This weekend, patrons at select multiplexes in Delhi and Mumbai could bump into the apparition of Shashi, the friendly ghost from Phillauri, Fox Star Studios’ next Bollywood offering. The studio will be using 3D holographic projection to engage with audiences and promote the film. Phillauri, which releases in March 24, is co-produced by Anushka Sharma’s Clean Slate Productions and Fox Star. Sharma is also the film’s lead actress.
Patrons at select cinemas will be able to interact with a 3D holographic projection of Sharma as her character, Shashi the friendly ghost. This is the first time a movie is using 3D hologram technology for promotions (not at press conferences) in India. In fact, the only other notable instance of the use of this technology was by Narendra Modi during the election campaign in 2014.
The prime minister, then a prime ministerial candidate, had created history by addressing multiple venues at the same time using 3D holographic projection. By the end of the campaign, he had addressed more than 800 venues in this fashion, and reached an estimated 14 million extra voters.
Shikha Kapoor, chief marketing officer, Fox Star said, “We have a two-tiered strategy for promoting the film. First there’s the pairing of Anushka and Diljit (Dosanjh, who debuted in Bollywood with Udta Punjab last year), and then there is the aspect of the friendly ghost. The first part is fairly straightforward. For the second bit, we want to go beyond the traditional methods like promos and contests. We wanted to make it experience led and the holograph projection lends itself so seamlessly to this purpose.”
For the promotion, a pre-recorded clip of Sharma as Shashi will be cast around the floor of the multiplexes. This clip is interactive in nature as in it has the “friendly ghost” telling things like, “Excuse me, you seem to have dropped some money on the floor,” or “Could you get me some popcorn as well?”
“It’s very difficult to bring a friendly ghost to life and we thought that this way, the audience gets to interact with Shashi… and at the same time, it promotes not only the film, but reiterates her character as a friendly harmless ghost,” Kapoor said. The 3D hologram set-up has been executed by Karan Talwar and Michaela Strobel from Harkat Studios. Kapoor said while the process and execution may have been easier had they opted to use the technology at a press conference or a song launch, the fit between the story and the effect created by the technology was too good to pass up.
This apart, Fox Star Studios India used social listening as a tool, another first in film marketing in the country, to engage with over 30 million active social media users. Social listening is a process through which companies and brands track social media conversations around specific phrases, brand names or hashtags to keep a tab on consumer trends or gauge consumer feedback.
Using this, a marketing strategy was built to emphasise the traits of the spirit — she was invisible and she was omnipresent — and drive social engagement around the film. Three months ago, Fox Star Studios, using social listening, tracked weddings through popular hashtags such as #weddings and #shaadi, which also form a part of the movie’s plot which unfolds during a Punjabi wedding.
This helped the company gather data of over 10,000 social media users who have shared their wedding experiences by posting images or videos. After gathering this data, Fox Star Studios kick-started the digital campaign #ShashiWasThere. Under this campaign, Sharma has started responding to these social media users by reposting an altered version of their pictures, in which the character Shashi has been photoshopped in their wedding pictures.
What is 3D holographic projection?
3D holograph projection is used to display a fully three-dimensional image of a subject, which is seen without the aid of special glasses or other intermediate optics. It operates on principles similar to 2D projection but the projected image is more detailed since it is three-dimensional. Also, it does not require a flat surface, as is the case with normal projectors. Avatar, the 2009 James Cameron fantasy/science fiction film, had scientists using this technology to assess the terrain of the planet Pandora in the film. It was also used at music festival Coachella in 2012 for a posthumous performance by rapper Tupac Shakur.