FilmIndia (1940)

PUBLICITY OR PENAL OFFENCE? H Double-Barreled Rttack On Ballyhoo methods BY Baburao Patel and K. Ahmad Abbas This is Abbas calling: All human institutions have plemental, primitive origin:;. Even Publicity! Tn any Indian village or small town you can still see the oldest, simplest and most effective form of publicity. Whenever a lkii!h putlV (puppet) shew, a wrestling match or a circus has to be advertised, the village drummer-cum-towncrier goes round and, at busy street corners, beating the drum and thus collecting a crowd, he makes his announcement: "There vill be wrestling bouts near the temple gate at four in the afternoon. Wellknown pahelwans of the district will take part. Come one. Come all.'" Come one. Come all. That i^ tho sum and substance of all publicity —be it a drum being beaten in a village, a huge neon sign displayed in a city or a full page advtirtisement in a daily paper. The rl .-urnbeating, effective in its own sphere, may be of little practical utility in the sophisticated atmosphere of the cities. But it has at least one merit. It is more honest than the ballyhoo that we see in cinema advertisements—on the walls, in aiagazines and in newspapers. My home is in a small town and I have never heard the local drummer-cumpublicity-agent shout aloud ' The wrestlers you will see to-day are stronger than Hercules" . .or . .that "These puppets are the most glamorous and glorious puppets in the world." IMMORAL AND ILLEGAL But what about those who beat the streamlined drums of the film trade, the high-pressure publicity peddlers of the twentieth century? I am afraid they are far less honest, in shouting their wares than the village drum-beaters. Quite often, deliberately — and, in my opinion, needlessly, — they mislead the public, inducing us to part with our money on false pretences. It is immoral and, if you carefully read the Section 415 of the Indian Penal Code reproduced on this page, you will find that it is also illegal. Yes, Sir, it is 'cheating' to lure people into cinemas to see your third rate film by announcements in papers to the effect that it is a 'movie marvel cf the century'. It may be said in matters of taste there can be no fixed standards and that some people do believe that "Hunterwali" is a better picture than "Admi." But then what about glaring perversions of hard facts that we find so often in film advertisements? r ''Whoever, by deceiving any person, fraudulently or dishonestly induces the person so deceived to deliver any property to any person, tn co consent that any person shall rrtvn any property, or intentionally induces the person so deceived to do or omit to do anything which he would not do or omit to do if he were not so deceived, and which act or omission causes or is likely (o cause damage or harm to that person in body, mind, reputation, or property, is :-a:d to "cheat". — Section 415, Indian Penal Code. "Whoever cheats shall be punished with imprisonment of either description jor a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or ivith both." Section 417, Indian Penal Code. T;;ke up any newspaper, weekly or magazine and you will find how, in bread day light dust is thrown into the readers' eyes. (Hollywood is no exception. Indeed, we have learnt these publicity tricks from the foreigners whom we crudely try to imitate). If I had sufficient space at my disposal I would fill pages after pages giving numerous examples of such publicity hoaxes. But to indicate the nature of 1ne scandal and to show to what lengths publicity-mongers will go to sell a few more tickets, let me give half a dozen recent instances. 1. The advertisement of "Bramhachari" appeared, week after week and day after day, with photographs of Mahatma Gandhi giving the visual impression that the revered leader had something to do with this film. HOST OR GUEST? 2. Circo Productions invited a gathering representative of the Bombay film trade to a lunch at the Taj which, according to the invitation cards we received, was in honour of Mr. B. N. Sircar of New Theatres. At the lunch, Miss Shanta Apte who, I believe, has signed a contract with Circo, read a short speech welcoming Mr. Sircar on behalf of Circo Productions. Imagine our surprise, therefore, to find a huge photograph in the advenise Shanta Kumari in Patni" 'Dhanna 40