On June 12, after an exhaustive, month-long promotional cycle—with director Imtiaz Ali appearing on virtually every video platform available, occasionally accompanied by his leading stars Vedang Raina and Sharvari—the filmmaker’s return-to-theatrical feature Main Vaapas Aaunga hit the screens. The opening day shocked his admirers: the film managed to clock in a little over ₹1 crore, a dismal figure for a project of that calibre. By contrast, Haunted 3D, a low-budget franchise horror film featuring lesser-known faces and virtually no promotions, out-earned it on Friday. The opening weekend race, as it stood, was comprehensively lost by Main Vaapas Aaunga, which seemed destined to sink despite near-universal critical acclaim.
Then, something shifted.
The film was resurrected on its first Monday, with collections matching its opening day before trending excellently throughout the week. Having started with a ₹1 crore opening and early trade predictions folding it under ₹15 crore, the film is now closing its lifetime haul at over ₹65 crore.
"What happened with Main Vaapas Aaunga was a genius stroke of post-release marketing that truly aligned with the DNA of the film," says a marketing executive who worked on a competing release that month.
"The team put its biggest star right front and center for the audience: Imtiaz Ali himself. He commands a massive following, especially among millennials who drive social media discourse. The team executed a strategy of having him visit cinemas to interact directly with emotional audiences, and began releasing self-aware, humorous videos about how audiences routinely skip his films in theaters only to later label them 'cult classics' that didn't get their due. It was a masterstroke."
While cinema hall visits are an age-old promotional tactic, industry insiders point out that it succeeded for Main Vaapas Aaunga because of how organic and emotional it felt.
A team member who worked on the campaign told The Hollywood Reporter India: "What began as a filmmaker connecting with his audience quickly caught the attention of the masses as viewers and the team shared snippets of these emotionally charged post-screening meet-and-greets online. Imtiaz’s theatre visits pushed the film's positive word-of-mouth."
Recognising the impact, the team made the smart move of announcing his upcoming cinema hall visits days in advance, drawing crowds to specific screenings. It worked.
Cinema hall reaction videos blew up post-pandemic, with clips of fans cheering for their favourite stars becoming routine. However, this phenomenon was typically reserved for star-driven, big-screen spectacles like Pushpa, KGF, Pathaan, Jawan, and Salaar.
In Hindi cinema, the genre shift began to manifest when beloved modern classics—from Rockstar and Jab We Met to Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Sanam Teri Kasam—found massive success via theatrical re-releases. Then arrived the game-changer: Saiyaara in 2025.
YRF took a major gamble by keeping its fresh lead pair, Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, entirely insulated from media interactions, influencer tie-ups, mall visits, public dance routines, or staged paparazzi coffee runs. This strategic blackout ensured that the sole talking points surrounding Saiyaara remained its music and visual assets, rather than what the actors wore or said.
A similar media-isolation strategy had previously succeeded with Pathaan, where Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham made just a single public appearance in India for a post-release celebration press conference.
With Saiyaara, YRF anchored the media narrative on the experienced shoulders of Mohit Suri, who steered the campaign, famously noting in an interview that Saiyaara could easily have been Aashiqui 3—instantly aligning the film with a historic musical franchise.
"What Imtiaz and Mohit achieved with their respective films was keeping the conversation strictly confined to the title they were promoting," notes the Main Vaapas Aaunga marketing team member. "When a film's communication becomes that focused and front-facing, the audience responds."
The makers of the Huma Qureshi-led Baby Do Die Do adopted a similar playbook. Huma and actor-producer Saqib Saleem saw their film square off against YRF’s Alpha and the multi-starrer comedy Welcome to the Jungle, while Main Vaapas Aaunga was still holding strong. The siblings knew securing exhibition space would be an uphill battle. The opening was predictably low, but the film received a strong thumbs-up from critics and early adopters.
Huma, Saqib, and the core team immediately initiated theatre rounds across the country—from Mumbai to Kashmir—surprising audiences post-screening for quick Q&A sessions. Their digital team amplified videos of these raw audience reactions, expanding awareness and accelerating the film's positive word-of-mouth.
"For small-budget films or niche subjects, any targeted promotion is vital. The objective is simply to make as many potential viewers aware of the release as possible," an insider explains.
"The greater the awareness, the easier the battle for theatre retention becomes. Meeting the audience, receiving immediate feedback, and sharing their real-time emotions create a lasting impression. Viewers feel seen, establishing a unique intimacy between the artist and the audience. Furthermore, for audiences sitting on the fence, the prospect of interacting with the star or filmmaker becomes the ultimate catalyst to purchase a ticket."
