, the 'R' in M+R, will be in India next week to attend FICCI Frames 2005 (April 4-5), the annual entertainment sector event organised by the industry association. Rutter's company has been involved in the UK distribution campaigns for films like Billy Elliot, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Amelie, Bend it like Beckham, among others. It has also worked with directors such as David Lynch, John Sayles, Mike Leigh, Peter Greenaway and Ken Loach, on some of their recent films.
In television, M+R handles both production and transmission publicity for several high-profile dramas and documentaries such as ' and Buried on Channel 4 and Naked Hollywood on BBC 2. In February 2004, M+R also set up a theatre publicity department. Before his India trip, Rutter was happy to answer Business Standard's queries on the film publicity business on the e-mail. Excerpts from the interview.
Any comments on the changing role of a publicist in the entertainment industry?
I can really talk about films only as that is the area in which I work. The American entertainment industry is dominated by powerful personal publicists. These are the people whom the world press and distributors have to contact to get access to talent. In recent years their control has grown.
At the same time, there has been a media explosion with more and more outlets fighting for the same interviews, and offering increased opportunities for coverage.
Publicity plays an enormous role in the launch of any film, but it becomes particularly important when you move away from the big Hollywood blockbusters, which tend to be driven by advertising and promotions.
Smaller, specialist films often depend on editorial coverage "" both reviews and features "" for their success. Now, when even the small films have to prove themselves on the opening weekend, and cannot depend on audiences "discovering" them, then the role of the publicist becomes even more important.
How can the Indian entertainment industry use international publicists to its advantage to promote Indian cinema abroad?
I would suggest that the best place to start would be at a film festival. If an Indian producer has a film that he believes can break through to an international audience, a festival such as Cannes, Venice or Berlin, is the best place to start.
The recent explosion of films from the Far East (Wong Kar Wai, Zhang Yimou, Kim ki-Duk, Park Chan-Wook, Hiyao Miyazaki) and South America (Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuaron) began with festival exposure.
These festivals "" particularly Cannes "" have the greatest concentration of international press. At festivals such as these we work with the producer and sales agent in positioning a film in the most effective way possible.
Can global publicists manage entertainment in India?
In any country, I think, it is very important that local publicity is handled by local publicists. One complaint we often hear in the UK is that decisions about the UK press are being made by the US personal publicists who do not have sufficient knowledge of the UK media.
It's not enough to know which are the largest circulated publications. You need to know which publications are the best for a specific film, and which journalists on that publication are the most suitable.
Even the best publicists do not have this knowledge about every outlet in every country. I think entertainment in India should be managed by Indian publicists.
What trends is one likely to see in this sphere.
The rise of on-line and the immediacy of coverage. If, for example, a story or a shot appears on-line, then it instantly becomes accessible to the world.
So "exclusivity" becomes much more difficult, and the personal publicists try to be more controlling. Anyone researching a story will now turn to the internet for background information.
