Thor going the James Bond way?

First, Hollywood screwed up with James Bond's characterization and made him brooding, serious and a punchy muscular fighter (traits he never had for decades).

Now it's screwing up Thor's characterization by making him caricaturish, taking away his famed hammer, giving him additional Superman-like superpowers and making major changes in his looks.

Bond movies lost the repeat-viewing value... which is still there with the old Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan flicks. And I have a feeling, the same might happen with the Thor franchise.

About the Author:

Dale Bhagwagar is a PR specialist with branding, image consultancy, strategizing, media manipulation, crisis management and mentorship for media students. He has handled the publicity for more than 150 Bollywood actors and 30 movies, apart from being a spokesperson and publicist to 20 Bigg Boss contestants.

Why Mobile Space is more powerful than Print and Television Media

As in other parts of the world, media consumption in India has shifted decisively online, with 375,000,000 Internet users in 2015, or 30% of the population. Meanwhile, more than 50% of the population owns a mobile phone and around a third of these own a smartphone. Newspaper and magazine print circulation has been declining steadily for over the last six years.

Image courtesy: Google

In the next 5-7 years, when mobiles will fully overtake laptops and desktops in the access of the internet, there will be a great shuffle in the media order. Mobile Space will be the No.1 media. Internet on desktops, tablets and laptops will come at No.2. Television will come at No.3. Print and Radio will compete with each other for Nos. 4 and 5.

Image courtesy: Google

This order with Mobile Space as No.1 may come as a surprise to many. But please understand that Print Media can converge on to the Net with their Online websites and E-papers. Television can converge on the Net with live broadcasts and YouTube video capsules. Radio can converge on the Net with broadband and podcast capsules. And finally the Net converges onto your Mobile phone, which makes the Mobile Space the most powerful media... even more powerful than Television, Print, Radio and regular Online media.

About the Author:

Dale Bhagwagar is a PR specialist with branding, image consultancy, strategizing, media manipulation, crisis management and mentorship for media students. He has handled the publicity for more than 150 Bollywood actors and 30 movies, apart from being a spokesperson and publicist to 20 Bigg Boss contestants.

Remembering naughty Freud and spin doctor Bernays

Last week was the birth anniversary of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of psychoanalysis. And Google rightly devoted a doodle to him.

Freud had a lot of controversial accomplishments, some of which are highly debated even today. But what people sometimes fail to acknowledge, is the indirect impact Freud has had on almost everything we as a people witness in today's times.

Now now! Doesn't that make him an extremely interesting man to study! And you may ask how he has influenced us so much. So let me take you back in history a bit and explain the phenomenon in the crispiest way possible.

Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays combined the ideas of 'crowd psychology' along with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, to invent 'propaganda'. In contemporary times, we know 'propaganda' as 'Public Relations' (PR).

 Sigmund Freud (left) and Edward Bernays

As a publicist, I often say, we are living in a world where perception is reality. Think about it. Don't we all blindly believe in what we read and are told. Who has the time to research and investigate facts!

Earlier journalists used to do that as the torch-bearers of society. But in times of paid media, combined with research via the phone and Google (and less of field work), contemporary journalists are fast losing those traits. So let me take the liberty to repeat my favourite line: We are living in a world where perception is reality. A world driven by PR.

And who started the fire? Naughty Freud and spin doctor Bernays. ;-) #FoodForThought

About the Author:

Dale Bhagwagar is a PR specialist with branding, image consultancy, strategizing, media manipulation, crisis management and mentorship for media students. He has handled the publicity for more than 150 Bollywood actors and 30 movies, apart from being a spokesperson and publicist to 20 Bigg Boss contestants.

Raaj Kumar was something else only! ;-)

Jab main naya naya Mumbai mein aaya tha... being a journalist then, ek baar ek party mein I approached Raaj Kumar for a quote on something... he had one piercing look at me and said, "Jaani, tum abhi bachche ho. Jaao."

When I tried to rephrase my question, he again said, "Kaha na, tum bachche ho, side mein ho jaao." I felt intimidated and decided to move on. I could even make Amitabh Bachchan relent to persuasion, but not Raaj Kumar. ;-)

Kam se kam, I could pester and convince Big B into THIS.

Later in my career as a PR, I got to meet Mr Kumar's son Puru Raaj Kumar a couple of times. Must say, both father and son have been unique in their own ways. Charming and impressionable.

When Bollywood publicist Dale Bhagwagar applied the power of persuasion on Amitabh Bachchan

Whistling Woods International (WWI) featured my experiences with megastar Amitabh Bachchan in their newsletter called Stamp. While everyone else got half or one-page articles, two pages were devoted to mine. Feels nice... kinda leaving a king size stamp on time, eh! ;-) Gee!  Thanx WWI, Priyanka Pai, Alison Dcruz, Aditya Mandre, Karn Gupta, Saili Kocharekar, Niviya Augustine, Pooja Doke, Jaison Chacko, Sumedha KS & Team.

