What’s the first thing we get to hear about a new film? Not the music, not the stars- the title is always the first form of connect the audience has with it. Right from a working one, to the final choice, to the film’s announcement, viewers always connect with the title first, which is why experts agree it’s importance can never be underestimated.
Currently, one word titles seem to be the it thing, with as many as 15 films, either in production or on the verge of release, settling on them- Akshay Kumar’s Prithviraj and Sooryavanshi, Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan, Ranveer Singh’s Cirkus, Sidharth Malhotra’s Shershaah, among many more.
Hardik Mehta, whose latest release was Roohi, starring Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma, agrees that single word titles make a big difference. His film itself went through a lot of changes, from RoohAfza, to RoohiAfzana, to finally Roohi. He says, “Titles are formed from their stories. A one word title makes a bigger impact, and always works better. My first film, Kaamyaab, also was that, but the Censor certificate said something else – Har Kisse Ki Hisse Kaamyaab. Those are technical things. Even Parmanu, starring John Abraham, was a single word title but they had to add ‘The Story of Pokhran’, like Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela.”
Such titles have always been in vogue even in the earlier times, with veteran filmmakers. Anand Pandit’s film Chehre, which sees Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi in the lead roles, says, “BR Chopra, the veteran filmmaker, he used to pick straight names, like Ittefaq, Kanoon, Baghban, just one word. Whatever the storyline would be, he would choose a word and make it. Suddenly, after some time, long names came in. It’s a fad maybe. We chose to go ahead with Chehre because the story was about how people have multiple faces, are masked.”
{{/usCountry}}Such titles have always been in vogue even in the earlier times, with veteran filmmakers. Anand Pandit’s film Chehre, which sees Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi in the lead roles, says, “BR Chopra, the veteran filmmaker, he used to pick straight names, like Ittefaq, Kanoon, Baghban, just one word. Whatever the storyline would be, he would choose a word and make it. Suddenly, after some time, long names came in. It’s a fad maybe. We chose to go ahead with Chehre because the story was about how people have multiple faces, are masked.”
{{/usCountry}}Jhund, a sports drama has Bachchan again in the leading role, while Anek will see Ayushmann Khurrana reuniting with filmmaker Anubhav Sinha for Anek. Trade expert Atul Mohan says, “A title needs to connect with the audiences at the first go, and one word titles have always been a favourite among filmmakers, like Betaab, Beta, Ghayal, etc. It all depends on the kind of film it is.”
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