The thrills and chills about 1920

1920 has clicked and quite a few detractors in the industry are left wondering about the reason behind the film's success. After all the film had Vikram Bhatt tag to it, the name which had seen 10 consecutive flops to his name in last 6 years. The film only featured newcomers, who were neither star-children nor heavily hyped. Adnan Sami's music hardly did wonders to the film's pre-release hype while the Ramzan/Ganesh Chaturthi period was hardly considered to be conducive to a film's theatrical run.

So what really worked in the film's favour? One basic thing - Smart packaging!

Vikram Bhatt and company knew what they were offering - a horror thriller which relief on chills and spooky moments. This is what they capitalized on from day one of the film's promotion. The first thing they did right was to come up with a brilliantly designed coffee table book which was circulated amongst select media people and friends. The book pretty much declared the mood of the film and made people talking about what Vikram Bhatt had in the offering. Then began the promos which quickly moved on from song and dance routine to the 'real' stuff which very much showed the audience what 1920 was made of.

To begin with the promos started giving hints of the spooky feel that 1920 carried. However, as 10 days remained for the release of the film, the makers went full on with the promotion and released numerous promos that made it loud and clear that 1920 would be one scary film to watch in theaters. Background music, sound design, special effects, cutting edge frames - all of this came together in those few seconds which enticed audience enough to walk into the theaters and enjoy the spine chilling moments.

This is what happened as the film took a decent start at the box office. Good word of mouth took the case forward for this medium budget film and as the first week comes to an end today, the writing is clear on the wall that 1920 has succeeded at the box office. The content worked wonders yet again, just like Phoonk, Mumbai Meri Jaan and Rock On in last few weeks, in spite of no stars to boast of.