/> How many times have we looked at the hype and the gloss surrounding a film and surrendered to the cause of increasing the inflow of its ticket sales? How many times have we been mesmerized into thinking "what a cool film!" and gone ahead and jostled in front of the ticket windows?

Well all that glitters...is not a good film. There are umpteen numbers of glaring examples in front of us today. Producers pushing for promotions, stars making a bee-line on reality shows and events to promote their film, and marketing agencies jumping on the bandwagon trying to extract their piece of the pie from an ever increasing film marketing budget. Alas, none of these tactics prevail if the film is not worthwhile in its content.

If movie is "the" God then marketing today has certainly become the king! The whole game of the industry has changed in the last couple of years. It's not about a silver jubilee anymore. Heck if your film runs for a month it's a big deal!

With ever increasing supply of content it has become increasingly difficult for movie makers to hold onto the audience attention. Now, the name of the game is to garner a "big opening". Hence the importance of marketing!

Everyone is thronging to create as big as hype as hype can get, so that the film's opening weekend is taken care of. Carefully manufactured promos have become as much in demand as the film itself.

After all, it is on the basis of these promos that the junta gives its verdict– to see or not to see! Fortunately, and God bless our discerning audiences for it– great promotion cannot guarantee a successful film.

It might give you a great opening and certain producers might inflate these numbers by three times and print huge ads to give an impression otherwise, but a bad film cannot save the day and the truth is for everyone to see.

There are several glaring examples of this phenomenon today. The latest case in point is the much hyped, much talked about Kambakth Ishq.

The entire team went ballistic over promotion. From advertising to public relations to on ground promotions...everyone from Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor downwards were raving about the film as if it was the last piece of Kohinoor left for us to grab.

Whether it was Kareena's clothes, or Akshay's stunts or the whole "Hollywood meets Bollywood" angle, nothing was spared. To give the team credit– no one left any stone unturned. They went full hog into promoting the film. However in the end all that the hype could do was to give the film a bumper opening.

Unfortunately for the producers, the film tanked as the word spread around. No amount of post publicity helped.

Now take another case in point– a film like Chak De. Though Yash Raj films did market this film, albeit in a very subdued manner, it wasn't in your face and it certainly wasn't over hyped.

It took a slow opening but the word spread around and slowly crowds started pouring in, like the monsoons in Mumbai. People wanted to see what magic SRK had created with a team of "non-faces" played by a bevy of spirited performers.

They wanted to be a part of the magic, and they weren't disappointed. The film not only went on to become a money spinner for the production house, but also a cult classic. This is a clear case of content leading to a houseful.

Another brilliant film– Bheja Fry. Made in an extremely modest budget of 50 lakhs INR, it was hardly marketed as the team I suspect, didn't have a budget for marketing. But that didn't stop the film from performing exceedingly well at the box office. It garnered more than ten times of the cost that it was made in, and this only at the box office. DVD rights, satellite rights extra. Need I say more?

At the end of the day, films are about creative expression of a bunch of people, who come together and decide to tell a story. How well you put the pieces together is a factor that depends on an individual or a group's sensibility.

The great Indian junta might bite into your story or might not. A heavy duty star cast and an even heavier promotion might get the initial eyeballs in the cinemas but ultimately, it's the content that decides whether those eyeballs should come again or not.

Like I said before, marketing definitely is the king in today's times, but content is God and will always be.

(Ms. Shivani Prabhakar is a Trade analyst and Senior Marketing Consultant with Tips Films Ltd.)