Meet IIM alumnus who left corporate world for Bollywood; gave Akshay, Ranbir their biggest hits, worked with Rajamouli

For years, marketing and publicity of Hindi, or rather Indian films, was limited to on-ground events, a few press conferences, trailer and song launches, and interviews by stars. A holistic, professional approach to it was missing. MBA graduate Varun Gupta was among the young changemakers who saw that vacuum and rushed to fill it. The marketing professional opted to quit the corporate world for cinema and made a name for himself as one of the best marketing directors in India cinema today. In an exclusive chat with DNA, Gupta recounts his journey and talks about how went from Symbiosis to IIM and eventually Bollywood.

Varun Gupta has worked as a marketing director for over 120 films in a career that has stretched back to over a decade. In this period, he has worked on some of the biggest films in Indian cinema history, ranging from Baahubali and Adipurush to Animal and Student of the Year, as well as several sleeper hits, including the recent sensation HanuMan.

Varun did his MBA from Symbiosis Institute in Pune, following which he entered the world of film marketing. Explaining his career choice, he said, “There were a lot of placement opportunities in FMCG and education sector. As one of our classroom assignments, we were told to analyse an annual report of a company and present it. For some reason, I ended up coming across the annual report of Eros Entertainment, where they had posters of Love Aaj Kal and Kambakht Ishq on the cover. I found the idea of working at such an organisation cool. Having been a crazy Hindi movie buff, I began thinking what if I combine my two passions and start marketing films.” Varun even did a special course in branding from IIM Kolkata before venturing into this unusual field, at the time.

Varun eventually joined as a marketing professional in Zee Entertainment, working in Marathi cinema initially. “Back then, there was no such thing as positioning or marketing movies, there wasn’t really an agency where I could apply. I applied to a lot of studios that have in-house marketing teams. But obviously, everyone wanted experience but eventually I got into Zee, where I worked with Zee Talkies, marketing Marathi films,” he recounts. In a few years, he joined Dharma Productions in 2012, where he got to work on films like Student of the Year, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and even Baahubali: The Beginning.

Having worked with Dharma Productions, Varun branched out as an independent marketing consultant in Indian cinema, setting up Max Marketing in 2015. “I am not starstruck but I get director struck. I am in awe of storytellers so I always feel what you see on screen is the decision of the director, it’s their vision. I wanted to work with everyone I had grown up watching, which is why I thought I should step out and work with more people,” he says, talking about why he decided to go independent.

While talking about the proudest moments of his career, the self-confessed Akshay Kumar fan talks about two of the films he did with his favourite actor. “We did a film called Singh is Bliing. I was so happy that irrespective of the reactions to the film, it was Akshay sir’s career’s highest-opener at that time. It opened to around Rs 16 crore (actually Rs 20.67 crore). It was a very proud moment for me, being able to give him his career-best opener at some point in time. Then obviously, things went uphill from there with Housefull and Padman. With Padman, the kind of campaign we were able to create, I feel it was much bigger and more important than many films that may have earned more,” he says.

Eventually, he gave another of his favourites – Ranbir Kapoor – his career’s biggest film as well, the recently released Animal, which he calls one of his toughest challenges. “To take Ranbir a few months after the success of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar and transform him from this loverboy to the animal was a huge task,” he says.

Now, Varun is finally turning film producer with his banner Max Studios, producing Made in India, the biopic of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, where he is collaborating with SS Rajamouli. “Working in Marathi films I got to know about Dadasaheb Phalke, the man because of whom we are all making movies today. Now my first production under Max Studios is the biopic of Dadasaheb Phalke, which Rajamouli sir is creatively presenting,” he says, adding, “I could not think of a better film to be my first production.”