Shailaja Gupta tells SM Verghis how she concepltualises blockbuster merchandise
She had just ordered a pizza, and was settling down with a writer friend, to discuss the idea for a comedy. Apparently the friend is a pizza maven. Shailaja herself is more the health conscious sort it seems. As the Head of Red Chillies Entertainment USA, she probably wouldn’t have been in a position to junkfood binge. Gupta has donned various hats. She began as a web designer, and has done the international marketing for Choker Bali. She also made a film called Walkaway. Her background is graphic designing and web design. So she is comfy with technology. Through it, she met Shahrukh Khan.
When designing film websites for Bollywood was in its infancy, she was part of Kabhie Khushie Kabhie Gham, even Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.She also took a sabbatical to focus on sculpture and pottery. In fact, when we spoke to her, she was in the process of designing images for a painting exhibition in the US, marking 100 years of Indian Cinema.
After she made Walkaway, a movie about four Indian blokes in America, her connection with the film world got her some help from the likes of Shahrukh and Resul Pookutty. But she said that she didn’t leapfrog on their brand names. She hasn’t given up hope and was also talking about using her, “knowledge of the web, to create a film pitch.”
Shailaja also said she was involved with the VFX for Krishh 3, and is working on Farah Khan’s Happy New Year and Chennai Express, a biggie by Rohit Shetty.Her role in Red Chillies USA office, which opened last year, “is to network with local people and evaluate opportunities for Red Chillies.”
SRK must trust her, since she developed, “a fun marketing strategy for Ra. One.” She said, “We don’t have a tradition of Bollywood superheroes. Unlike overseas. So we had to work from scratch on a backstory from SRK.
“I created the style for a little G. One and adult G.One. Plus a 16 page comic with adult G. One graphics as well. We were thinking in terms of a franchise.” She ended, “As for models for merchandising, we sold them through a retail chain, after identifying one factory from two dozen in China. The tough part was to create the market.”