#BehindTheLens: MA&TH Entertainment's heads breaks down the art of film marketing, posters and trailers!

MA&TH Entertainment’s heads and co-founders deep dive into the aspects of filmmaking that generate buzz - from marketing a film to designing its posters and cutting its trailers!

What is the first thing you notice about a film or a series? Is it the poster or the trailer? Or does the buzz created by its marketing reach you even before a single visual is officially out? No matter how it happens, there’s no denying that the very first whiff of what’s brewing, when done right instantly makes you curious. It pulls you in, urging you to know more. That’s why every detail matters. From a poster’s colour palette and composition to what is revealed (or deliberately held back) in a trailer, each choice is strategic. A launch that doesn’t hit the right note can make it an uphill task for any project to generate excitement, no matter how strong the content is. And no one understands this better than marketing professionals.

Take recent examples like Dhurandharand Saiyaara. Both became case studies in smart, contrasting marketing strategies. Saiyaarachose restraint - its debutants weren’t introduced upfront, allowing the music to do most of the talking and build an emotional connect before faces were revealed. Dhurandhar, on the other hand, leaned into mystery, keeping marketing to a bare minimum and letting the intrigue of the title and the film itself become the conversation starter. We often debate how trailers today reveal too much, how posters are losing their impact, or how marketing sometimes feels more important than the project itself. But perhaps the best way to understand these shifts is by hearing directly from the people who live and breathe this world every day.

That’s what led us to a conversation with the creators, makers, and founders of MA&TH Entertainment, a collaboration of Marching Ants Advertising Pvt. Ltd.and Trigger Happy Entertainment Pvt. Ltd - a one-stop destination for film marketing, trailers, and posters, who are shaping how stories reach us long before we watch them on screen. These answers were given by Rajeev Chudasama, co-founder, Director and Chief Creative Officer, Nilesh Kataria, Creative Director and Ravi Dsilva, Business Head at MA&TH Entertainment.

Also Read: #BehindTheLens: Antara Lahiri on the politics of the cut and what happens in the edit room!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MA+TH Entertainment Network (@math_entertainment_network)

Here’s what they had to say!

On Marketing

There’s a lot of conversation today around film marketing, how intensely a film is promoted, how campaigns shape audience perception, and even post-release analyses on “what worked.” But if one has to truly understand what film marketing entails at its core, how would you define it?

 Ravi: People often assume marketing is just about the trailer drop or releasing a poster. The trailer and posters are the pillars of any campaign. They set the tone, the world, and the promise. But what actually moves the needle goes far beyond that. It’s the positioning, the narrative we build around the film, the cultural cues we tap into in order to trigger curiosity, conversations, and FOMO. In fact, Film marketing starts much earlier than people realise. Before we release any communication or asset of the film, we think through how it will build intent or push someone a little closer to buying that ticket. So at its core, Film marketing is the science of turning attention into intent, and intent into a paid seat or we can compel someone to say "I need to watch this in the theatre now"! 

 When any big ticket films like King, Dhurandhar, O’ Romeo and more come to you, what are your first steps in building a marketing strategy for it? And how does one navigate the line of getting eyeballs for the film to creating unreal stories just for voyeuristic engagement?

Ravi:Big-ticket films are tougher to market because the stakes, expectations, and scrutiny are exponentially higher. The audience already has a preconceived image of the star, the director, the genre and if the marketing doesn’t match or exceed that expectation, the film gets judged long before release. And unlike smaller films, big films don’t get the luxury of discovery. They must open big. That pressure makes the strategy sharper, the positioning critical, and the conversion hooks non-negotiable. Our job is to identify what is that fresh offering and what is marketable within that! The first steps are always watching the cut if possible, understanding the world, the emotion, the conflicts, the high points of the film and then moving into what are the two or three things that will make someone buy a ticket? Sometimes it’s scale (like RRR), sometimes it’s world-building like we are currently doing while marketing Prabhas’s Rajasaab and sometimes its sheer star power like in case of Jawaan it was Atlee’s universe and SRK fandom that dominates across the world!

