Dasavatharam, Sivaji and the Reality Check
Exactly after a year later Sivaji - The Boss, we now have Dasavatharam. Kamal and his producer Aaskar Ravi (Oh yeah..He is not Oscar anymore!) made sure that they did everything possible to promote the movie and tried really hard to hit the headlines atleast for the past one month, before the release. They even went to the extent of inviting Jackie Chan and Amitab Bachan (I have no idea why they did) for the Audio release function in Nehru Stadium. The controversies also added more interest among the movie buffs. Kamal also screened the movie to Karunanithi (Who has been involved in almost all the audio release and movie premiers recently - and yea, he does have a job of being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) who supposedly was really impressed and congratulated his effort (I don't understand this - you screen a movie exclusively for a celebrity and what else will you expect out of them at the end of the show? It is like my friend and his wife inviting me for dinner and me saying the food was awesome, even though it sucked big time ;) )
Ok, enough said about how much was done to promote Dasavatharam. The question now is, have all the marketing thingy paid off for Dasavatharam? Has it created enough interest among people? Google Trends can help you with that. Trends has been here for about a year and half now. For those who want to learn how this works - go here to learn.
Basically, Google trends will plot the popularity of a subject based on Search Volume Index. In other words, you can easily say how many people were searching for a subject or how many times that subject was listed in google news for the past 4 years.
Let's compare how Dasavatharam and Sivaji faired among the internet users. The results displayed are world-wide statistics.
Clearly, on the day of its release in June 2007, Sivaji (The Red Graph) hits a peak among internet users. Also, the small graph below shows the number of news reference for that particular week. You may claim that lot of hits may have come from Sivaji - the name, rather than Sivaji - the movie. Wrong. The search increased just on the movie release date and it took almost a month the settle down. Also, as some of you might have heard already, Google also lists Top 100 searches every day. Now, these results are only from the US and not global. On June 14 2007 (the release date for sivaji), the search phrase 'sivaji review' comes in at number 69. It is just the people in the US searching for it. Even though it was a slow news day, it had to stand up against the US open, the tooth paste recall, the flag day etc., during that day, last year. I have not seen any other Indian movie doing that before. The cool thing about hot trends is that, it lets you go back up to 2 years and search for the top 100 hot trends for every day in those past years. Trends also lists the related news articles alongside the results. All the A, B, C s that you see on the red graph above corresponds to Sivaji - the movie news article that touched periodic peaks. A complete set of country wide, state wide, city wide results can be found here. Bottom line, Dasavatharam clearly did not create enough interest before or on its day of release. I am almost positive that a movie's verdict will be directly proportional to these results.
Another movie that came to my mind when I thought of crazy marketing is Om Shanti Om. SRK is undoubtedly the marketing guru, when it comes to his movies. He was literally on all the TV channels all the time before the movie hit the screens.
Lets take a look at how it compared with Sivaji.
As it came out during November 2007, the curiosity among internet users gradually increased and peaked during its release date.
The one thing that we should notice in the above graphs is their pattern. It is really interesting to see how the two graphs have a pre-release short peak and touches the high point on the day of its release. Later, the hype (or the graph) gradually settles down in a month.
Going with these statistics, Dasavatharam will fail to make the cash registers ringing. Kamal might have to go back to the drawing board and work on getting this graph right for his next.
Exactly after a year later Sivaji - The Boss, we now have Dasavatharam. Kamal and his producer Aaskar Ravi (Oh yeah..He is not Oscar anymore!) made sure that they did everything possible to promote the movie and tried really hard to hit the headlines atleast for the past one month, before the release. They even went to the extent of inviting Jackie Chan and Amitab Bachan (I have no idea why they did) for the Audio release function in Nehru Stadium. The controversies also added more interest among the movie buffs. Kamal also screened the movie to Karunanithi (Who has been involved in almost all the audio release and movie premiers recently - and yea, he does have a job of being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) who supposedly was really impressed and congratulated his effort (I don't understand this - you screen a movie exclusively for a celebrity and what else will you expect out of them at the end of the show? It is like my friend and his wife inviting me for dinner and me saying the food was awesome, even though it sucked big time ;) )
Ok, enough said about how much was done to promote Dasavatharam. The question now is, have all the marketing thingy paid off for Dasavatharam? Has it created enough interest among people? Google Trends can help you with that. Trends has been here for about a year and half now. For those who want to learn how this works - go here to learn.
