting director being the one who found Anya and signed her, maybe she has also been promoted to a position to design the launch?
It’s still Adi’s fault, but in a different way. Heck, in a way that goes very very far back. If they are looking to become more corporate and lose that personal touch, then Adi has to delegate. But he can’t delegate, because the studio rises and falls on his talent. And now an incompetent has been given control of a key part of the corporation because Adi has to look after the global distribution wing and the 5 new film releases coming out next year and on and on.
If you compare it with Dharma, Karan has ultimate control over every little detail. Sure he puts other people in charge of stuff, but he has final decision on everything. He makes mistakes and misses stuff and there is sort of an upper limit to how big the studio can get, but we never see anything like this!
On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 5:34 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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And all of them should look at Red Chilies: Venky is in charge. He makes the plans and brings them to Shah Rukh who signs off. He has surrounded himself with competent people and lets them do their job.
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And he also lets them pick their job. Diversifying wherever there is talent and branching out into new areas, instead of delegating people to do what he should be doing. You know? there is only one Adi, and if he can’t do something, he should find something else that can be done by someone else. Launching a major new star, that HAS to be an Adi thing. Let someone else, I don’t know, start a TV division.
On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 9:46 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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After checking out the Yash Raj website, I do have to take back a little bit of my first comment since I was reminded that these two kiddos will be in Habib Faisal’s next and he actually debuted Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti (in her first lead role). So, the promotional campaign is still stupid, but I have more interest in the pair solely because they are working with Faisal and he directed two of favorite films, Ishaqzaade and Daawat-E-Ishq.
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And see, this proves my point! If the announcement had been “first looks and meet the stars of Habib Faisal’s next film”, you would have been all excited. But instead you had to track it down on the Yash Raj website, because it’s not the headline of the story.
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To make a promotional picture set work you need astonishingly good looking people. Both these kids look like champus to be honest. You can just see the lack of confidence in them! It’s so obvious that YRF is trying to project their power (and failing)!
Would it be that hard to give these kids 2-3 decent, small budget films to open their careers with and then have their 3rd or 4th be the summer blockbuster of the year that you put your money into?
Even these pictures are not very interesting. People that’d go to the cinema to watch these people are living on Instagram. I don’t know a single young college kid who’d tap twice on these pictures!! 😁
Content is king right now. Even Salman can fill seats in a theatre at the moment and he’s THE Salman Khan!
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And the funny thing is, it looks like they are going to get 2-3 decent small budget films! If I am reading the reports right. The first will be a rom-com by Habib Faisal who seems to specialize in smaller romances.
So just wait until the films are ready to be promoted, and promote them with that. Why promote them just as people?
Oh, and agree about the photos! It’s not just whether or not they look good, they don’t look INTERESTING. I would want to see what Dabboo Ratnani would have done with them, put them in an interesting set and a neat costume that matches their personalities so these photos tell us something about them.
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So true about instagram! I remember my first thought after seeing this new boy photo was: I have seen more handsome and much more interesting random Indian guys on instagram.
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YRF’s new girl could wear a full gown and still be accepted if she does well in her film.Just see how Alia Bhatt is presented in that picture. The contrast in the costumes of ‘the new boy’ and ‘the new girl’ shows how some filmmakers perceive the Indian audience.
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And neither of them really have a great option. The new girl is super sexualized and glamorized, and the new boy is all about his family background. Neither of them get to sell themselves for themselves.
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I don’t get why they don’t even mention what movie they’re about to star in or anything. I know these people are supposed to be Habib Faisal’s next but that’s only because I remember the news from when it was announced that YRF will launch Aadar Jain. Also they could do something like they did for Sui Dhaaga and other new announcements when they talk about what the movie will be about or what the movie will be like.
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Exactly! They are supposed to be a movie company, after all, not a “bad photoshoot” company.
On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 12:20 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The trailer of Qaidi Band, the movie with these two, has come out and it doesn’t look that bad. In fact it looks kind of interesting. It would have really helped in marketing these people if they were first introduced by a trailer. Here’s the trailer:
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The girl looks so much better in the trailer. And now, seeing what kind of movie it will be, this “glamour” photoshoot makes even less sense.
I’m very surprised with the theme of the movie. Seems like something new.
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Exactly! The movie seems much more interesting than what the launch of the leads made it seem like.
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