Eros owns the rights on everything to do with Imtiaz Ali’s 3rd film, Love Aaj Kal. And they make it mighty apparent.
Impressed by the promo I saw on YouTube this morning, I tweeted the link. The movie, at least based on the promo, seems like a really wonderful adaptation of Korean director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2005 film, ‘Zui hao de shi guang‘ (Three Times). Imtiaz’s style is all over the promo, just like Jab We Met and I’m really looking forward to hearing its music and watching the film.
But, Eros’ attitude gets on my nerves! By evening, that YouTube link has been yanked off with the message, ‘This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Eros Worldwide LLc.’!
So, what happened? Don’t folks at Eros want us fans to share the movie promo? Should we share only those links that have a promotional partnership with Eros – like Bollywood Hungama (No, I’m not going to add a link to the promo on Bollywood Hungama – Eros does not deserve that!)? Too bad Eros, there are many more links to watch Love Aaj Kal’s promo, right inside YouTube – let us see how much time you waste trying to get all of them off YouTube!
So, why did they do this? Is it,
- To ensure that all promotional partners get their share of page views?
- To have only official Eros-driven materials floating on the web?
- To ensure that they can track traction of all promos?
Whatever the reason, its a mega social media fail!
Listen Eros, this is not content that can generate a lot of revenue for you. It can, if you sell it to your online partners – but its shelf life is a few hours. People are bound to rip the video and post it in places like YouTube – you just cannot stop it. You should not too – its not where people see it. Its how many people see it, wherever its available!
Online partnership is perfectly fine, but realize that you cannot control such distribution. You can only watch it, as it happens!
Most importantly, these are being spread by people who love your content. Understand that! For heaven’s sake, do not piss them off like this.
And yes, stop being such a silly bully – grow up!
Need another reason? Eros’ official Facebook Group for Love Aaj Kal has 854 members and 58 wall posts as I type this. A fan-created group – here – has 1,002 members 1,181 wall posts! Let’s see if Eros continues to act like a silly bully and asks the fan group to dismantle!
Photo courtesy…as obviously stamped right across the photo, Bollywood Hungama!