Viacom18 Motion Pictures recreates Wasseypur

The upcoming movie Gangs of Wasseypur has created much hype through an unconventional route of promotions including wall paintings with the dialogues from the movie, giving a 'Wasseypur look' to the audience and distributing Wasseypur Patrika both online and in the physical form.

Taking the unconventional route to promote movies is becoming a common trend these days. Earlier restricted to trailers on television and hoardings on outdoor, now movies have broadened reach across novel platforms. Following close on the heels of the unusual promotions of Kahaani and 3 Idiots, another movie, Gangs of Wasseypur, takes the offbeat route to get closer to the audience.

Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the distributor of the film, has designed an innovative and interesting marketing strategy across on-ground, online and print. The company has painted the walls of 24 cities with the dialogues to give a local and earthy look that can be related to the core positioning of the movie, which is set in a village. Dialogues such as 'Goli nai marenge keh ke lenge' or 'Teri keh ke lunga' have been painted, along with the release date of the movie.

An activation was carried out at various multiplexes across all the top cities, wherein people could sport the Wasseypur look by wearing shirts and 'gamchas' from the movie and getting their pictures clicked. The activation started from June 16.

Both the outdoor and activation part will continue till one week after the release of the movie on June 22.

Vikram Malhotra, chief operating officer, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, says, "The entire marketing strategy is done in an enjoyable and grungy manner, focussing on the positioning of the film and taking the core concept close to the audience. We have used innovative and unconventional means to promote the movie, such as the print and outdoor done in saturated colours to give the earthy feel of the movie."

A tabloid named Wasseypur Patrika was distributed online and in the physical form, giving interesting facts about the movie.

Gangs of Wasseypur is a mainstream action film directed by Anurag Kashyap, who also directed Dev-D. The film was appreciated at Cannes Film Festival 2012 and was promoted by the stars of the movie wearing gamchas.

Also, the music launch for the movie was done on jeeps that flagged off from Bandra Bandstand by the cast; the jeeps promoted the music in various places in Mumbai and Delhi.