Akshay Kumar starrer Gold released this Independence Day and though the film’s teaser got raving reviews, the movie is turning out to be a disappointment for both the fans of Akshay Kumar and Patriotic Films.
The Film
Directed by Reema Kagti, Gold narrates the journey of Tapan Das, played by Akshay Kumar, a man who is hell-bent on getting India a gold medal in Hockey after becoming a free nation. His dream is to beat England and take revenge for 200 years of their rule on our nation. Gold unfolds the events that led to India’s historic win in 1948 Olympics, right after a year of getting freedom from the British Rule.
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The Strategy
The unique marketing strategy behind the teaser worked really well to get a positive response from the audience and also brought huge numbers to the cinema hall.
The ‘Gold’ teaser showcased a preamble asking patrons in cinema halls to stand up for the National Anthem, just when the audience stood up in respect, the British National anthem is played, leaving the audience in agony with the feeling of patriotism for India.
The teaser revisited the feeling of disrespect that Indian’s had to face during the pre- Independence era while having to stand in attention for the British National anthem. Thus evoking the feeling of patriotism for the nation with such overwhelming emotions, the teaser did strike a chord with the audience garnering praises from not the just the patrons but also the netizens after the release of the same online.
A special promotion strategy also included some of the Landmark buildings across the country to turn GOLD. Akshay Kumar and other stars of the film took to Twitter to share a letter stating that various important landmarks in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi, Kolkata, and Pune will be lit in golden color.
Akshay Kumar tweeted along with a photo of the letter, “Tomorrow is the day, 70 years ago India won its first Gold medal as a free nation! I take immense pride in sharing, in this honor, landmark locations across India will be turning Gold tomorrow from 7 pm onwards. Join us and unite for India’s first Gold. #IndiaTurnsGold #UniteForGold.”
Tomorrow is the day, 70 years ago India won it's first Gold medal as a free nation! I take immense pride in sharing, in this honour, landmark locations across India will be turning Gold tomorrow 7 pm onwards. Join us and unite for India's first Gold. #IndiaTurnsGold #UniteForGold pic.twitter.com/nxjDHgyK5k
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 11, 2018
What didn’t work?
After striking this emotional chord with the audience, the teaser raised expectations for a serious and heart wrenching patriotic film, now this is where the expectations failed. Gold has everything but patriotic emotions. There are hardly any scenes in the film, which evoke the patriotic emotion.
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Akshay Kumar’s character remained more like a butt of a joke, his lack of enacting with proper Bengali accent, his dress sense and get up, nothing worked. A couple of sensitive dialogues and emotional drama could not really save the film. Only the National Anthem at the end of the film probably worked. Rest, the film largely reminded of a stupid version of Chak De. The similar kind of tiffs between hockey players of the film, the predictable situations and stiff performances from some of the character artists made the movie nothing more than a drag. A couple of unnecessary songs added to the misery, making it unbearable to watch the movie.
The marketing strategy, which evoked patriotic emotions, fell flat on the maker’s face. Maybe if they didn’t present movie to be so serious and patriotically emotional, people won’t have gone with those kinds of expectations and maybe, it could have helped the movie’s business a bit.
Well, one person’s mistake is a lesson for others so we hope all filmmakers take this seriously and make their teasers and trailers as real as possible, to the film. Misleading audience will only garner negative reviews at a later stage.
