Filmmaker doles out pearls to draw viewers

guwahati: this is, perhaps, indian film industry's biggest gimmick ever - a free pearl with every audio cassette you buy. and if astrologer-turned- producer, pallab das - more popular as kero young - is to be believed, there is more to follow when his bilingual film, tyag, is released. everybody walking in to the movie hall would return home with a japanese walkman, free of cost."consultations are on with the company, which is going to launch its indian operations very soon. this scheme would be possible because i will be securing the walkmans at a throwaway price", said das, whose first foray into cinema production in assamese and bengali involves several top actors and actresses from tollywood and guwahati. the cast includes bengali stars shatabdi roy, sanjeeb dasgupta and moscow-based geneva, apart from assam's very own nipon goswami, jatin bora and geeta bali. the thirty-eight-year-old guwahati-based producer explains: "it's a story of sacrifice, hence it's called tyag. we have completed shooting. by december-end or january, we plan to release the assamese version in guwahati." das justifies his extravagant free gift scheme, the pearls by his own estimate costing rs 1500 to rs 2000 apiece, saying, "the market for an assamese movie is worth around rs 1 crore, while for a bengali film, it stands at a whopping rs 6 crore. for a total market of rs 7 crore, i have decided to spend a crore on publicity. i am sure that i will profit from it." ask him the source of the pearls, he remarks: "i cannot reveal that.... except, perhaps, for the fact that these have been obtained from japan. however, let me reassure all concerned that the pearls are cent per cent genuine - in fact, i would welcome any test by the geological survey of india to check the authenticity of the stones. these have also been acquired very legally - i have papers to prove that, just in case i am questioned." even though detractors and a section of jewellers have alleged that the stones being distributed are cheap imitations, das, while dismissing the suggestion outright, claims that the entire strategy - devised at popularising tyag and its music - has clicked very well, with cassettes fast vanishing from music stores. "i released about a lakh and a half cassettes initially. it vanished within no time. now, we are releasing from our remaining stocks very judiciously. at some places, the cassettes are being sold in the black market for a much higher price", the producer, who claims to have received several extortion demands after the much-hyped audio cassettes flooded the market, said. "why, some jewellers had initially bought a large number of cassettes just for the pearls. so now, we are being extra careful, asking retailers not to sell more than ten cassettes to any one person." however, market reports do not tally with das' claims of a runaway success. says arvind ajitsaria of guwahati's meghali music: "the music is good, no doubt. but people are not buying, perhaps because it is priced at rs 55, much higher than regular assamese cassettes. moreover, most customers do not believe that the pearls are authentic." nahar pokhraj of j.j.electronics agrees: "of course, the cassette is doing well in certain places, but again, the sales are nothing outstanding, despite the gimmick."