With big films, less is more as a strategy works well,  I feel too many communication points actually dilute the narrative. For a film to break through clutter, you need one big idea that carries the entire campaign. One clear narrative we keep hammering across every touchpoint until it becomes synonymous with the film. Whether it’s ‘How’s the Josh?’ When we marketed Uri or the Restart emotional theme for 12th Fail- I believe in this over stimulated world, Don’t do everything. Do the right things - loud, clear, and consistently. I believe creating unreal stories for voyeuristic engagement don’t work for any films. The audiences today are very sharp and evolved, infact they may work against the film. A recent example for this would be Adipurush, the mismatch between expectation (epic mythology) and delivery (highly stylized, VFX-heavy reinterpretation) created a trust gap. I believe it's important to stick to the core truth, amplify the entertainment, but never distort the promise.

There’s a popular belief that film marketing is essentially another form of storytelling, or even an extension of cinema itself. Do you agree? And how much of marketing is about crafting that initial “buzz”?

Ravi: Absolutely film marketing is storytelling. We’re essentially telling the “first story” of the film, the story that convinces you to watch the actual story. We define what the film stands for in the audience’s mind, the emotion, the promise, the world just like you would with any strong brand. The poster is a chapter, the trailer is a chapter, the music is a chapter, the digital rollout is a chapter. A lot of people chase buzz for the sake of buzz. But in reality: buzz only works when the core story is strong. A confused campaign might trend for a day, but a well-told narrative builds anticipation, trust, and ultimately ticket sales.

⁠In the industry today, when a film works, its marketing gets credit; when it doesn’t, marketing is often blamed. How crucial do you think marketing actually is to a film’s success or failure? And if marketing plays such a big role, how does one distinguish between a film that’s genuinely strong versus one that “worked” purely because of clever promotion?

Ravi: Its true, when a film succeeds, marketing gets credit because it shaped the perception but when a film fails, marketing often gets blamed because it's the most visible part of the process. Everyone needs to understand marketing is crucial, but it’s not magic. A great campaign can create curiosity, urgency even FOMO but it cannot compensate for weak content beyond the first 24-48 hours. So the larger truth is marketing may be the ignition but content will always be the fuel.

Was there ever a project or perhaps a specific trailer that deeply stayed with you, something that shifted the way you think about film marketing or promo storytelling?

Ravi: One that stayed with me is the first look of Oppenheimer. The makers dropped not just a poster or a teaser they dropped a one-year countdown and then closer to releasing an entire scene from the film. It wasn’t just content; it was an event trigger.It reframed marketing from “promoting a movie” to building an event long before the release. Closer to release came one of the greatest case studies of modern marketing: Barbenheimer. Two films with completely opposite tones, audience segments, and worlds but instead of cannibalising each other, they amplified each other. There’s a huge lesson there. On a personal level, URI changed the way I approached innovation. We broke moulds from the tactical rollouts to the “How’s the Josh?” cultural takeover. The campaign not only translated into box office success but even earned industry recognition at Cannes Lions.

On Posters 

When it comes to designing posters, what’s the first thing you focus on? How does the process unfold from initial concept to final artwork? 

Rajeev:The first thing I look for in any story or narration is a hook - something you can latch onto and build around. It could be a marketing hook, a communication hook, or simply a buzz hook. There are many well-written stories that are too clean or straightjacketed; at best, they allow for a good-looking poster, but they don’t create a strong buzz. You get some mild chatter, and then it fades. To make a loud statement, you need something distinctive. That’s why creators often approach us while the script is still being written. With a few tweaks, a strong hook can emerge, one that’s far easier to communicate visually. That hook is central to how we design posters. Once the idea is cracked, the poster process has evolved. Earlier, we worked with hand sketches, then moved to reference images and mock posters. Today, we use a mix of AI, reference imagery, and Photoshop to create a rough poster. This ensures all stakeholders are aligned on the tone, look, and composition, with no surprises later. Once the rough creative is approved, we ideally move into a photoshoot and then execute the final poster. That’s broadly the process we follow.

⁠⁠And with the shift to digital platforms, do you feel the traditional art of poster-making is fading, or simply evolving?

Rajeev: Both. Earlier, there was an old-school charm to physical posters, you’d keep some for yourself, see them pasted on walls in smaller towns. Even in Mumbai, you might not spot them in Bandra or Juhu anymore, but once you go towards Borivali, Kandivali, or Chembur, you still see them, and they have a beauty of their own. Maybe that’s why it’s called poster art because it truly is a form of art. Even today, you walk into offices and homes and find framed posters of films like The Godfather. I’ve seen so many of those, and it’s heartwarming that film posters have been accepted as a mainstream art form. That said, the evolved digital poster has a longer shelf life. It always exists online—you can recall it anytime, anywhere. So when I say both, I mean that while the physical poster’s presence is fading, the digital one has become permanent. If I had to choose, I’d say I love both but the old physical poster will always feel more romantic, while the digital one is simply more factual.

