Kannada cinema has a new headache: Paid reviews

Moviegoers buying tickets at a cinema in Bengaluru. In the long run, paid reviews will affect an artist’s or a filmmaker’s reputation when the movie eventually fails to connect with the audience. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

On social media, the pattern is often predictable when a prominent Kannada film hits the screens: a bunch of posts flood X (formerly Twitter), describing how good the movie is. The stock phrases range from “Kannada cinema goes to the next level” to “epic climax”. Insiders to the industry identify these as markers of the disturbing trend of “paid reviews”.

Influencer culture is making its presence felt in the film industry, and campaigns are meticulously planned. The film team decides what goes out, down to every word, in a WhatsApp group. The public relations (PR) team then identifies a bunch of X users with a decent number of subscribers and pays them to share tweets favouring the movie, say insiders of the industry. The same goes for Instagram promotions, where people identifying as “film reviewers” and “experts” provide reviews for a price.

A PR official, on condition of anonymity, told The Hindu that paid reviews and posts are seen as yet another marketing technique. “It is like a new restaurant or a dish. A critic may not prefer it, but a section of the audience will be interested to try them out. Continuous tweets, posts, and videos are meant to reach those people, so that they can go check out the movie.”