Basically, Google trends will plot the popularity of a subject based on Search Volume Index. In other words, you can easily say how many people were searching for a subject or how many times that subject was listed in google news for the past 4 years.
Let's compare how Dasavatharam and Sivaji faired among the internet users. The results displayed are world-wide statistics.
| dasavatharam | 1.00 |
| sivaji | 7.00 |
Clearly, on the day of its release in June 2007, Sivaji (The Red Graph) hits a peak among internet users. Also, the small graph below shows the number of news reference for that particular week. You may claim that lot of hits may have come from Sivaji - the name, rather than Sivaji - the movie. Wrong. The search increased just on the movie release date and it took almost a month the settle down. Also, as some of you might have heard already, Google also lists Top 100 searches every day. Now, these results are only from the US and not global. On June 14 2007 (the release date for sivaji), the search phrase 'sivaji review' comes in at number 69. It is just the people in the US searching for it. Even though it was a slow news day, it had to stand up against the US open, the tooth paste recall, the flag day etc., during that day, last year. I have not seen any other Indian movie doing that before. The cool thing about hot trends is that, it lets you go back up to 2 years and search for the top 100 hot trends for every day in those past years. Trends also lists the related news articles alongside the results. All the A, B, C s that you see on the red graph above corresponds to Sivaji - the movie news article that touched periodic peaks. A complete set of country wide, state wide, city wide results can be found here. Bottom line, Dasavatharam clearly did not create enough interest before or on its day of release. I am almost positive that a movie's verdict will be directly proportional to these results.
Another movie that came to my mind when I thought of crazy marketing is Om Shanti Om. SRK is undoubtedly the marketing guru, when it comes to his movies. He was literally on all the TV channels all the time before the movie hit the screens.
Lets take a look at how it compared with Sivaji.
| sivaji | 1.00 |
| om shanti om | 1.20 |
As it came out during November 2007, the curiosity among internet users gradually increased and peaked during its release date.
The one thing that we should notice in the above graphs is their pattern. It is really interesting to see how the two graphs have a pre-release short peak and touches the high point on the day of its release. Later, the hype (or the graph) gradually settles down in a month.
Going with these statistics, Dasavatharam will fail to make the cash registers ringing. Kamal might have to go back to the drawing board and work on getting this graph right for his next.
27 comments:
nice one !
Rama,
Nice blog but I suggest that you should'nt be comparing a bollywood movie against a Kollywood move anytime (OSO against STB) just for the simple reason that Bollywood movies have far more audience than a south indian movie.
--Bala
Onnum puriyala...
yennyaa.. itha thamilla sonna yaarum sandaikku varaaangalaa?
well, I wanted to add OSO just to show how Sivaji faired when compared to a bollywood flick and also to show the consistency in graphs for two blockbuster movies!
And Anonymous naina... itha thamil la mozhi peyarpu panna muyarchikkaren!!
I guess you are among the presumptuous lot that thinks all good cinema viewers are represented on the world wide web and can be tracked on google trends. So that make movie A less than movie B. That being said it is your blog and you are free to write what you think and that makes you somewhat creative (at least you would go to sleep thinking so). Why don’t do a google trend on your creative ability and see what you come up with. Am sure everyone will be thrilled to see the results.
As for your advice to the best Actor alive in Tamil Cinema - thanks but no thanks. He does not need to go back to any drawing board. He knows what he is doing.
I am not inferring these trends are THE benchmark for successful movies, but they are on their way to become one of the major factors deciding the verdict.
They say nothing about the quality of the cinema, if that is what your claim is. It just says how much of interest it creates among the web users.
