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Introduction
Films are a reflection of the culture and aspirations of the people, making them an influencing and effective medium of communication. The Hindi film industry, which is popularly known as Bollywood[1] due to its association with Bombay (Mumbai), is no different than Hollywood as far as tie-ups between brands and films are concerned.
Reports discussing aspects of Hindi film industries like history, growth, size of industry, average number of films produced per year, are available but information pertaining to in-film placements is unavailable. Academic research on in-film placements has mainly focused on the Western audiences and the majority of research examined attitude, memory and effectiveness ([44] Kureshi and Sood, 2010). Limited work pertaining to placements in the Indian films was available in the public domain ([58] Panda, 2004; [52] Nelson and Devanathan, 2006; [51] Munshi and Achuthan, 2009; [24] Gokhale, 2010). Thus, this research is one of a kind as it tries to examine in-film placements trends with respect to the nature and type of placements that appear in the Hindi films vis-à-vis Hollywood films.
Indian film industry
Recently, Bollywood employs over six million people ([28] Gupta, 2009) and produces around 800-1,000 films a year. A total of 14 million viewers swarm theatres every day ([10] Chanakya, 2006). The domestic box office revenues in 2008 accounted for Rs 81.2 billion and an overseas collection of Rs 10 billion ([61] PWC Report, 2009). Indian film industry is estimated to touch Rs 168.6 billion by 2013 ([22] FICCI Frames and KPMG, 2009).
In comparison, Hollywood produces on average around 700-800 films a year with an average budget of US$106.6 million ([68] Russo, 2008). It has a worldwide audience of 2.6 billion. Most of the Hollywood films' revenue is generated through TV networks, magazines and home videos and hence it has lesser dependence on box office ticket sales ([70] Sachin, 2008). From US$9.62 billion in 2007 to US$10.6 billion in 2009, the Hollywood industry revenue has been slowly but steadily going up ([17] DiOrio, 2008; [2] Aune, 2009; [8] Briggs, 2010).
In 2007, the Bollywood in-film placements were valued to be around Rs 2 billion, of which in-film placements accounted for Rs 400 million while tie-ups and co-promotions accounted for Rs 1.6 billion. By 2008, in-film placements...