Dhurandhar marketer defends low-key promotions for Ranveer Singh film: ‘We were underplaying’

Varun Gupta’s firm, Max Marketing, has been instrumental in promoting various blockbusters like Jawan, Animal, Baahubali, RRR, Dhurandhar, and more. Talking about the marketing strategy for Dhurandhar, Varun told Hindustan Times, “Even before the release of the film, we didn’t go overboard with anything. In fact, we were underplaying. There were conversations about ‘why are the promotions not going at the scale and level they are supposed to.’ There were a few people who tagged me (on social media), asking, ‘Why aren’t you doing what you are supposed to?’ But every film cannot have the same strategy of getting my actor out there and going to colleges and various cities for interviews. Now that we have seen the film, you know it. What Q&A could Ranveer Singh do for the film?”

Also Read: Dhurandhar 2 teaser: Aditya Dhar plays it safe by recycling the same footage, serving a forgettable first-look

‘Never tried to oversell Dhurandhar’

He added, “If the actors are not seen on the ground, people feel marketing is not happening. Sometimes, it is required; sometimes it is not. There is no thumb rule that this is how it is supposed to happen. Over here, we were clear that we wanted to keep it at a certain level of dignity and something non-gimmicky. The entire campaign was content-first. If you like what you see, you will watch the film. We never tried to oversell it through action scenes, an item song, and patriotism. It had everything, but we didn’t sell any of it. We just stayed true to what we can expect from it.”

Varun Gupta also spoke about the promotions for Dhurandhar 2 being kept low-key and said, “Sometimes the best strategy is not to come in the way of something very organic. It will be very foolish of us as a team to try to overdo something that is already doing so well. When something is already anticipated, don’t kill the excitement by over-delivering or satisfying the viewer.”

Dhurandhar earned over Rs 1,300 crore at the box office. The film currently ranks as the second-highest-grossing Hindi release of all time, and Varun believes that the strong goodwill and word of mouth built by the first instalment will also benefit the sequel. He said, “Now, there is all the more reason we should not be going crazy. The first time we did it was a risk. Now it will obviously be a strategy. I am not saying we won’t do anything. But we didn’t try to be desperate then; we won’t try to be desperate now. It’s coming from the space of being confident of what you have, rather than being overconfident after the first one’s success.”

Dhurandhar 2 is slated to release on March 19. The film will also star Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, and Sara Arjun.