Dhurandhar 2 marketer defends film's 'less is more' promotions: 'Will let you crave for the main course' | Exclusive

Varun Gupta, whose firm Max Marketing, has handled marketing for several Indian films, talks Dhurandhar and its sequel.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge, also referred to as Dhurandhar 2, is one of the most heavily anticipated Bollywood films of the last several years. The success of Part 1 has increased the buzz around the sequel’s release. But fans were a little miffed as the teaser and first look were delayed. When the teaser was released this week, many complained about the lack of new visuals. However, the man behind the marketing strategy of the film defends their approach, saying ‘less is more’ works for a hyped film like Dhurandhar 2.

Varun Gupta with Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar.

In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, film marketer Varun Gupta discusses the success of Dhurandhar and the prep for Dhurandhar 2.

‘Dhurandhar needed to be downplayed’

Varun’s company, Max Marketing, has been behind the marketing campaigns for some of the biggest films in the last decade, including Baahubali, RRR, Kalki 2898 AD, Jawan, and Animal. Talking about the past success, he says, “It helps us stay on our toes about what’s next. It’s very important that we need to keep bettering ourselves. I take it as a motivation. Touchwood, there are enough interesting projects lined up.”

As he discusses the promotional strategy of Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar, Varun maintains that the plan was always to take it gently and to underplay the film. “Even before the release of the film, we didn’t go overboard with anything. In fact, we were underplaying. There were conversations about ‘why are the promotions not going at the scale and level they are supposed to’. There were a few people who tagged me (on social media), asking ‘why aren’t you doing what you are supposed to?’. But every film cannot have the same strategy of getting my actor out there and going to colleges and various cities for interviews. Now that we have seen the film, you know it. What Q&A could Ranveer Singh do for the film?”

Varun says that the modern-day understanding of film marketing is largely driven by the perception that ‘boots on the ground’ is the default mode. But he does not agree with that thought. “If the actors are not seen on the ground, people feel marketing is not happening. Sometimes, it is required; sometimes it is not. There is no thumb rule that this is how it is supposed to happen. Like for RRR, we covered 6 cities in 3 days, because we knew it would take great effort to bring people back to theatres just after the pandemic,” says Varun.

However, he says that Dhurandhar required a different approach. He explains, “Over here, we were clear that we wanted to keep it at a certain level of dignity and something non-gimmicky. The entire campaign was content-first. If you like what you see, you will watch the film. We never tried to oversell it through action scenes, an item song, and patriotism. It had everything, but we didn’t sell any of it. We just stayed true to what we can expect from it.”

‘Don't kill the excitement by over-delivering’

The same questions of ‘why are the promotions understated’ have begun to crop up as Dhurandhar 2 has begun its promotions. But Varun does not read too much into it. “Sometimes the best strategy is not to come in the way of something that is very organic. It will be very foolish of us as a team to try and overdo something that is already doing so well,” he says. “When something is already anticipated, don’t kill the excitement by over-delivering or satisfying the viewer. If you are hungry, I will only give you a starter and let you crave for the main course. If your stomach is filled and you are full till the neck, would you still buy the ticket on the first day? No!”

Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh, grossed ₹1300 crore worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing Hindi film of all time. The Aditya Dhar directorial benefited from several viral moments, and all songs becoming chartbusters. Varun feels the goodwill from the first film will help Part 2, so the marketing should not go overboard. He says, “Now, there is all the more reason we should not be going crazy. The first time we did it was a risk. Now it will obviously be a strategy. I am not saying we won’t do anything. But we didn’t try to be desperate then; we won’t try to be desperate now. It’s coming from the space of being confident of what you have, rather than being overconfident after the first one’s success.”

Dhurandhar 2 also brings back R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, and Akshaye Khanna in a cameo. The spy thriller releases in theatres on March 19.