The MMS saga seems to be haunting Bollywood. Every time new celebrities are caught in the controversy. But this time the MMS saga continues with a difference. First, it was Kareena and Shaahid and then Riya Sen and Ashmit Patel. Now, it's Koena Mitra and Fardeen Khan whose intimate bedroom behavior is circulating as an MMS clip on mobile phones. But this time, the actors have given their nod of approval, and it's part of a larger promotional strategy for their new film.
For months now Bollywood has been complaining about multimedia-enabled mobile phones invading their privacy. But now, they've finally found a way to use the mobile phone to their advantage. The producers of the forthcoming film 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' have created an MMS clip or a video clip containing a steamy song sequence filmed on the film's actors -- Fardeen Khan and Koena Mitra. This clip is being circulated with the intention of generating a buzz around the film. Pritish Nandy, the producer of the film says, "We are cashing in on the curiosity that the word MMS evokes among the people. It doesn't mean that we are promoting what the MMSes have earlier promoted -- a lot of sleaze -- but it does mean that we can use MMS in healthy marketing, to promote new ideas and new movies. Though we have used the bedroom scene of the film to be circulated on MMS but that's what the public wants."
click for larger view
Interestingly, although the Censor Board has slapped 'Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina' with a "for adults only" certificate, the film's producers did not hesitate to use the adult content from the film in their promotional MMS clip even though it is easily accessible to people of all ages who own multimedia-enabled mobile phones. Their logic is that no censorship system exists to grade or monitor mobile phone content. "It's a censored version; we made sure that we only circulated a censored version of the clip. It's an adult film so there would be slightly more than you would see on TV, but TV is for universal viewing and since there is no such grading required for MMS we can send it out in normal course. These kinds of things are being aired on television as well, so I don't think that's a problem," says Pritish Nandy.
click for larger view
Starring Fardeen Khan, Koena Mitra and Kay Kay Menon with Feroze Khan this film is an action thriller. Insisting that both actors' consent was taken before embarking on this novel promotional strategy, the producers of the film are confident that their plan will work. The film is slated to release this month and the producers are obviously leaving no stone unturned to promote the film. During the Navratri season they had a dandiya with the stars of the film, and now the MMS. They insist that not only are MMS clips less expensive than hoardings, TV spots and other conventional promotional tools, but they also reach out directly to the consumer.
