An open letter to Arbaaz Khan and the marketing team of Dolly Ki Doli

Arbaaz Khan’s Dolli Ki Doli released in theatres last weekend and managed to collect Rs 2.55 crore on its opening day. While the poor start was expected, what pleasantly surprised us was the fact that the film was actually a decent watch. It turned out to be way better and different from what it was projected to be through its promos and songs.

Many relate the failure of ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ to its content, if that would be the case, critics would have panned the film. However, the movie has shown growth over the weekend. This very fact made us write this open letter to Arbaaz Khan, because the movie was let-down only due to poor marketing and wrong targeting.

‘Dolly Ki Doli’ will be a case study on how good content can also suffer due to incorrect targeting.

Trailer analysis:

Dolly Ki Doli is a complete family entertainer and it should have been promoted like one. The trailer should have been cut keeping in mind that the film is targeted towards the family audience. Instead, dialogues like “Dolli agar ek baar de deti toh saala kissi cheez ka malaal na rehta” – “woh kutiya bhag gayi apne kissi yaar ke saath” and “woh ladki ne hamari leli .. tu dega kya”. Dialogues like these don’t work with the family audience. Arbaaz has worked only with his superstar brother and people know exactly what to expect from a Salman Khan film. But the audience may not be the same for a film like ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ , thus this is a complete marketing mismatch.

The trailer should have talked more about the Gang of Dolly, their fun cons, how they con and the thrill behind ‘looteri dulhan’. The makers could have also added one liner dialogues like dadi’s famous dialogue in the film ‘beti dedi.. sab kuch de diya’. This would have made ‘Doli Ki Doli’ a more universal and fun watch. (Article continued below the image)

Dolly Ki Doli Review

Dolly Ki Doli

Song Campaign:

Sajid-Wajid are going through the worst phase of their career. If Daawat-e-Ishq music album was bad, this one was worse. For a film like this, good songs have a huge impact on the opening. The first 3 songs that were released were bad ‘Phattey tak nachna’, ‘Fashion Khatam’ and ‘Babaji ka Thullu’ have actually made the audience indifferent to the film. The song ‘Naina Kaafir’ is a breath of fresh air and the best song of the album. However, the damage was already done by the time the song ‘Naina Kaafir’ was released.

When a wedding celebration situation is required, why would you add a song like ‘Fashion Khatam mujhpe’. Not all dance numbers require the ‘Munni Badnaam’ feel. Here, a happy celebration song like ‘Rum Whisky’ from Vicky Donor or ‘Iski Whisky’ from 2 States would have worked wonders (knowing that Malaika would be performing). The video for ‘Fashion Khatam’ is cheap and crass and an immediate turn off.

The point here being, the songs gave an impression that the movie was targeted towards the masses, when they should have instead opted for a lyrically clean and melodious songs.

In today’s times making and selecting a good script is only half the job done, marketing and correctly positioning the film is equally important. While Arbaaz Khan definitely has the talent in choosing the right script, the marketing and positioning of ‘Dolli Ki Doli’ should have been different from a usual Salman Khan film.

Here’s wishing Arbaaz Khan and Abhishek Dogra for their future endeavours. We loved the film and reviewed it with 3.5 stars. If you haven’t already, you should watch ‘Dolly Ki Doli’, if it’s still playing at a cinema nearby.

Advertisements

15 Comments

  • Will watch it latter.
    Strict critics have given DKD good ratings.
    Anupama Chopra: 3.5/5
    Rajeev Masand: 3/5
    Sukanya Verma: 3/5

    there are so many music directors like Vishal-Shekhar,Pritam,SEL,Amit Trivedi etc. Don’t know why people take Sajid-Wajid! They make one kinda songs.

  • What hue n cry abt dolly?? Film has done 18cr official business but only 9cr boi business….. Its a flop…
    Industry searching for 1st hit….
    January is hit-less ..even February will be hit-less as ranbir’s roy , varun’s badlapur and big b’s shamitabh r xpected to be failures…
    There are no bollywood films in march…….films like wazir,Tigers,bank chor r not xpected to draw no.s….
    So bollywud wil have hit-less 3 months..or may be superhit-less..

  • I haven’t seen the movie but most of the critics have given a thumbs up which was quite surprising.
    Also it shouldn’t have clashed with Baby it could have released today

  • @Indicine, you forgot to mention release date, releasing that film with Baby was like releasing Kick with Entertainment as one was highly anticipated while the other was turned down from the promos but turned out to be a decent family movie even though they were released with two week gap but the damage was done!
    Result(These values are just estimates by me based n different sites)
    Kick:220 Cr(Superhit)
    Entertainment: 75 Cr(Average)
    We can only hope for Baby to get Superhit verdict and Dolly Ki Doli to become average

  • @Akki fan club!….compare HAIDER wit DKD?? No way!!! If movies like Bang Bang could attain very high scores wit clash wit epic classic like Haider…. Why not Baby compared to an opening day 2.5crores movie??? I don’t buy that!!
    ….I think Dkd…Has recovered its budget so…positive expectations for a small budget movie…nice!

  • guys ….its a total paisa waste film! skip it or regret it!

    yes khoobsurat was indeed a nice film but pls not this one!

  • Agree it was bad release time….so am is turning to a good actress though but doesn’t have luck on her side.Hopefully prdp gives her the commercial success she deserves .

  • Dolly’s biggest mistake was clashing with a film like Baby.. Plus as indicine mentioned..it gave an image of a masala movie..

  • @Sahir you please worry about Billu returns a.k.a Table Fan..Roy and Shamitabh will give some cheer to the industry..

    I am highly skeptical about Badlapur though..

  • Everything about this article is on point. DKD was an enjoyable film, the performances by the cast helped elevate the story to another level and as a debut Abhishek Dogra did a commendable job but the music was such a major letdown. Sajid-Wajid only deliver when it comes to a Salman Khan film otherwise they’re just bad and to me I feel they let the DKD team down with their work. The way it was promoted too, I think they should’ve just stuck with their original plan of releasing it on the 6th Feb because you could tell they just rushed to put this movie out in time for 23rd Jan. The marketing team should’ve learned from other smaller films that have done well and implemented what they had done to this film.

Leave a Comment