General Elections are soon to be held and India is all set to take a big decision once again. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying hard to defend his position especially after the BJP government receiving a lot of flak and even losing elections in key states of north India. At such a time, a new trend has been seen emerging. One after another 3 Bollywood movies are trying to showcase Narendra Modi and highlight the work done by BJP government and also showing the previous government in a bad light. Now whether it’s a coincidence or a well-planned strategy, there is no clarity, but all we can say is that the movies are definitely well received by the audience and there could be a change in the mindset too.
Why Films
Elections are times of extensive media strategies and advertising, and this could possibly be the new way of promoting the government. Everyone in India is aware of the huge cinema influence that our lives have and it actually could be a pre-planned and well thought strategy working for the Modi government
Accidental Prime Minister
Beginning with the launch of Accidental Prime Minister, the film was clearly trying to market the failures of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and meant to show the former PM Manmohan Singh and the Congress party in bad light. The film is an adaptation of Sanjay Baru’s book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ who was also the former media advisor to Dr. Manmohan Singh in the first term of UPA government. Although the Congress party raised issues against the film and criticized it badly, the film is said to solve BJP’s purpose well
The Surgical Strike
Then came ‘The Surgical Strike’ inspired by the surgical strikes that Indian army conducted in POK, the film not just celebrated the success of Indian army’s operations and showed gratitude towards the Indian soldiers, but it also clearly portrayed the fact that the action was done with the support of the BJP government and could not have been possible otherwise. This patriotic sentiment that plays high with Indians is definitely a great way of bringing some favourable emotions for the government too. The movie is still running succesfuly at the box office. As part of the film promotion, PM Modi had also invited a few actors from Bollywood for a discussion and that mega selfies got an overall reach of over 100+ million.
Narendra Modi
Now next in line in a film highlighting the success of Narendra Modi in Gujarat and how he changed the game by winning the 2014 elections. The film is a biopic and actor Vivek Oberoi will be seen playing the lead.
The Strategy
The most amazing part is that these are 3 different films strategically releasing one after the other and trying to promote the ruling party’s agenda. These films do see as the beginning of marketing strategies for BJP and feel like a very orchestrated scheme of things. And if it really is what it seems like then kudos to the BJP team for planning such a powerful way of marketing. The India’s love for Bollywood and a strong political messaging coming from films is just the new trend that everyone would want to see more of. Its not the first time that a film is talking about real issues or propagating political agendas, but these films have more direct communication and are more strategically timed, just before the elections.
