When Branding Met Movies: Some films don’t leave us when the theatre lights come back on. They follow us home. They show up in our conversations, our clothes, our playlists, and even our social media captions. Years later, we may forget the story details. But the feeling stays. Why does that happen? Why do some movies turn into movements while others disappear after the weekend box office?
A new book launched in New Delhi believes it has some answers.
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A book that looks beyond the movie screen
‘When Branding Met Movies’, launched at the World Book Fair, New Delhi, takes a fresh look at cinema. But as a carefully built cultural experience.
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Published by the National Book Trust (NBT), the book is written by Chaitanya Prasad, Zoya Ahmad, and Vaishnavie Srinivasan who explore how films live on in public memory long after the end credits roll.
The book asks a simple but powerful question: what really makes a film unforgettable? And the answer, according to the authors, lies in something we often overlook: branding.
Cinema is no longer just about the script
In easy, readable language, the book explains how cinema today is much more than plot, dialogue, and performances. Films now exist in a larger world made up of star images, director identities, production houses, fashion, music, film festivals, posters, trailers, social media buzz.
Using examples from Bollywood, Hollywood, regional cinema, and independent films, the authors show how all these elements come together to create what they call “the magic beyond the script.”
A movie is no longer just watched. It is worn, shared, quoted, and remembered.
The book argues that cinema shapes emotions and cultural identity, turning films into shared memories rather than one-time experiences.
Big names, big ideas at the book launch
The launch was followed by a detailed discussion that brought together voices from government, education, and the film industry. Among those present were C Santhil Rajan, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; Dr Ajay Nagabhushan, Joint Secretary (Films); Dheeraj Singh, Vice-Chancellor of FTII Pune; filmmakers Utpal Borpujari and Ajay Kumar; Milind Sudhakar Marathe, Chairman of NBT; and Colonel Yuvraj Malik, Director of NBT.
The discussion was less about box office numbers and more about ideas on how cinema should be watched, written about, and understood.
Why writing about cinema matters
One key point that came up repeatedly was the importance of reading about films, not just watching them. Speakers stressed that images and words go together. Writing helps us slow down, think deeper, and see what we might have missed on screen.
They also noted that perspectives from communication and branding add new layers to film discussions. Understanding how a film is presented to the world helps us understand why it connects or fails to.
The panel described cinema as one of the few truly shared cultural spaces in India. In a country full of languages, regions, and beliefs, movies bring people together. Audiences laugh, cry, and emotionally live inside someone else’s story for a few hours.
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