The romance between Bollywood and Digital Media A study on the implementation of digital promotional activities in Bollywood Student Name: Dinesh Koendjbiharie Student Number: 357429 Supervisor: Payal Arora PhD MA Media Studies – Media and Business Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam MA Thesis July 2015 0 Version 2.0. - July 2015 The romance between Bollywood and Digital Media A study on the implementation of digital promotional activities in Bollywood ABSTRACT The Indian cinema, often referred to as Bollywood, is when it comes to production scale the largest movie industry in the world. The media and creative industries have been facing a new challenge in the past decade such as, but not limited to, the implementation of new digital media technologies in their digital promotional strategies. This research looks into the promotional activities in contemporary Bollywood that are visible to the consumer. The research question: “How does Bollywood use social media for promotional activities to reach the domestic and global market and possibly strengthen their current promotional strategies?” will be answered through two in-depth case studies on Bollywood blockbuster movie ‘Happy New Year’ and a movie that did exceptionally well ‘Queen’. This research firstly touches upon the changes and the development the industry went through, followed by creating an understanding of the industry’s contemporary position. The first step of the analysis is based on creating an in-depth understanding of the cases and the corresponding data from among others Facebook and Twitter. The following step of the analysis is solely focussed on the adjoining film music industry, in which the attention is paid to the promotion of the film music and also the promotion through the official social media channels of the cases. The third area of focus being unravelled is the (global) audience of the film industry. The audience has been divided in multiple segments, in order to identify possible appealable elements in the movies’ online promotional activities. The final factor also investigated is the role and influence of the celebrity when it comes to promotional efforts of a movie. Throughout this final section the role and influence of the celebrities on the audience and society plays an important role, as well as the role of the celebrity in promotional efforts of the movie. This research thus not solely focuses on the digital and traditional promotional activities, but also the role of the adjoining film music industry, the role of the celebrity and identification of the global audience. KEYWORDS: Bollywood, Social Media Marketing, Movie Marketing, Celebrity, Fandom 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4 2. Theory & Previous Research ...................................................................................... 7 2.1 Hollywood & (Digital) Promotional Activities ........................................................... 7 2.2. Defining Bollywood ..........................................................................................................10 2.3. Development of Bollywood and its promotional strategies ..............................10 2.3.1. Pre-independence ................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 Post-independence .................................................................................................................. 12 2.3.3 The 90’s towards contemporary promotional activities ......................................... 13 2.4. Bollywood film music industry and promotional activities ..............................15 2.4.1. Development of the Indian film music industry and its promotional activities ..................................................................................................................................................................... 15 2.4.2. Contemporary situation and Promotional Activities in the Indian film music industry ................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.5. Bollywood and its audiences in the digital age .......................................................18 2.5.1. Defining the concept of ‘Audience’ ................................................................................... 18 2.5.2. Bollywood and audiences .................................................................................................... 19 2.5.3. Reaching audiences in the digital age ............................................................................. 22 2.5.3.1 Facebook ................................................................................................................................................ 23 2.5.3.2 Twitter .................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.5.3.3 Social Media Marketing ................................................................................................................... 24 2.6. Bollywood Celebrities and promotional activities ................................................29 2.6.1. Defining celebrities and their role in promotional activities ................................ 29 2.6.2 Contemporary Celebrity Culture and Fandom............................................................. 31 2.6.3. Contemporary ‘Celebrity Culture’ and Fandom in Bollywood ............................. 34 3. Method ............................................................................................................................ 36 3.1 Data Collection ....................................................................................................................38 3.1.1 Campaign Overview and implemented elements ....................................................... 39 3.1.2. Films ............................................................................................................................................. 41 3.1.3. Film Music .................................................................................................................................. 42 3.1.4. Audiences ................................................................................................................................... 43 3.1.5. Celebrities .................................................................................................................................. 45 4. General Data Analysis ................................................................................................ 47 4.1. Happy New Year .................................................................................................................47 4.1.1. Case Description ...................................................................................................................... 47 4.1.2. Promotional activities ........................................................................................................... 50 4.2. Queen .....................................................................................................................................52 4.2.1. Case Description ...................................................................................................................... 52 4.2.2. Promotional Activities .......................................................................................................... 54 5. Findings and Discussion ........................................................................................... 56 5.1. Films .......................................................................................................................................56 5.2. Film Music ............................................................................................................................63 5.3. Audience ...............................................................................................................................69 5.4. Celebrities ............................................................................................................................74 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 82 6.1. Films .......................................................................................................................................82 6.2. Film Music ............................................................................................................................83 6.3. Audience ...............................................................................................................................85 6.4. Celebrity................................................................................................................................87 7. Limitations and Future Research .......................................................................... 90 8. Literature and references ........................................................................................ 92 9. Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 102 Appendix A: Case Overviews .............................................................................................