Public or paid relations?

Representation pic

"It's paid PR," this writer's friend tells her when we show him a video of a movie-goer in the cinema who lay prostrate at the feet of auteur Imtiaz Ali after watching his latest offering Main Vaapas Aaunga. The film has gotten consistently good reviews; mid-day too gave it a four out of five. Why then, we wonder, do friends and peers still find it hard to believe that someone could get so emotional over a good film?

Brit musician James Blake put words to our thoughts when he said, "Can't trust a review because blogs/magazines stopped making money, so journalists now get paid by labels. Can't trust a comment section because it is full of fake fan accounts saying, ‘OMG, their voice!' to create [a] bandwagon effect. Can't trust YouTube numbers, because labels buy them. Can't trust streaming numbers because labels pay for bot farms to drive discovery. Can't even trust that a song was made by human beings. If you're an artiste, remember that in 2026, there's not a single part of the system that isn't faked. You're probably doing better than you think."

Viral Reels show a movie-goer who lay prostrate at the feet of auteur Imtiaz Ali after watching Main Vaapas Aaunga. PIC/INSTAGRAM@wearewsf

Lately, it feels like all media we consume has been paid for by someone and we have no idea who to believe. Beauty and wellness journalist Tatiana Dias, who's been in the business for over a decade, mirrors the same sentiment. In a recent post on her Instagram, she ranted about how transactional PR has become. "I was recently called for an event for a brand and was in contact with the person handling PR for them. A day before the event and a week after I confirmed my presence, she asked me if I could also make a dedicated post on my account about the brand since they were offering a PR kit of a high amount," Dias tells us, "And the brand was adamant about it."

Tatiana Dias recently made a rant on Instagram about transactional PR. Pic/Satej Shinde

"Of course, when we get invited to events, we post stories as a token of appreciation. But there should never be an obligation. And I have some 3000 followers, so I don't know what they would've gained from my post. I told the PR person that such a thing would go against my principles, and I'd like to politely decline the invite if posting is a mandate," she says, "The next day, a different person sent across products without my confirmation. The products arrived, and then she called me to confirm receipt. I messaged her back, letting her know I did, and she immediately asked, ‘If I was planning to feature it?'"

Narendra Kusnur says that 20 years ago PR professionals respected journalists

Dias's frustration lies in the fact that coverage is a basic expectation now. "These products aren't sent to journalists to give them freebies. The whole point is that we review them, and then depending on whether we like them or not, we give them coverage - that too, positive or negative. This is basic journalistic integrity."

Dias says that today, respect for editorials standards have dropped drastically. "When I'd started out, there was immense respect for editors. Things are not the same at all today. Such demands wouldn't be made, out of sheer respect," she says, "When I am editor today [and I refuse to engage in mandated posts], I get told, ‘But other creators are doing it.' But I'm not a creator! I'm a journalist."

PIC/INSTAGRAM @APPLEMUSIC

"The PR agency's job is to show their clients in a good light. And a journalist's job is to be honest," says Narendra Kusnur, one of the city's most senior music journalists, "So that doesn't always work in tandem."

Kusnur talks of a time when PR professionals and journalists were friends, grabbed coffees together and beers after work. "As a music journalist in the '90s and early aughts, there were constant Channel V versus MTV stories. Both PR heads were good friends of mine. The MTV people would think I was writing in favour of Channel V, and vice versa," he says, "We still used to hang out together. I'd get an earful from them sometimes, but they were old school. They understood how journalism worked and respected journalists. Today's PR is different."

He agrees that things have gotten way more aggressive now. "Sometimes, they want questions beforehand. Sometimes, they don't like when I do reviews for shows. They want it to be previews, so it goes live before the show and generates sales," he says.

The advent of social media has completely changed the role of a journalist. "Now, everyone is a reviewer, everybody is a journalist," he says, "Now, by the time I come out of Lollapalooza, for example, half the world has already made Reels about it. When I sit down to write, I have to think, ‘What hasn't been said already?'"

And so, like this writer's friend, many in the audience are seeing through the pretense of social media. Many can discern what is "paid PR" and what is organic. Do audiences have no faith in the media then? Dias replies, "Honestly, if you'd asked me this question two years ago, I would have said that creators still had a lot of authority. But I feel editorial is slowly reclaiming that authority because audiences are becoming saturated with creators constantly promoting products and taking sponsored deals. One day they're recommending one cleanser, and the next day they're recommending a completely different serum. I think people are beginning to value editorial credibility again. And so, hopefully editorial content is coming back slowly and steadily."

