The secret behind Piku and Tanu Weds Manu Returns' success

Piku and Tanu Weds Manu Returns, medium budget heroine-oriented flicks, are superhits. Bombay Velvet, touting Gen Now's hottest male star and directed by a filmmaker with cult following, is a flop.

May, by every yardstick, has emerged a hot month of surprises.

How did it happen? The chain of box office stunners this month has been explained by many experts in terms of quality. Piku and TWMR, it was pointed out, had engaging scripts, novelty factor, relatable characters, subtlety and humour - all the good things one spots in a film after it succeeds. On the other hand, Bombay Velvet's dismal five-crore opening day had the industry hurrying to declare how the film lacked a cohesive plot and hawked unreal characters.

When have plot and characters ever stopped a bad film from becoming a blockbuster? Hits and flops in Bollywood have never depended on quality. The truth is Bombay Velvet crashed because its huge budget failed to match the image that the film's publicity campaign projected. Anurag Kashyap, never known to be comfortable with the art of hard sell, failed to connect at the marketing stage itself. Bombay Velvet was a put-off for most audiences in urban and small-town markets alike even before its release, which explains its terrible day one collection.

Here's the only way Kashyap could have scored a hit with Bombay Velvet, retaining all narrative and characterisation flaws: He should have made it clear from the very first promo that the film is actually a quasi-communist commentary on the great land grab scam of Bombay, and not a Moulin Rouge-style jazz drama with cage fights and vintage cars thrown in. He should have signed an actor of lower profile - no matter how talented Ranbir Kapoor is, he always had to come with the image trap of stardom. Finally, Kashyap should have hacked the budget by a good 90 crore (the film reportedly cost around 80 crore to shoot, plus entailed a rumoured publicity budget of around 40 crore).

Piku and TWMR, on the other hand, did not "cheat" viewers while creating an impression of what they were delivering. Piku was always a small, heroine-oriented film aimed at the urban and overseas market. Its cast apart, the fact was played up that the film was a constipation-centric comedy by Shoojit Sircar, who earlier directed the brilliant fun-flick on sperm donation, Vicky Donor.

Delivering what it promised would have been easier for TWMR since an expectation quotient was already set for the film by its prequel. Director Aanand L Rai was merely extending a familiar story with a familiar set of characters. Piku and TWMR notably worked within budgets that would let these films profit.

Ranbir, one hears, is off to Aamir Khan for career tips after Bombay Velvet. He could read Ryan Lilly to know this basic axiom: Make something people want, and sell that.