Television czarina Ekta Kapoor has been a marketing genius in promoting her films and shows. Years ago Ekta had been one of the first ones to bridge the gap between films and serials by using songs from her upcoming films in her shows as a promotional tool. Slowly TV serials became a way of promotion as we started seeing actors making appearances on fiction and reality shows too.

Now Ekta and her team from Balaji have once again come up with an innovative idea to promote their upcoming film Ek Thi Dayaan. Instead of just integrating content, this time they are creating marketing content! Such expenditures are generally not seen on television but we are sure Ekta has planned it out in a way so that it eventually leads to revenue. And yes the branding for Balaji is huge as not only are they capitalizing on their upcoming film but they have brought together some of their own lead actresses –Smriti Zubin Irani, Saakshi Tanwar, Ankita Lokhande, Pooja Gor, Kritika Kamra, Aamna Shariff and Mouli Ganguly – as the mahanayankas in each of the stories.

Bringing together so many known faces and once again bringing back Smirti Irani on television has created immense buzz in the media which eventually leads to eyeballs. We hear that the promo has been already shot with Sakshi, Kritika, Aamna, Mouli and Smirti in which each of the actresses represents a different state. Emran Hashmi too is seen with the five actress in the promo. Also, each of the actresses have given their dates for the shoot and every story will have a different tale to tell.

The short stories are all set to launch in March and will be seen on the weekend slot on Life OK. When we asked Ekta about what made her take a step towards creating content instead of going the simple way of integrating it, Ekta says, "Its about getting mind space and innovating to break the clutter and make a mark on the viewers psyche!"

We agree Ekta as with so much clutter out there, one has to breakthrough. Hats off to her for once again possibly creating a trend which will be followed by many….

Author: Nia Dhanjani