However, industry insiders caution that these campaigns must feel organic rather than manufactured, as social media users can instantly detect desperation. "The audience can tell if your effort to connect is merely an attempt to pad the box office figures or a genuine desire to participate in their viewing experience," says a strategist who worked on a major blockbuster last year.
How does one spot a manufactured narrative? The strategist notes that the clues are always present: amplifying an asset—including reaction videos of people crying, laughing, or dancing—requires substantial capital. Numerous digital entertainment pages across X, Instagram, and YouTube operate strictly on a paid-amplification model. If a reaction clip suddenly floods accounts boasting humongous reach, it is almost certainly a paid push.
"Even within that paid push, you can easily identify the benefactor simply by reading the caption—it will be heavily tilted toward praising either the star or the producer!" laughs the strategist, who admitted to pushing a similar executive-focused narrative for a successful producer last year.
The post-pandemic shift over the last six years has redirected almost the entire marketing budget toward digital ecosystems. Traditional multi-city promotional tours have fallen out of favour due to exorbitant overhead costs. Depending on the city, the cast traveling, transport logistics, and the size of the entourage, a physical tour can cost anywhere between ₹10 lakh to ₹50 lakh. If the talent utilises a charter flight, cost easily shoots past ₹1 crore. Conversely, booking a premium multiplex auditorium for a trailer or song launch averages around ₹3 lakh.
YRF's latest Spy Universe film, Alpha, executed a highly digital-led campaign, kicking off with Alia Bhatt and Sharvari appearing on the season two premiere of Samay Raina’s India's Got Latent, followed by an extensive influencer-centric rollout. A key collaboration was orchestrated via Opraah, an influencer marketing and talent management agency led by Pranav Panpalia and Mansi Panpalia, which paired Alia Bhatt with Mythpat, one of India’s biggest YouTube creators and comedians.
Pranav told The Hollywood Reporter India that the collaboration materialised organically after aligning with Yash Raj Films. The primary objective was to identify the right creator fit, someone capable of holding their own alongside Alia Bhatt without the content feeling forced or one-sided.
"Mythpat was the obvious choice for us. He came up with the concept himself, a funny, natural interaction between the two of them. That's the key word: he brought the idea to the table. It wasn't a brand brief handed down to a creator. Alia heard the concept, liked it, and that's what made it happen. When the talent is genuinely excited about the idea, everything downstream, the execution, the energy on set, the final product, just works better," the co-founder said.
Pranav noted that the team was struck by how smoothly the project moved once the concept was locked, given that high-profile Bollywood collaborations can often become structurally complicated.
"There are layers of approval, everyone's protective of how the star is portrayed, and sometimes the creator ends up being a prop rather than a real creative partner. This was different. Mythpat wasn't just showing up to do a cameo in someone else's promo. He brought the idea, and that ownership translated on screen."
As the alliance between mainstream film stars, major titles, and digital creators continues to surge, Pranav views this as a logical evolution of where consumer attention actually resides.
"Film stars have enormous brand equity, but creators have something different. They have a daily, intimate relationship with their audience. When those two things combine well, you're getting distribution into a demographic that might not be engaging with traditional film promotion at all. For the star or the film, it's access to a younger, highly engaged audience in a format they trust. For the creator, it's a credibility moment. Being in the same frame as Alia Bhatt means something. It signals that you've crossed a certain threshold."
While the industry rapidly adapts to these modern marketing tools, the core question remains: how effectively does digital chatter translate into tangible ticket sales? The strategist maintains that no promotional campaign can guarantee a massive box-office opening; what it guarantees is awareness.
"None of these tactics automatically translate into footfalls—that responsibility always falls on the film itself. Our job is to ensure the audience is acutely aware of the release date, that they remain curious, and that they stay invested in the campaign right up until Thursday evening—and in anomalous cases like Main Vaapas Aaunga, even well beyond."
Pranav echoes the sentiment. While critics argue that influencer marketing has plateaued and fails to drive direct ticket conversions, he believes the conversation requires deeper nuance.
"What influencer marketing does is keep a film in the cultural conversation. It creates multiple touchpoints. Someone might see the Mythpat and Alia video today, see a trailer tomorrow, see a friend post about it next week, and then buy a ticket. You can't isolate one variable and declare the whole strategy flat."
The quality of the collaboration matters enormously, he emphasises. "A lazy tie-up where a creator is holding a movie poster and saying "so excited for this one," yes, that's probably not moving tickets. But a piece of content that actually made people laugh, that people shared because it was genuinely entertaining? That's building something real. The plateau people are talking about is the plateau of bad influencer marketing. The good stuff still cuts through."