Forget the bad-mouthing and the rumors, today, most B-Town celebrities are willing to put their competitive spirit aside and publicly support other actors' films

Promoting a film is not just relegated to press conferences and public appearances anymore. Now it's all about innovative marketing strategies to create a buzz for the film. Stars brainstorm for unique ideas which help the film be a success at the box-office. From Shah Rukh Khan to Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan, they are all trying to outdo each other and come up with the best strategy for their film to grab maximum eyeballs. But recently, some stars are also chipping in to help promote each others' films.


Katrina Kaif and Hrithik Roshan starred in 'Bang Bang', which released last month. Hrithik took it upon himself to promote the film through his 'Bang Bang' dares to other stars including Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra

Make or break
Marketing a film is considered to a tough job as it can make - or break a project. The manner in which a film is sold to the audience plays a large role in its success. Thus, stars and filmmakers keep on looking for newer and more innovative ideas to promote their films. As an industry observer puts it, "Today, marketing a film in a good way is a bigger task than making the film itself. A huge sum of money is spent on this activity alone. The more creative the technique, the better the box office results. If a film is not marketed properly, the loss can be mammoth. Coming up with unique ways of getting the audience to the theatre is very important."


Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha feature in the upcoming film 'Tevar'. The actors have been asking others from B-Town to 'Show them their tevar'

Big spenders
The source adds, "The budget allocated for marketing has suddenly seen a manifold jump over the last few years, and now the budget allotted for it is equal to the cost of making the film. People often wonder whether marketing a film well really makes any difference to the film, but over the past few years there have been many examples of great marketing strategies having helped the film do well at the box office."


Aamir Khan accepted Hrithik Roshan's 'Bang Bang' dare of dropping the transistor as seen in the posters of his film PK which Aamir did literally

In recent times, many stars from the industry have changed how their film is marketed - they have been creative and effective. Many actors from the industry have begun helping their star friends to market the latters' films. Recently, Hrithik Roshan, as part of the promotions of his film 'Bang Bang', challenged other stars for a Bang Bang dare. It created a lot of buzz and helped Bang Bang at the box office.

Nominating friends
Taking a cue from the Ice Bucket Challenge, Hrithik challenged his star friends to perform adventurous and sometimes funny tasks. Most of them sportingly took it up. Shah Rukh Khan was challeneged to share a picture of him doing his favourite abdomen exercise but ended ended up sharing a video of his eight-pack workout, and while Ranveer Singh danced on Linking Road dressed like Hrithik's character in the film, Krrish.


Ranveer Singh accepted Hrithik Roshan's 'Bang Bang' dare by dancing on Linking Road dressed like Hrithik's character Krrish in the superhero film

Show it to them
After the 'Bang Bang' Dare, Bollywood stars Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, who will be seen together in their forthcoming film, 'Tevar', have now started the 'Show Me Your Tevar' dare and have asked their friends from the industry to participate. Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor and others joined in.


Shah Rukh Khan and Nargis Fakhri
Hrithik Roshan dared Shah Rukh Khan to share a picture doing his favourite ab exercise. King Khan shared a video of his eight pack workout instead; Nargis Fakhri was asked to rap by Hrithik Roshan as part of the 'Bang Bang' dare. She did an impromptu rap session without any break

Setting a trend
Last year, Salman Khan was seen sporting Aamir's 'Dhoom 3' hat on his reality show to help promote the film. The star has always been open to promoting other projects either by making appearances with the cast or crew or urging his fans on social networking sites to go and watch the film.


Priyanka Chopra did a headstand as part of Hrithik Roshan's 'Bang Bang' dare

This entire campaign was well received by both Salman and Aamir's fans and the film, 'Dhoom 3', eventually became one of the biggest hits of the year. Forget the bad-mouthing and the rumours, today, most celebrities are willing to publicly support other actors' films. This also works in their favour, of course - you know just who will agree to promote your film when the time comes. Win-win, we say.

In the past

Salman Khan promoted buddy Aamir Khan's film 'Dhoom 3' last year on his reality show by wearing the same cap that Aamir has worn in the film


Farah Khan took the aliens from hubby Shirish Kunder's film 'Joker' to Mannat and they posed with Shah Rukh Khan


Vidya Balan takes her characters so seriously that she finds it difficult to leave them behind during promotions. The actress dressed up as a beggar and shocked Hrithik Roshan to promote her film, 'Bobby Jasoos'