Saiyaara, the Mohit Suri directorial which emerged as one of the biggest hits last year, also stood out for its unique marketing strategy where the makers consciously avoided any publicity or promotional interviews with its the lead pair Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda. In a recent interview, Mohit spoke about how the marketing strategy was praised by many industry folks, including Shah Rukh Khan.
Speaking to Variety, the Saiyaara filmmaker recalled his meeting with the Jawan actor at Siddharth Anand’s Diwali party as he said, “They were doing their bit but not the regular interviews, marketing and other stuff. This is not a PR thing. When the great Shah Rukh Khan, he met me at Siddharth Anand’s Diwali party, he said this is the best thing we did.”
Further talking about how they prioritised their marketing plan elsewhere, the filmmaker added, “Because we didn’t have stars, we concentrated on making great music. We spent more time promoting the music. We did not promote it through interviews or by sending the actors out, as everyone does. We spent that money on pushing the music instead. And it all paid back. It all went very authentic.”
Among other subjects, Mohit also spoke about how Aditya Chopra gave him a free hand in terms of budget and production scale. “I don’t know the budget of the film. I don't know how much Ahaan or Aneet got paid, or how much was the VFX cost for the film,” Mohit added.
Made on a relatively small budget of Rs 45 crore, Saiyaara grossed Rs 570 crores at the box office worldwide.
