Mumbai: Actor Arjun Rampal, who has survived in the film industry for 15 years, says he does not believe in marketing himself.
“I don’t market myself, I don’t have a PR person also. I think I would be the only person to not have a PR in today’s time. But I am on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to talk or share things. I can write and express my views,” Arjun told PTI.
But at the same time, the 43-year-old actor feels marketing films has become essential today to reach out to wider audience.
“If a film is made in a budget of Rs 20 crore, out of this Rs 10 crore goes for marketing a film, that too for a month. Marketing has become important today,” he said.
Earlier, Arjun’s films such as “Don”, “Om Shanti Om”, “Rock On 2”, “House full”, “Rajneeti” others worked well. But off late, his projects like “Chakravyuh”, “Ajab Gazabb Love”, “Inkaar”, “Roy” could not create magic at the box office.
“Sometimes you don’t give time to a good film and it fails because of lack of time. But sometimes you give too much time to a film and you over think and it ends up not becoming organic. It’s ok if the films don’t do well, it is part and parcel of industry,” he said.
“Sometimes films do well commercially, but are not appreciated, but you find solace in it. And sometimes films don’t do well commercially but you get appreciated, you find solace in it,” he said.
The National award-winning actor feels if a film doesn’t do well commercially and is not appreciated also, one does get hurt and affected.
“You feel a lot of time and energy has been wasted. But luckily this has not happened to me as either my films have done well commercially or are appreciated. It is because of this I have managed to survive for 15 years,” he said.
Two of his films “Inkaar” and “Chakrayuh” had good
plot line, but they did not click at the box office.
“For me, both the films were good and had great subjects. I am proud to be part of both the films. I feel both the films were not promoted as expected. Today also everybody talks about these two films and it feels great,” he said.
According to the “Om Shanti Om” actor, if both “Inkaar” and “Chakrayuh” were bad films, he wouldn’t have got the opportunity to do his subsequent films.
“Because these films were good so I got a chance to do other films. You need PR machinery to market films, you need a good producer to make sure it reaches to audience. That’s why marketing of films has become important today,” he said.
The model-turned-actor feels one shouldn’t do films just for the heck of it.
“If you don’t want to be repetitive and keep doing new things, you are not walking the safe line. You are walking on an unexplored path and you are most likely to fall down and that is part of the industry,” he said.
The “We are Family” actor makes a conscious decision not to repeat the characters he plays on screen.
“It’s a conscious decision not to repeat my characters as I get bored doing same stuff. When I walk on sets, I don’t want to feel I am doing same work, it doesn’t work for me. I need to feel I am doing something exciting and different,” he said.
On work front, Arjun has an interesting slate of films, including the soon-to-be-releasing “Rock On 2”, and then “Kahaani 2”, “Aankhen 2” and “Daddy”.
PTI