Cross connections: North and South stars in mutual promotion spree

With films from different industries in India releasing in multiple languages, stars are setting their eyes on not just releasing but also promoting films with big tie-ups across different film industries.

As part of a strong promotional move, actors are promoting songs and films of different film industries, ensuring the reach of the film becomes wider in movie markets beyond one's familiar zone.

Actor Salman Khan, on Monday launched the Hindi teaser of upcoming biographical drama "Major". The film starring Adivi Sesh, is being made in Telugu, Hindi and dubbed in Malayalam.

Many Hindi-speaking fans will know of "Major" mainly because Salman has launched its poster, just as the audience in Kerala were endeared to the film because Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran posted about it. Similarly, the film's producer Mahesh Babu launched the Telugu version.

Not long ago, the film "Muddy", touted as India's first film on off-road racing, was announced by five actors of five different industries. While actor Arjun Kapoor launched the teaser for the Hindi-speaking audience, the teaser was also launched virtually by Malayalam actors Fahad Faasil and Unni Mukundan, Telugu filmmaker Anil Ravipudi, Tamil actor Jayam Ravi and Kannada actor Dr. Sivaraj Kumar.

"It is a very good and healthy trend. Social media has the power to reach the entire country and but promoting films in other languages through superstars of those languages increases the reach. This way, if industries are united, it's a win-win situation," trade analyst Atul Mohan tells IANS.

Recently, the song "Chali chali" of Kangana Ranuat's upcoming film "Thalaivi" was launched by Telugu actress Samantha Akkineni.

Does it ensure better box office returns across India?

Says trade analyst Taran Adarsh: "By launching the teaser you don't get returns. The first thing is that it gets eyeballs. Secondly, a lot of things in our industries are done because of friendship. Now, we are talking of teasers, earlier there used to be mahurat shots when actors who were not associated with film would give mahurat shots or start the camera. Sometimes it is out of friendship and sometimes out of a healthy professional relationship."

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