Everyone needs to go back to his drawing board to understand what they did right and what they missed. After all, they are at least answerable for the guys who spend Rs 500 on the first day ticket. Your last statement makes the "best actor" an enormous egomaniac.
And yea, Thanks for stopping by!
Mams,
I saw the movie yesterday. It was ok.
All the credit should go to make-up artists and technicians.
The part that I hated the most are:
- Asin & her dialogue (Perumaalay Mudiyala)
- G W Bush
- Kalaignar and atlast
- K.S Ravikumar
Hey...A nice blog and a very different one on dasavatharam...
very creative...
Kannan Ramanujam...Kamal should infact do more than anyone else in going back to the drawing board...as he is more serious about cinema than anyone and he is more interested in such things...so dont make Kamal more of an egomaniac than he already is...
Good job rama karthikeyan...
Hey...A nice blog and a very different one on dasavatharam...
very creative...
Kannan Ramanujam...Kamal should infact do more than anyone else in going back to the drawing board...as he is more serious about cinema than anyone and he is more interested in such things...so dont make Kamal more of an egomaniac than he already is...
Good job rama karthikeyan...
A double thanks to you Sridhar :)
Cheers.
Interesting analysis on popularity. Will be a good financial record for Kamal to go through for promoting a film. And hopefully he does a lot of it to make a film without indulgence.
that's a very cool tool!
Thanks Ashok and Anita.
Very Good Comparison. Good Work. Keep It Up.
Good analysis. I guess Kamal should make more enjoyable movies than just satisfy his own ego, movie after movie. He should learn that nuance from Rajinikanth, A larger than life humble person.
Well said Madurai veeran. Kamal does not allow others screen space even when he acts in one movie-ex Vetri Vizha. Around the same time prabhu acted with superstar and he was given an almost equal role. That is the magnanimity and a big heart which Rajini has and Kamal lacks. Dasa can never become sivaji however hard its producer and director may try. Asskar tried his best to poke and ridicule Sivaji the only boss.That is his character. You reap what you sow.
I remember the tenaliraman story when I see the interviews or reviews of Dasavatharam. Tenaliraman asks everyone to look at the mirror and says that god is visible in the mirror and he is visible only to intellectuals. Its the same with Dasavatharam, Creators of the movie and reviews says that movie is understandable to intellectuals though its just a mirror otherwise crap.
Dear Rama,
Its a nice hit out. Our fans are turning google-tech!! (a substitute for hitech)
Keep rocking and entertain us with more such infos in coming days.
Dear Rama,
Its a nice hit out. Our fans are turning google-tech!! (a substitute for hitech)
Keep rocking and entertain us with more such infos in coming days.
MM,
Amazing work with real stats.
Athaan TV la Dasavatharam padakkulzu voda pettillan pottu thaukkunalngalae.
Athavida kodumai ennana, Rajini sir Dasava parrkirathai, Kamaloda pesunatha ellam olivu maraivu illama kattunaynga. Kamal ithuvarai Sivaji padam pathathak kooda news illa. Kuselan vilzala sonna mathiri, "nallavangaluku nallathu thaan ndakkum". Summa udaru Davasatharam foriegnla sakkapodu podutham. inga torontola, sivaji release aanapa, kooda velai pakkira Inthiya, Inthiya originkaravung athavathu, Tamil, Hindi onnum pesaththeriyaadu aana thatha, patti ellam inthiyala poranthavunga varai Sivaji pattu ketutu,"Hai, this guy what is his name, he is from your place (state)nu kettanga. Inthiyarga ellam "padam pathidiyannu", kettutu hindi pesaravanga gooda padathuku poonganga. Dasa pathi ippa kooda vela pakkira thamil karanga kooda kekkla.En friendugittak ketten, avar relatives USla paththuttnga, sonnaglalam' "hmm, paravaillannu", athanala,avvaluvuku pirayosanam irukkathu, athala pogalannu." Ithula avar Rajiniya "Mentalnnu" comment adipparu.Avar rajiniyoda sivajiya 2 thadavai paththaru, mothathadavai familyoda, 2 thadava engooda vanthaaru.Thanga mudiayaha koddumai ennana, intenetla namma comments ulagame pakkuthnnu yosikaama "uthar" vidaruthu gooda sari. Kettavarthaiyila ellam rajiniya pathi thitti eluzthuranga.
