Representative imageMoviemakers in Malayalam are struggling to fight off the threat posed by cyber bullies who pose themselves as critics. Online extortionists have targeted many movies in the recent months with a pay-or-perish threat.
Take the case of this film, which cast a prominent young actor in the lead. There was half an hour more for the movie’s theatrical release and hundreds of Facebook pages were flooded with a fake review that castigated the movie. The director and his colleagues had to work overtime to undo the audience prejudice set by the posts.
Another big-budget movie was also targeted because the producers refused to pay Rs 5,000 to a little known online promotion team.
The latest in the line of victims is Vinod Guruvayur’s ‘Shikhamani’, which is scheduled for release next month. The producer has started receiving intimidation calls from his own online promoters. Media managers said the problem started after the online promoters were left out from a function to release the songs of the movie.
An online promotion group has threatened to tear apart the movie. The group even refused to return the money they have received for the promotion of the film. Groups such as this one have been given Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for promotion. The team behind the film told Onmanorama that they were collecting the details of these groups to register a complaint with the cyber police.
A still from the audio launch event of 'Shikhamani'The so-called media promotion firms are actually made up of teenagers who claim they can write reviews for any film. Most of these companies do not even have a website and rely on Facebook pages to spread their message.
In fact, the customary messages shown before a movie starts have more Facegroup groups to thank than conventional media houses. The film fraternity is also to blame for the mushrooming of irresponsible promotion groups online.
Facebook promotion offers start from as little as Rs 5,000. As soon as a new project is announced, the production executives are accosted by such groups. Those who are left out in the bargain try to get even by writing nonsense about the film.