Was there ever a project or perhaps a specific trailer that deeply stayed with you, something that shifted the way you think about film marketing or promo storytelling?

Rajeev: I can name two posters. The first would be Ek Hasina Thi, though I mention it more because it was my first film. At that stage, you don’t really know whether what you’ve done is good or bad, you’re still figuring yourself out. The second, and far more transformative one, wasDev D, which came almost seven years after Ek Hasina Thi. Nobody had dared to do a poster campaign like that before. While I obviously credit our team for the creative work, equal credit goes to the filmmaker. I’m sure many designers before us would have wanted to do something out of the box, but very few filmmakers had the courage to back it. Anurag Kashyap did. He asked for that kind of work, and when I delivered it, he took it exactly as it was with no toning down, no safer alternate versions, no second-guessing. He loved it, and that’s how it went out.

That experience reset a lot of my thinking. At the time, distributors were extremely powerful and controlled much of the industry. Filmmakers often listened to them blindly, even when they lacked creative understanding. Our posters were shown to distributors many times, and they outright dismissed them, saying they would never work. But Dev D taught me that conviction, both from the filmmaker and the creative team matters more than money-driven opinions. You cannot allow people who don’t understand creative communication to alter it. Over the years, these moments became major learnings, and every few years, one such experience reshaped the way I thought about poster design and creative freedom.

Have there ever been any demands made by the producer or director that were really weird for you to hear or threw you completely off? And do rigid demands come in the way of creativity, and if they do how do you balance it?

Rajeev: In the beginning, when I was new to the industry, I handled such demands very politely and tried to accommodate as much feedback as possible. Over time, though, I realised that if I wasn’t convinced about something, I shouldn’t do it. Many people giving feedback - filmmakers, editors, directors come with a limited understanding of graphic and communication design. This is a specialised art form, and as I gained experience, I learned to trust my instinct and stand by it. There was a phase when I probably came across as a terror because I wouldn’t let anyone spoil a design. I was always open to listening, but many suggestions were so strange that they would completely kill the creative, either forcing a redo or, worse, letting a compromised design go out and harm the film. That’s where I learned to draw a line.

For me, the equation is simple: it’s your film, and you have every right to accept or reject my work. I’m adhering to your brief, but the creative execution is mine. If you don’t like it, reject it, we can always come up with something else. But don’t change it so much that it’s neither yours nor mine; then it becomes an orphaned piece of work. This is a principle I still follow. I remember one instance where a last-minute creative was conceived on the day of the shoot. Once we shared the final poster, the client printed it out and scribbled changes all over it - altering sizes, fonts, colours, and treatment. I felt deeply insulted; I’m not a DTP operator, and a poster involves far more thought and craft. I made it clear that if this was how they wanted to work, we shouldn’t work together. It eventually got sorted, but it reinforced for me how crucial it is to protect the integrity of the creative process.

View this post on Instagram

On Trailers and Promo Material

⁠⁠Editing a film itself is a monumental task, but crafting promo material, especially trailers, which itself is cinema brings a different set of challenges. How do you approach the process of cutting a trailer and what according to you forms a good trailer? 

Nilesh: A good trailer, in my view, does three things: it clearly conveys the essence of the film, it evokes a strong emotional response, and it leaves the audience wanting more. It’s not about summarising the film, it's about distilling its energy. The best trailers use restraint, create intrigue, and trust the audience’s curiosity.

⁠There’s always debate about how much a trailer should reveal. Many argue that trailers today show almost the entire film. How helpful or harmful do you think that is for the final experience?

Nilesh: Trailers today often reveal too much. As an editor, I prefer creating intrigue rather than giving away the film. When you hold back, the audience’s curiosity does the real work — and that makes the final experience far more rewarding.

⁠⁠Have there ever been any demands made by the producer or director that was really weird for you to hear or threw you completely off? And do rigid demands come in the way of creativity, and if they do, how do you balance it? 

Nilesh: There were many such projects. Every director you work with has a vision and story telling style of their own so we have adapted their story telling in the trailer as well. Yes, I’ve definitely but I first deliver what they’ve asked for, and then I also show an alternate version that follows the trailer’s natural rhythm. When they see the difference emotionally, the conversation becomes much easier. It’s all about balancing their vision with what actually serves the promo best.

For more such conversations, follow us on @socialketchupbinge.