Paid reviews, extortion, negative stories: Why Karan Johar's Dharma Productions halt press screenings?

Ahead of the release of Alia Bhatt’s much-anticipated ‘Jigra’, filmmaker Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions announced last week that they are discontinuing special press screenings of all their upcoming movies, ‘to maintain the excitement of cinematic experience’.

While the production giant cited the same excitement and cinematic experience for all movie-goers as their reason, Bollywood insiders have now spilt the other possible factors behind the decision.

Press screening is a practice of filmmakers showing their work to critics a day or two in advance, to get reviews from them on Friday, usually the day of release, to attract the maximum cine-goers.

However, as per a Dharma insider, the action is taken to ‘end corruption in a section of film critics’, and let the audience be the king rather than critics.

“It is subtle statement to end corruption in a section of film critics, because when there are press shows, then monetary conversations happen for rigging the reviews. This way, review management might stop because Bollywood right now is in a severe credibility crisis,” the person shared.

Moreover, speaking to the outlet, a filmmaker noted that the decision is to fight off the ‘rate card’ of critics, who give glowing reviews for a film against a fee, ranging from 15,000 to 60,000.

“If you can buy a positive review, you can very well plant negative reviews as well. When there is so much at stake, egos are high and the market so vulnerable, you don’t want to take any chances with negativity spoiling the party,” said the anonymous filmmaker.

Meanwhile, a management executive labels this review system as a way of ‘extortion’. “The sanctity of movie reviews and reviewers has become non-existent and word-of-mouth publicity largely involves hearing opinions from friends, family or co-workers rather than professional reviewers,” the person said. “If anything, the move, if joined in by others in the industry will discourage the blatant menace of extortion. Since years YRF has followed this norm, similarly, Dharma and their films will continue to garner word-of-mouth and acclaim by the first-day, first show movie-going audience, if the content is worthy.”

“If a producer or film team has decided against opting for paid promotion, media portals, ‘journalists’ and so-called trade influencers run negative campaigns as means of extortion. In terms of a multi-starrer, each actor is expected to pay up and do individual tie-up in order to gain significant mention by them. Earlier this year, Kalki’s team opted not to pay media, trade and influencers and there was a coordinated negativity done against the film, that lasted until the box office figures became monumental enough,” the same person explained.

On the other hand, the decision wasn’t taken well by the critics and journalists, one of whom said, “Pre-release press shows are an accepted convention the world over. They are essential to patient, considered and thoughtful writing about cinema. They’re also healthy and impersonal meeting points for filmmakers and journalists – not just critics – and assist in important context-setting before a film’s release.”

“Oftentimes, a film is rescued from controversy because journalists had seen it and understood its nuances. It is a bit hard to believe that pre-release screenings won’t happen categorically. Perhaps they will just happen under the radar and for a select bunch of critics,” he opined.

“Critics are more pressed for time, and the level of conversation and writing on the movie could well suffer,” said another critic. “What this will also lead to, is less pressure from some of the makers or actors. If you are big enough for them to matter, then calls are made for a ‘positive’ review so that it helps in building a certain word of mouth even before that Friday. A lot of times some genuine people feel cornered and under pressure– which this Friday-only screening now completely removes.”

Also Read: Alia Bhatt’s star power fails to save ‘Jigra’; registers her worst Box Office opening

Moreover, film exhibitor Vishek Chauhan believes this is a ‘wrong’ strategy by Dharma, explaining that ‘certain films’ need to be shown early to cash in on the glowing reviews, which will help give it a push when a film eventually releases in cinemas.

“If you make that kind of cinema, the only reason why you don’t want to show it to the world is because you are not confident. That’s a sign of weakness. Even a Marvel Studio shows films beforehand, by putting an embargo. But in certain cases, people can tweet about it. I understand that if it is a big commercial opener, you don’t want critics to come in, but a film like Jigra, made by a credible celebrated voice like Vasan Bala, was probably greenlit because the team thought it is going to be a fantastic film,” he said. “So why not show it to the world?”

Notably, filmmaker Vasan Bala’s ‘Jigra’ co-stars Alia Bhatt with rising actor Vedang Raina. The title is co-produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Bhatt’s Eternal Sunshine Productions.