Kannada filmmakers turn to YouTube, blogs for promos

Bangalore, Aug 6 (IANS) The Internet, blogs and video-sharing site YouTube have become increasingly popular among Kannada filmmakers as tools to promote movies among youngsters. And they say the results are overwhelming.

More and more people are viewing trailers on YouTube and techno-savvy producers acknowledge the benefits of such promotional drives.

Said Prakash, who directed the Puneet Raj Kumar starrer "Milana": "The radio channels and the Internet has really helped the film to become extremely popular among youngsters."

While the song "Anthoo inthoo preethi banthu" from "Milana", which was uploaded on YouTube 11 months ago, has had more than 106,000 visitors, the promos of Golden Star Ganesh's "Galipata" have had over 107,000 visitors. Directed by Yogaraj Bhat, the film's promo was uploaded Jan 18.

"Psycho" producer Gurudath says the song "Poojege bandhe maadeshwara" was released on YouTube just a month ago and has attracted more than 100,000 viewers so far.

"The trailers of 'Psycho' have also become a big hit and I think it had more than 35,000 visitors. We have sent e-mails to various people interested in Kannada films and they have uploaded promos and songs on YouTube and Orkut," said Gurudath.

"Psycho" director Devadatta says the film got noticed thanks to the songs being continuously promoted on radio channels and YouTube.

"Though we have not released the songs video CD's to the channels or YouTube, the songs broadcast on radio channels and the Internet have really helped the film to get wide publicity," said Devadatta.

"Psycho" is scheduled for a September release. The film's music director Raghu Dixit is a first timer, but he's already become a household name in the state.

The song "Maathinalli Helalaarenu" from "Bombaat" featuring Ganesh and Ramya was posted on YouTube July 2 and has already registered over 200,00 visitors.

A song from "Taj Mahal" was uploaded on the video-sharing site just a month ago and it has been rated the best so far and has been viewed 8,992 times.

"Taj Mahal" director Chandru said: "We had given promotional trailers to various television channels and Kannada film websites who uploaded it on YouTube. This has helped my film."

Actor Ramesh Arvind, who recently directed the film "Accident", said: "I have extensively used YouTube and blogs to promote my film. 'Accident' was the first Kannada film to have a voice portal.