Toxic Is Done Bro Yash Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups Marketing Disaster Explained

The Highly Anticipated Trailer That Fell Flat

So the highly anticipated trailer of Yash’s Toxic affair tale for grown-ups has dropped, and to be honest, the hype is not as solid as one would expect from a mega star’s comeback movie. Now don’t link this statement of mine to the box office performance of the movie, because the movie will earn money. The names of Yash and KGF are still associated, so it will take the opening by pressing it. But despite a massive scale and a reported budget of Rs 500,000 crore, the makers have fumbled a lot with the marketing strategy of the film.

The Trailer Was Too Long and Oversold Everything

This means that the trailer was made about 4 minutes long, which is a very risky move considering today’s fast space attention span. And now the perception among the people regarding this film has become such that it is okay — another new movie of Yash is coming. So where did the flaws come from and where did the mistakes occur?

The Biggest Fault: Toxic’s Marketing Team

Where first and foremost, I would like to give the biggest fault to the marketing team of Toxic. The marketing people were not able to position this film well, and that is why after watching the trailer, people are calling out its editing. The initial punch that a sluggish dark gangster thriller needs was completely missing. The trailer overall appears to be packed with information and fall setup. And they oversold the shock value a lot.

The Money Shot Moment Was Missing

Because any trailer has a money shot moment, a high note. After which you leave everything to the audience to experience in the theatre or to have a conversation beyond that. But in this, you have tried to oversell it, call it desperation or pessimism. You told everything from Yash without clothes to his son coming to kill him, his Casanova past, love, fight, meeting, all in one trailer. And by telling all those things in a 4-minute trailer, you exhausted the audience. Due to which the impact gets diluted and now with which feeling should I go and watch it.

The Typical Indian Cinema Formula Mistake

Because this is the same old typical Indian cinema formula of putting every emotion into your film — something will definitely kick in. And Yash did not position his Toxic movie as a typical Indian movie. It is the marketing people who have spoiled its position. But then, along with that, clashes and postponements have also weakened the perception considerably.

Clashes, Delays, and a Weakening Perception

Meaning it wasn’t just one thing. Where till the time no marketing material of the film was dropped, the perception of the film was very strong. But as uncertainty progressed — who would it clash with? How will it be with Dhurandar, for how long will the film be postponed? And what is the future of the film overall? And due to lack of certainty regarding this, all these things seem to be going against this film.

And this whole story started after the clash and delay of Dhurandhar, due to which its feeling of being a must watch theatrical event has been badly weakened. And then after that week perception, you can say that Yash’s priorities and overseas marketing have also changed.

Yash’s Focus Has Shifted to Ramayana

Where for now, believe it or not. But Yash’s association with Toxic must have been a guess like feeling, because a conviction, a passion is felt in the face itself, because the biggest movies of his life are releasing in the same year. Where he has to prove himself once again with Toxic after KGF and also keep India on the global scale along with Ramayana. And Ramayan now feels like a much bigger movie for Yash than Like Toxic.

So, if we look at it from a distribution head space, Yash’s entire focus seems to be on Nitesh Tiwari’s mega epic Ramayana. Because when a lead actor becomes the central face of such an epic, it is natural that his time and priorities will increase as he has to manage everything in such a short time.

The John Wick-Level Action Marketing Was Abandoned

And Toxic ‘s marketing has been so flawed that you can imagine they didn’t even use one of their biggest marketing materials properly. For instance, a few years ago, they released montages and glimpses of Taran Tactical (Gung Fu) training for Toxic, a US-based marketing group that released training glimpse videos to show that the movie would have a different kind of action. And for now, that whole action-packed marketing seems completely dead.

Because there, by training at Taran Tactical US and releasing her glances, Toxic was positioning herself in such a way that John Wick level action was about to happen. And that’s why he trained in that firing range. He also hired some of his action guys for his film, and for the action, he specifically chose the same place where Keanu Reeves had trained for John Wick.

And all this marketing was actually going to be very important for Toxic’s Western positioning. But at this point everything has been sidelined. Because Namit Malhotra is able to position Ramayan better in the international market and Yash seems to be more active there rather than giving the same scale to Toxic.

Lions Gate Deal Is Not Enough

So, he had promised in the beginning that Toxic has been shot in Kannada and English and he is still promising it. So Western audiences are a very big matter for him, but at this point, everything looks cold. There has just been a small integration in between that the film will be distributed internationally with Lions Gate. And apart from that, there is nothing special in the air because without aggressive international promotion, Toxic’s overseas performance is still completely dependent on God.

What Bad Marketing Can Do to a Great Film

So what does this explain? This makes it clear that in today’s time, no matter how good your content is, bad marketing can sink it. Even if you make money, you will lose the good PR you could have got initially. You could have done better positioning of your film but you can spoil it all — only and only because of bad marketing or below average marketing.

So this is the problem with Toxic: except for a few elements shown in the trailer, nothing else about the project feels strictly above average. And I internally feel that this film holds some substance. But Jones never did the marketing that should have been done properly. Despite having such heavy visuals, spectacles, dark themes and extensive action sequences, the film manages to position itself with some cheesy moments, dialogues and sex scenes.

Does the Film Hold Substance? Yes — But It’s Hidden

But after watching the trailer of the film, that is, this trailer, one feels a little that oh [ __ ] there will be some awesome action sequences too. So why did you show those Chhapri people? Also holds some substance. So why did they show all those Casanomo-like actions in the film? Which also takes a wrong stand on the film as to what things you show in the film with depth and how you are selling it.

Now after watching the trailer, a curiosity increases in me that yes, the film Toxic does hold something. And most importantly, there will definitely be something in the writing of its female characters and the story. And apart from that, if all these things have been taken into consideration then there will definitely be something important in the narrative of the film with Yash also.

But while marketing it, they went in a completely different direction — that if they want to cater to a certain type of audience then they will have to sell this, which is completely wrong. People like to see responsible important things. If the substance is good then people connect.

Final Verdict — Toxic Is Done Bro

But anyway, they want to remain confined to a certain box, rather than giving depth about the character. At the end of the day, Toxic seems to be a film that has been crushed under its own weight and poor marketing strategies and bad timing.

When the perception is weak at the ground level and the trailer is also long and trying to oversell, then the world of mouth will have to work double hard when the movie will be released originally this month. Looking at the current online sentiments and the makers’ fumble, it seems that at this point, toxic is done bro.

Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups stars Yash (of KGF fame) in what could have been one of the most thrilling gangster epics of Indian cinema — had the marketing matched the ambition. The film releases in Kannada, Hindi, and English, with Lions Gate handling international distribution. Whether word of mouth saves it remains to be seen.