BELOW: REPRODUCING THE ARTICLE VERBATIM FOR YOUR EASY READING... ALL GREEN LIGHTS, CHEERS...

The power of persuasion

(Applied on Amitabh Bachchan)

In the words of Bollywood’s only PR guru Dale Bhagwagar

Today, I am a leading publicist in Bollywood. But I was less than 25 and just out of college, when I first spoke to Amitabh Bachchan in 1995.

Back then, with great encouragement and support from my mentor grandpa, I had come down from my relatively quiet hometown, Nagpur, to the concrete jungle of Mumbai (then Bombay) as a journalist, and joined the Bollywood magazine Cine Blitz magazine as Chief Sub-Editor and Reporter, just a day before this incident.

Amitabh Bachchan was my screen idol and I’d grown up watching his films like Satte Pe Satta, Aakhree Raasta, Naseeb, Amar Akbar Anthony, Agneepath and my favourite Main Azaad Hoon; the one which dealt with the media.

It was my second day in office, when one of my seniors told me about an ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) Press Conference to take place same afternoon, for announcing a corporate tie-up of the company.

Since Cine Blitz is a gossip magazine and there is not much that corporate Press Conferences contribute to gossip, the interest levels amongst staffers to cover it were low. Moreover, they expected the CEO of ABCL to address it, and not the mega star himself. “Big B will not be there, but you can go and cover it anyway,” they told me almost sarcastically, while I enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity.

Of course, being new in Mumbai and just having joined the office a day ago, I wanted to take all the chances and explore every opportunity life threw towards me. Bachchan was too big a one to miss; in fact, the biggest, especially for a teen just out of college.

Happily and in hope, I reached the hotel where the event was to be conducted. Soon, it was announced, “Mr Bachchan is held up in traffic and would be about 25 minutes late.” What? Did I hear, “Mr Bachchan”? Oh yes! He was coming.

My joy knew no bounds when the mega star finally arrived, but I did not ask him a single question during the entire Conference. Instead, I was carefully noting my points and making a few exclusive questions which the 150-odd media men at the event seemed to have missed.

As soon as the Conference was over and we broke for tea, I waded my way through a sea of around 40 over-enthusiastic photographers, who’d rushed towards the stage, to click candid pictures of the biggest star our country has ever witnessed.

In those days, Amitabh Bachchan hardly gave exclusive interviews, neither was there any show like Kaun Banega Crorepati, or a blog, where you’d see or read him often. Then, it was terribly difficult for a journalist to get an exclusive interview with Big B, and next to impossible for a teen journo like me.

But where was I to give up!!

Finding my way through the photographers, I reached the stage just in time before he left. I looked small in front of the six-footer, but stood rock solid, refusing to move, till he noticed. Giving a look of amusement, as he glanced at me, I felt, as if I’d managed to win my first battle.

Having caught his attention (even if it was for a second), I immediately introduced myself and shot, “Sir, I need four minutes of your precious time.” Hearing this, Bachchan gave me a very surprised look! “Why didn’t you ask me your questions during the Conference?” he inquired in his baritone voice, which was almost unnerving for me then. “Sir, because I wanted an exclusive interview,” I replied as boldly as I could.

Now, anyone who is aware of journalism would know that exclusives are next to impossible at Press Conferences. But this was exactly where I was keen to score. So I pushed him again, stressing, “Sir, I won’t take more than four minutes.” At this time, Bachchan gave a strong look at me.

‘Does this kid think he can walk into a Press Conference with 150 scribes and walk out with an exclusive’, he might have thought. I repeated my plea, almost refusing to budge. “Speak to my secretary tomorrow and take an appointment,” he said, as if wanting to evade and pass through me. “Four minutes; only four minutes, sir,” I requested again with a smile this time.

Wonder if it was my smile or the power of persuasion that worked. Cause Bachchan gave me the last of those stern looks that fine day, as he gave up and said, “Ok son, your time starts now”. One after the other, I quickly shot my questions, while all the photographers circled us, clicking away.

Thoroughly engrossed in the interview, Bachchan answered each and every query in his characteristic style. When all my questions were over, he looked at his watch, then at me, and smiled. “You took fifteen minutes,” he remarked. Thanking him, I smiled back, knowing well that he ‘gave’ them to me.

I went back to my office and proclaimed, “I’ve managed an exclusive interview of Amitabh Bachchan”. Everyone laughed! I knew they wouldn’t believe me, so I took out my tape recorder and made them hear the conversation. Their jaws dropped.

Our footnote: Two years after this incident Dale Bhagwagar quit journalism and moved to Public Relations. A few years later, he handled PR for two of Bachchan’s movies namely Boom and Aetbaar and had various interactions with the megastar.

-- Article, as appeared in
the Stamp newsletter

of Whistling Woods International