Spirit W | A movie decides its marketing plan: Fox Star Studios' Shikha Kapur

Hindi films are now more than just an art and are one of the most sort after businesses today. Possessing business acumen and having an overall understanding of the business of films is now an essential requirement to be a part of the game. Right from film production and film trade to post production activities like marketing and promotions, senior members in the ‘business of Bolloywood’ know it all.
 
With more than a decade of experience in having marketed over 100 films and having won multiple awards, Shikha Kapur has conceptualized the marketing campaigns of some of the biggest hits of all times - Chennai Express, Rowdy Rathore, Barfi!, Raajneeti,  Rang De Basanti and many more.

She has also been responsible for the successful campaigns of breakout hits like Dev. D, No One Killed Jessica, Kai Po Che, ABCD, Delhi Belly, Peepli Live, Fashion, Kaminey.  One of the main architects behind the creation of the UTV Motion Pictures brand, Shikha has created a niche for herself in the Hindi film industry.

Adgully caught up with Shikha Kapur, Chief Marketing Officer, Fox Star India to understand the challenges in the movie marketing space and more.

Shikha Kapur was heading Marketing for Studios, Broadcasting and the Interactive business at Disney India and served as the Vice President of the company.

At Fox Star Studios, Kapur is responsible for marketing the entire studio portfolio across Hollywood, Bollywood and Tamil. Movie Marketing is not a typical field of work to get into; speaking on what made her choose this profession, she said, “I am a big movie buff and that was the only thing that motivated me to get into something like this. The interest was not from the start though but it developed when I started working in Mumbai with a production house. That was when I inclined towards this profession but my love and liking towards Bollyood actually made me land into this.”

In addition she also handles the syndication business too. A strategist, innovator and an effective team leader, she has played a critical role in driving a series of successful marketing campaigns that have set new trends in the industry. Shikha has proven herself to be the best marketing professionals in the film business in India.

A strong believer of the fact that the marketing space for movies in the country is quite robust and has rapidly evolved over the years, she said, “If we look back the way a movie used to be promoted and is now fall far apart. There was a time when movies were promoted through posters and trailers (mainly traditional media) but today we believe in leaving no stone unturned to market our films. The journey from posters to digital, movie marketing has tremendously grown and developed. Movie marketing today is equal to brand marketing. Unlike earlier days, today movie has a limited and an uncertain time, it could there for a weekend  or may be two, so we as marketers get very little time to position and market a film hence the steps taken have to be appropriate and bang-on. Apart from that, today majority of movies have a specific audience to cater to and so while marketing a movie we have to keep those aspects also in mind as every set of audience and geography has their own way of understanding the campaign.”

April 2014, Kapur joined Fox Studios hence it was too early to ask about her stint with the company but out of curiosity when asked the same, she said, “It has been a wonderful three-month journey (laughs)…the kind of diversified content and clientele Fox Studio has is what makes me work passionately in the organization.”

Fox Star Studios, an India based movie production and distribution company, a joint venture between 20th Century Fox, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures and STAR, India’s media and entertainment company, both owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has made its presence felt quite literally in the Indian film industry. Elaborating on that, she said, “We have had partnerships and synergies with Bollywood movies, Tamil movies and Hollywood movies too. Though I joined the company off-lately but I have seen the studio growing leaps and bounds and adding movies one after another to its kitty.”

She has marketed and been associated with a lot of movies throughout her career but she is really close and proud of movies like Iqbal, Rang de Basanti, Dev D, she said,
“One really needs time and insightful thoughts to market and position such movies.”
The business of movie making the subsequent processes of publicity and marketing have evolved over the years as she mentioned above but since she has been in the marketing business for a long time now, on strategies she said, “A movie decides its marketing strategies. At the same I also feel that today one has to be really innovative while marketing a movie as the competition is too high and the mediums available are also are quite robust. Digital as a medium has grown and done really well for movie marketers.”

Her depth of experience along with her relationships in the industry combine wonderfully well with the vision of making Fox Star Studios a premiere studio in India.

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