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You
can never be hungry for film news anymore. The hundreds
of websites, thousands of blogs and another hundreds
of print publications ensure that every morsel of
information about our stars and movies is religiously
being fed to the eager fans. There were times, before
the advent of internet; only printed periodicals
were sources of information about cinema. Back then,
lives of stars sounded more like a closely guarded
secret until the tabloids released periodically
(weekly or fortnightly) with news about the latest
in their professional and personal lives. There
was exclusivity in terms what was delivered to you
until the internet opened floodgates and you and
I are bombarded with everything from a star’s
personal life to absolute trivialities and everything
in between. In place of film journalists (not that
they are an extinct species now), now there are
celebrity bloggers, film enthusiasts and practically
everyone who has connections in film-making who
are blogging and hosting websites.
Like how internet and related technologies are wiping
out or completely transforming the age-old customs
of reading |
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(there
is going to be a time in the near future when you abandon
physical books completely and switch to e-books) and writing
(who writes with pen and pencil anymore, anyway), there
are a few vocations, whose survival is closely related
to cinema, are threatened. One such is the job of a PRO.
In good old days, the job of a PRO is akin to that of
a marketing professional with a B school graduation –
in a sense that the product’s promotion solely depends
on how it is marketed (by the PRO). He is the entryway
through which everything about the movie is released to
the media and public. PRO ensures that there is good word
of mouth about the movie before it is released; the movie’s
promotions are done well by releasing the stills strategically
at important times and generally coordinating the events
and press releases related to the movie.
But is this job all the same now? In some terms, a PRO’s
job has become spectacularly easy what with the internet
savvy new generation of actors, producers and directors
doing most of the promotion by themselves. Now the new-gen
producer doesn’t necessarily need a PRO to promote
his movie in the old sense of the word. He does it himself
using the countless social networking sites he is a member
of (Twitter and Facebook, predominantly).
From there, the news is spiraled into the thousands of
blogs and hundreds of movie based websites (as mentioned
earlier). His true blue ‘followers’ either
‘like’ the news or pictures that are posted
and the news is also ‘retweeted’ creating
the required buzz for the movie. If that’s the case
with producers and directors, actors have huge fan ‘followers’
on their social networking profiles and every morsel about
the movie and the pictures travel at the speed of light
across the internet.
More importantly, there are celebrity-PROs who rise to
the occasion to promote movies they deem deserve their
star power to be promoted. For instance, Udhyanidhi Stalin
is the self-proclaimed PRO for Kulla Nari Kootam. He declared
that he would do his best to promote the movie in his
personal capacity at the movie’s press meet. Other
cases in point include Ameer (Yutham Sei) and recently,
Ilayaraja. Normally not the one to dish out compliments
liberally, he recently did so for Azhagarsaamiyin Kuthirai.
He said that the movie is extraordinary and movies like
Azhagarsaamiyin Kuthirai cannot be done on a budget. Would
you want another PRO to promote this movie? Honestly!
As a result of all these, a PRO’s job is majorly
diluted, but the profession still exists nevertheless.
PROs have connections to pull the strings and many a times,
these strong networks and connections push things forward
the old-fashioned way – no matter how progressive
we are.
On the other hand, there are some PROs who are still holding
court in the industry with all their might. Nothing about
the movie they are associated with will get into the media
without their consent. Even the directors (or producers)
are sometimes not allowed to talk to the media without
their word. They are like the Last of the Mohicans, fiercely
protecting their territories from getting invaded by any
external sources. Internet and suchlike be damned!
Respond to 
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