‘Bodyguard’ comes with Rs 22-crore marketing budget

MUMBAI: The makers of Bodyguard are sparing no expense to ensure a hat-trick of Salman Khan hits. The co-producer, Reliance Entertainment, has lined up a marketing and print budget of around Rs 22 crore – the highest so far in Bollywood. In a trade characterised by surprises and dramatic reversals of fortune, financiers are keen to cash in while the sun shines on Salman.

Bodyguard, another of Khan’s trademark Eid releases, will open across 2,250 screens in 70 Indian cities and with 482 overseas prints. With such a huge release, the movie could score one of the biggest openings ever. After the huge success of Dabangg and Ready, which marked Salman’s stunning comeback, Bodyguard’s release will be closely tracked by the industry that banks as much on luck and hype as on glitz.

Eid has been lucky for Salman since the release of Wanted in 2009, followed by Dabangg a year later. Dabangg and Ready grossed Rs 190 crore and Rs 140 crore, respectively, at the box office.

“It’s the nature of the game. If a star like Salman or Aamir has a cachet, they go and encash it. It’s an all or nothing game to make that weekend happen. In such a case, frontloading everything on to marketing makes sense. And Salman has that ‘bit over the top’ quality as well as his special swagger. He is good at this comedy bordering on a farce, which is like a new genre of cinema,” says Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands.

Bodyguard – produced by Reel Life, owned by Salman’s brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri – was bought by Reliance Entertainment for a reported Rs 64 crore, which earned the ADAG firm co-producer status as well as an equal share in the IPR for perpetuity. Agnihotri reportedly sold the music rights to T-Series for 6 crore. Satellite rights have been sold to Star for Rs 27 crore for seven years.

“Salman may or may not have taken a fee, but the buzz is he charged about Rs 30 crore,” says an industry source.

Agnihotri built a makeshift bungalow in Film City for Salman, who spent many days there during the four-month shoot. Print and advertising costs (P&A, in trade parlance) have gone up substantially over the past few years. Today, P&A constitutes around 25-30% of the total budget. Other major films with big P&As were Ready ( 17-18 crore) and UTV’s Tees Maar Khan ( 15 crore).

The marketing blitzkrieg apart, Salman backers are also counting on the rising popularity of single screens as the star has a formidable fan base across these theatres. Bodyguard will be released in a 65:35 ratio in favour of single-screen theatres.

Refurbished single theatres and mushrooming multiplexes allowed producers and financiers to cast the net wide during the release of movies such as Dabangg, Kites, Ready and Raavan. Dabangg released on 1,800 screens in India while the other three were released on 1,500 screens.