Kamal, Rajini comparison apart - very interesting Google tool. Thanks for exposing it.
really gud.....
ahahah :) nalla entertaining blog ...for that nalla sirupulla thannaman vilazyatu blog! I just happen to stumble upon this blog from the royalvilla.blogspot.com with Anitha's jovial kuthu pavam kassu illaimey romba kashtum ..she wants her money back ... then why to go to cinema, summa apidiye jolliya friends odey OSIley pogalam illai. All you anithas and ramas, chumma athuruthu illai , otharuthu illai puchandi kamikiruthu illai cinema ....something more than that which unfortunatly less people in India understand. I am surprised when people comment abt the story of Dasa. These are the same people who also happen to sing the glory of the stories abt a man with few cows/buffalos becoming a Millionaire, A man who has crores of rupees that need to be spent in 30 days, A guy who again earns in crores as Software Prof in US (I would need some reference...looks like a cool job)etc ...Guys should know/realise whom we are talking abt and infact what are we upto ...if not at the efforts of a great actor of the century atleast for the efforts put up by an Indian (most of whose films are qualified to compete with Hollywood) one should have the required maturity to appreciate. Anyway no use in any further arguements or counter statements. As per the saying people's verdict is the lord's one...People have already made Dasa a stupendous and astounding success...100 crores in first week ....people compared with Sivaji...ahah Sivaji got lost in Tsunami ....total collection of Sivaji was by-passed in two weeks. These are not summa puchandi ...refer Nakeeran's report probably you will also get to know Sivaji's loss in pondicherry and related law suit by the theate owner and also get know Sivaji's deposit loss in Madurai.... History repeats itself chumma romba adunna aatum kandudum...Gharuvum thavirkkey Sollu Apidi sonnathu inthey Ulaga Nayagan endru Sollu. And Kuselan ...wow guys even said Kuselan will thrash Dasa .enn hype ahaha good joke deposittey kaannom! Aganthai Kudaathu ....
Ithu koothai paarthu sernthey kootum illai ....anbukkum, thiramaikkum sernthey oru thani kootum.
If someone thinks different and wanted to do something different odanney he/she is egoistic ahhahaha enn maturity! And someone said Kamal shud learn from Rajini's big heart..ahah athu thaan parthomey how he treated Pasupathi and Meena during the Movie marketing and how he has mis guided his fans chumma tamilan, karppu, Elzhai nnu solli.
I am not saying Dasa has a great story but it is nevertheless in the braket where you guys are rating it.... Be honest to self ..when you comparison do it with correct and equal personalities and skills and more important with correct, authentic facts. Anyway just thought of sharing what i felt when I read such......for that I am not a regular blogger and probably this is the first and last visit to this site! Good Bye guys! God Bless you All.
Also Stats pathi pesurvanglukku ....let me know I will give the authentic stats and abt the larger than life humble person who happen to MGR kittey adi vagunithu iruthu ellam.
Folks obsolutely no disrespect intended to Rajini..infact when we discuss among our friends we don't even adress Rajini as avan, ivan , we have always addressed him with respect for his age and for whatever qualities he has, his own fans who trust him. But this refrain, this maturity is completely missed when critising Kamal so obviously it would be a different ball game!
Some stupid blogger critizing Kamal. Dasa has made 200 crores at the end its 100 days run compared to 120 crores for Sivaji. No celebration (other than a small gift camp by Kamal fans) for Dasa 100 days. Stupid Rajini pays money to celebrate 175 days. Coming as himself in Kuselan proved to be a disaster. Rajini fame is pure luck as he lacks any talent. Kamal is a genius and the only actor in India who gives different for his fans. Rajini stupid movies is only for his stupid fans. Tamil cinema always has this difference starting with MGR and Sivaji.
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