Bollywood #trending: Hashtag promotions is the newest tool

Bollywood woke up to the power of Twitter promotions a while ago, and hashtag promotions are the newest tool to hardsell a new film in the cyber space. Building hype over a new release has become more strategic over the past few years. Twitter and YouTube have emerged as new ways for producers to successfully start creating a buzz as early as three months before a film's release.

On Saturday afternoon, the hashtag #PKaaya was trending as soon as it was launched, with fans of the film pouring in congratulatory messages for Aamir Khan's new film, PK. Earlier, Twitter promotion of PK gained popularity as the film trended on #PKaana several weeks before its release. Also, cheap tickets for PK are being made available on #watchPKforRs99, where viewers can buy tickets to the film for only Rs 99.

Roy, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Jacqueline Fernandez, is slated for a release in mid-February but the producers have already started creating hype about the film on Twitter and YouTube. The film's trailer, which brings Ranbir back on screen after over a year, has been creating ripples online, while the hashtag #waitingforroytrailer and the song #soorajdoobanahi got retweeted several times by fans.

Akshay Kumar's upcoming thriller Baby, directed by Neeraj Pandey, has been making some noise on Twitter too, with the #babysizzle and #waitingforbabytrailer hashtags. The film releases in January but its pre-teaser started making rounds on YouTube in November.

Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha star in Tevar, which releases on January 9. The film is in news for its songs #salmankafan and #joganiya, which are fast gaining popularity on Twitter. The Twitter handle of Amitabh Bachchan is followed by a large number of fans, thus most of his upcoming films find a wide visibility on the star's microblogging page.

The first look of Bachchan in R. Balki's Shamitabh, slated for a February release, got revealed on Twitter. Several behind-thescenes and on-location pictures of Bachchan with co-actors Dhanush and Akshara Haasan have also been doing the rounds on Twitter to keep fans curious. Bejoy Nambiar's upcoming Wazir, which features Bachchan as a physically-challenged person along with Farhan Akhtar, is yet to officially declare a release date. However, Twitter is flooded with links to pictures and the teaser link of the film, which are being re-tweeted by millions of fans.