Toxic trailer review: The 'ragebait as marketing strategy' shtick is now stale; Yash's stardom can't save this banality

Toxic trailer features Yash in his bloodiest and goriest avatar, but despite some jaw-dropping action scenes and loud confrontations, is all over the place.

I was reminded of a meme from 3 Idiots immediately after I watched the trailer of Toxic. In the Rajkumar Hirani film, veteran actor Achyut Potdar is puzzled by Aamir Khan’s character’s warped definition in class and he exclaims: Arre kehna kya chahte ho (What do you even want to say). I have the same question to the makers of Toxic, in particular the person who edited this trailer. Keeping things non-linear and cryptic is one thing, but making them incoherent is certainly an odd choice.

Toxic trailer: What it shows

Toxic trailer features Yash in his bloodiest avatar yet.

I am of the school of thought that a trailer need not reveal anything about the film’s plot. It can still be good. But it still has to invite the viewers in, compel them to visit the theatre by offering something new. Here, Toxic trailer fails. It merely borrows and blends elements from Yash’s KGF, Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal, and an abundance of mass action films from around India to create a warped mishmash of sequences that do not even feel interconnected. There is no semblance of coherence or even an attempt to be coherent. The Toxic trailer just attempts to shock. It would have been novel 5 years ago, even revolutionary 10 years ago. In 2026, it just screams ‘same old’.

Kiara Advani plays a circus performer named Nadia in Toxic.

Can a film succeed by just ragebaiting?

The strategy for Toxic seems simple: ragebait people into watching the assets. The shock value has worked for films in the past. Blame Sandeep Reddy Vanga for making ‘ragebaiting as a marketing strategy’ cool and hip with Animal. But Animal’s trailer was one of the most smartly edited trailers for any Indian film in recent times. Even the film fell flat in comparison. Toxic borrowed the shock value from there, but not the finesse and storytelling chops needed. Ragebait can be effective in getting people to talk about your film. After all, Toxic is catering to a certain kind of audience. It does not care for those who have already made up their mind about it. It wants to reach out to more of those who may be unaware. But then what? Once you reach them, how do you hook them? With trailers like these, that’s a hard reach.

Star power over substance?

Toxic sits squarely on the shoulders of Yash’s star power and aura. His screen presence and wide appeal nationally are expected to drive this film. But since the pandemic, viewers have repeatedly proved that such strategies don’t always work unless there is substance. They didn’t work for Salman Khan and Prabhas, or for Ram Charan and Kamal Haasan. The stardom will get you a great opening. But beyond that, what retains the audience is substance. The only exception to that is Pathaan, and that had a Shah Rukh Khan comeback after five years propelling it.

Yash's clean-shaven look in the trailer is generating buzz.

It is hard to judge a full film by just the trailer, but the slant of the trailer tells you a lot about the makers’ intentions. With Toxic, it seems the idea is just to awe the audiences with razzle and dazzle. I sincerely hope there is more to the film unless it wants to go the Saaho way, the Game Changer way, or the Thug Life way. Because if it wants to go the Animal way or the Jawan way, the film needs to be better than what we have been offered so far.

Directed by Geetu Mohandas, and also starring Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth, and Tara Sutaria, Toxic will release in theatres on August 26.