The decision is being taken from the trailer review itself! The audience no longer has the patience to wait for the film's release...why?

• Know what will be the result of it?
• Will small producers be able to survive in this race?

The reviews that have come from the audience on the trailer release of Prabhash's film 'Salaar', which is going to be released on 22nd December, are surprising. The trailer of this film has received 100 million views in just 18 hours upon its release, which is an astonishing number. Whatever the box office result after the release of the film, it seems that now the audience is in such a hurry to know everything, that there is a competition to enjoy the film just by watching the trailer on social media.

Something similar happened before the trailer release of 'Salaar', the series of reviews (50.6 million) came on the trailer release of Ranbir Kapoor's film 'Animal'. Just a week before its release, the trailer of 'Animal' had changed the atmosphere. This trailer had defeated everyone. And, before that, the trailer reviews of 'Tiger 3' had created the same uproar. Before 'Tiger 3', 'Jawaan', before 'Gadar 2', and before that 'Pathan', the trailer review given on social media has come out with the results of the films of the year 2023. It seems like success is all in the cinema industry. But in reality, it is not so! Watching the trailer of 'Salaar', it seems that the audience will be in awe as seen by the number of trailer reviews. But this crowd does not come to the theatre. Trailer views of some films were very good but the films did not perform. Like Akshay Kumar's 'Circus' (45 million), Prithviraj (43.8 million) and 'Samrat Prithviraj' (43.8) did not perform at the box office. The reports of films '83' (43 million) and 'Suryavanshi' (43.9) were not good at the box office. It is obvious that social media reviews also come after seeing the faces of the stars and the name of the maker/director.

Now let us talk about ‘Salaar’. On the same day, Shahrukh Khan's film 'Dinky' is being released in theaters for which it is being said that if Raj Kumar Hirani is the director, the film will be different. Seeing the promo shots 1 and 2 of 'Dinky', reviewers on social media had declared that this is Shahrukh Khan's third super hit film this year. Now the same views have turned towards ‘Salaar’. In Bollywood, only one film at a time can create a ruckus towards which the audience turns and when it fails, there are many together. Seeing the reviews, even the experts are in a dilemma as to which one will do well and which one will not do well. The film directed by Hirani will not run but will still keep running while Prabhash’s film will either run or get badly flopped. But, looking at the trailer reviews of 'Salaar' it seems that it is a big film because it has left all the previous films behind in trailer reviews. No one has received such a large number of views till now.

Now, see the impact of these huge number of 'trailer' views and reviews. When 'Jawaan' came, at the same time as 'OMG 2'. Despite being an educational and well-thought-out film, it lagged behind the uproar of 'Jawaan'. The same situation happened with 'Sam Bahadur', a film based on the life of Field Marshal Manekshaw. The news of this film has been suppressed by the trailer release views of 'Animal'. Similarly, at the time of 'Gadar 2' and the release of 'Pathan', many films were released in which there were no big stars, and all these films flopped.

Watching any big-budget, star-cast film, it seems that the audience or the fans of the stars go crazy after watching the trailer. They become completely engaged in gathering information about the film. They guess the plot and presentation of the entire film from these trailers only. The curiosity to watch the film ends here and very few go to the theater to watch the film. This is the reason why the number of spectators inside the theater starts counting within two weeks of its release. The second major disadvantage is that the low-budget films released along with those films that have created a lot of trailer controversy or the films made with new actors get completely flopped.

Earlier, films used to be released on hoardings and posters first. Curiosity was gradually aroused in the minds of the audience, that the era is over and social media has created a place where the audience uncovers the film like they peel an onion, the entire film is revealed in two or three trailers. If the film business has to be run in a balanced manner, then the producers will have to think about banning promos. Of course, they should show the posters but keep the entire film hidden. With this, even big films will get real viewership and the business of small films will also be like that of big films.

- Sharad Rai