We are back with Part 3 of our series, decoding Bollywood movies and the PR strategy behind them. This time we have taken on Akshay Kumar’s upcoming patriotic film, Gold, which is coming out this Independence Day weekend.
We hope this helps you all to decide if the film is worth watching or not. Let’s begin with Gold promotions. The movie’s PR efforts present a simple case of talking the talk and not walking the walk. The idea is to reach out to maximum numbers through sports which are lagging behind.
Starring Akshay in the lead, the movie revolves around the first Olympic medal that a post-independence India managed to bag, in Hockey – a sport in which they’d already won three gold medals by then.
The audience will see popular TV actress Mouni Roy playing Kumar’s wife, which is also her debut movie. Written and directed by the well-known director, Reema Kagti, Gold marks the first ever association between the 50-year-old superstar and Excel Entertainment led by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar.
FIRST LOOK
Akshay, ahead of his 50th birthday, released the first look of Gold by sharing the poster on his Twitter and Instagram handle. ‘Desh banta hai jab sab deshvasiyon ki aankhon mein ek sapna hota hai,’ he captioned the image.
The post left his fans wondering what the movie would be about. Although the actor is active and outspoken when it comes to the promotion of his films, he hardly ever fails to surprise his fans. He always manages to stun the audience and leaves them wanting for more.
The poster features Akshay’s face in profile with seven hockey players in action around it, among them are Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Sunny Kaushal and Vineet Singh.
The makers have gone an extra mile by launching the trailer in IMAX format. The actors were seen having a gala time at the launch event, which was also graced by Mouni too.
The 100-crore club regular, who has previously engaged in social media campaigns before his movie release, came up with yet another challenge for everyone to participate- #GoldBinChallenge and #AskAkshay. From engaging the audience with the movie promotions to sharing behind the scene videos, he is in absolute sync with the moments from Gold.
The intriguing trailer sent the desi netizens into a bit of a frenzy. The actors’ chemistry on-screen has been highly appreciated by the audience. Also, going with the promotional events, one can easily judge that the duo shares the same lovely equation off-screen as well. The film has been shot across the UK and India, capturing the fascinating aspects of the pre-independent era.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl730-ilDIu/?hl=en&taken-by=akshayfanclub
PROMOTIONAL EVENTS
Kumar and Roy treated the fans with many golden moments from the promotions as they stepped out and about in the city to promote the film. The Padman star also took to social media to share a glimpse from the promotions along with the Naagin-actor.
The music launch of the film presented with many memorable moments where the actors were seen dancing on the table on the track, Naino Se Baandhi.
Considering the fact that Bollywood has thrown the spotlight on hockey with films like Chak De India, Soorma and Gold, the Padman-actor said making such films will give the sport the attention it deserves.
Akshay also said, ‘People should know more about other sports like Hockey, Kabaddi, Football rather than Cricket. The audience should know more about hockey, and it should be encouraged. People should know what happened in 1948. How we won the first Olympic gold medal in hockey after the independence of India. I think things also have changed because the government is supporting the sport a lot, the number of medals is increasing in the game, so I am happy seeing the encouragement.’
Akshay is playing a Bengali character named Tapan Das who had a dream to win the gold medal in hockey, representing independent India. ‘I worked closely with our dialect coach. I have stayed in Kolkata for two years which actually helped me to play the character, its body language etc. I tried to speak with a Bengali accent,’ the actor said. ‘I hope after this film, hockey gets the respect that it commands. It is an important game that gave our country the first ever gold medal after independence. So I hope things change after our film, ‘Kumar concluded.
The lead actors went on all broadcast mediums to keep up the buzz and recently visited a 98.3FM radio station.
The stars recently snapped in Kolkata where they treated their fans with a surprise since Gold‘s release is just a week away. They landed in the city and the photos from their promotional trip started making rounds on the social media.
Sharing one of the photos on his social media account, actor Akshay Kumar wrote ‘Nomoshkar Kolkata! In your city today on this beautiful morning with ‘@imouniroy. Kemon acho? A special treat coming up for our Bengali fans, stay tuned. #GoldPromotions The two released the Naino Ne Baandhi song from their film in Bengali.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmAJuxTlndt/?hl=en&taken-by=akshayfanclub
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQtXsQl8nr/?hl=en&taken-by=akshayfanclub
THE WAR OF WORDS
In several promotional events, Kumar has made a serious appeal to improve the current state of Hockey in the country.
The sudden rise of Kabaddi and the popularity of Football in general coupled with India’s good show in the sport have ensured the disappearance of Hockey from the minds of the average Indian sports fan. At such a time, a movie on Hockey seems like a much needed shot in the arm for the sport. If Kumar can pull it off, the film can bring the game back into popular awareness, much like Chak De! India managed to do a decade ago.
At the same time, though, the words of the superstar on how he hopes the movie restores the status of Hockey seem hollow when he’s seen selling his movie with a cricket series.
The success of Gold at the box office is almost guaranteed given the timing of its release, its subject and of course, the Khiladi.
Besides the marketing strategies, the film holds up high expectations. Akshay being the Bengali coach of a team struggling with its own set of problems post partition. The trailer is full of forced injections of patriotism with Kumar’s character repeatedly fixed in his troops how the earlier Gold medals were achieved playing under the Colonial flag, thereby emphasizing the need of a ‘Gold of our own’.