Marketing mania

Marketing guru Manika Shrivastava explains why we've hit a saturation point

Manika Shrivastava has been a marketeer for over eight years now. She's lead marketing teams across D2C brands and influencer marketing; she also runs an Instagram page on marketing (@marketingmaxxed). She believes that the problem today is that C-suite marketing executives are not Internet-first, but are strategising for an Internet-first audience. "Many of the people leading marketing teams, PR teams, or even founding companies don't know that their consumer is aware enough to know what is PR or seeding," she says, "If you're not Internet-first, you don't fully understand how consumers experience it today."

Manika Shrivastava

"Tier-1 audiences are extremely discerning. In the next five years, tier-2 and tier-3 audiences will also get there," she says. In the last year or so, there have also been controversies like the Mardaani 3 stunt, where there were viral social media reports claiming 800 people had gone missing in Delhi, which later turned out to be a false report. Because the film's plot centers on missing girls, Internet users speculated it was a paid marketing tactic to artificially amplify fear. However, both the Delhi Police and Yash Raj Films strongly denied the allegations. "That was the first time even print and serious media picked up the story, and it turned out to be false. So, there is a general awareness that anyone can be fooled, and we must be careful."

In the pursuit to get social media impressions, we've forgotten some good old basics. "What will never fail you is word of mouth. When people like a product, they want to tell others," she says. "Another aspect that marketeers can focus on is community building," she says.

‘It's all sheep mentality'

As film marketing pulls one stunt after another, film marketeer Varun Gupta explains why we need to go back to the drawing board

Founding director of Max Marketing, Varun Gupta, explains that money seems to be buying everything today. "Those who have the money to, try to control their narrative. We work on both mainstream, big-budget films and concept films. But now there is such an expectation to pay, that either you make a Rs 100-crore film with Ranbir Kapoor to get eyeballs, or you pay an unrealistic amount to get paid PR. How can concept and modest budget films survive in such a market to even get the audiences attention?" he asks.

Varun Gupta

The new trending PR term is "seeded campaigns". It's when specialists especially plant stories in Internet forums like Reddit. Hundreds and thousands of accounts make similar posts, until they become real-life talking points, and boom, a narrative is formed!

Gupta says that producers have started asking for marketing and PR stunts instead of creative and innovation ideas . "Even we get asked, ‘Let's fill the theatre with a fake audience' or some other gimmick. It's bhed chaal [sheep mentality]. Now that a couple of films have done it, everyone wants in."

Gupta too cites word-of-mouth to be the most reliable tactic. "A Main Vaapas Aaunga, despite being an Imtiaz Ali film, only picks up in the third week of its release. A film that came out of nowhere, there was no big stunt, no massive campaign. Still it's working. Why? Because people went home and told their friends to watch it. Why? Because the film is actually good," he says, "That's what it boils down to. If your film is bad, no matter how many PR or marketing stunts you pull, nothing can save you after Friday 4 pm."

The creator who's trying to stay honest

Film reviewer Andre Borges explains how he tries to stay honest through it all

With over nine lakh followers, creator Andre Borges has built an audience that looks forward to his recommendations. His aim is to not break that trust.

"I do get invited to premieres and I'm asked, ‘Can you put a story about your thoughts on the film?' It's never said that you shouldn't post anything negative, but it is understood," he says. If he does give a bad review, "at worst, I might not get invited again," he says.

Andre Borges

Borges finds it best to avoid invites altogether. "I just go by myself. Unless and until it's a big premiere for a film I know I will enjoy for sure, I just find it better to go by myself. I'm not attached to any organisation. I've built my audience purely on the premise of trusting me. So then, I don't want to give fake reviews," he says.

Sometimes, money is offered to give a good review for the films. "I would say that just within film content creators, there is a very strong ethos about staying honest. I don't think any of us are accepting money for good reviews. But I don't know about other creators. Sometimes, people who don't post film content will post a review."

When he attended the Mumbai premiere for The Odyssey, "there was a stark difference between legacy media and creators. We were literally divided in the two sections of the room," he says, "Now someone like me, I don't really know where I fit."