The Spybot found us! ....

We have not launched our website properly yet - but the spybots have already found us! :)

mrigyaventures got its first spam message from a bot last night. I guess we have finally arrived!

world-wide-web domination here we come ....

Name: Arturo Abel

Email: anthonyburgess55@gmail.com

Message: We provide a complete range of internet marketing solutions to our clients. Our focus is to provide businesses across the world with world class web based solutions to enhance and compliment business needs. Let us know if you would like to increase sales.

It is sad and a little endearing that all three of us were a little excited about it ... :)

Speaking of robots - here is a really cute quote I found:

Just as some newborn race of superintelligent robots are about to consume all humanity, our dear old species will likely be saved by a Windows crash. The poor robots will linger pathetically, begging us to reboot them, even though they'll know it would do no good. lol!

Ryan Reynolds in his Green Lantern costume

One week prior to Comic-Con - Entertainment Weekly - a magazine that completely revamped themselves by moving from the small 'TV-schedule' magazine format to the larger spread did the exclusive reveal of Ryan Reynolds in his Green Lantern Costumer -- va! va! voooom! :)

The teaser First look released during Comic Con:

http://www.dccomics.com/sites/events/videobox.php?f=/media/_dcu/audio_video/Green_Lantern-480x270.mov&width=521&w=496&height=316&h=286

(an aside -- WHAT is that dress?! it moves - it breathes - its Lively -- ahem! I'm transfixed and I am sure the geeks went home happy -- carrying that chest-panel-less dress off without a wardrobe malfunction is simply fantastic -- kudos Blake!)

It took Warner a while to green-light (ahem!) the Green Lantern project despite fans trying all sorts of ways in which to drop broad hints at wanting to see a movie. One of the more famous - a fan-made trailer with Nathan Fillon in the title role. This trailer is so well made that it had a few people fooled and became a big internet hit with even Nathan endorsing the trailer - lol!

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/05/26/fan-made-green-lantern-trailer-receives-nathan-fillions-endorsement/

Green Lantern cometh

I would like to start on the poster blogs with the absolutely brilliant campaign for the forthcoming movie - 'Green Lantern'.

Let's think about the movie --
1. Hot Cast - Ryan Reynolds and little known 'Gossip girl' Blake Lively - CHECK
2. Not widely known superhero (outside of geeky and US circles) - CHECK
3. Silly costume - CHECK
4. Cult following - CHECK

The budget of the movie is a very healthy $150 Million, which means that DC Comics and Warner Bros are hoping to have another superhero money-spinner on their hands. Green lantern is a relatively unknown superhero. Besides crazy fans like yours truly - most people are not aware of the intergalactic police force monitoring the universe. Compare this budget with the 2006 film Superman Returns' budget of $200 million and you see that Warner is expecting to make quite a lot of money (and sequels) from a Green Lantern franchise. In order to maintain a long-term franchise it is very important to get 'family approval'. From past Batman debacles, movie studios know that the fans MUST be sated. These are the guys who will line up at midnight and will stay with a franchise when all others leave.

Keeping that in mind, Warner Bros picked the best possible time to release the marketing campaign - Comic Con in San Diego. This was an audience of hard-core fans who are - most importantly internet-savvy and very internet-verbose. Within hours of the first look posters being released, the blog trails lit up and the word-of-mouth on the posters started. Ryan actually did not say the Green Lantern oath out aloud until he was arm-twisted into it by the cute-kid brigade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJl9cnQAsIk

http://io9.com/5596819/ryan-reynolds-recites-the-lantern-corps-oath-for-the-littlest-green-lantern

In fact, the WOM on him taking the oath was so good - I tried searching on google using the term " ryan reynolds + green lantern + oath" and got 5 million results! That is just fantastic, considering that the movie is out NEXT Summer! that is a year away! Imagine the buzz around this movie by the time it releases.

On to the posters then - they are just FANTASTIC! These are the perfect 'teaser' posters for this film. It has enough insider stuff to keep the fans happy and feeling superior.

The colours are the typical lantern green with darker tones - very mysterious, adult and signifying a darker storyline. The usage of Hal Jordan's oath "... in brightest day, in blackest night. No evil shall escape my sight ... " - se super!

Ryan Reynolds introduction as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern:
(Sorry - can't help myself ---- "Whoop!" I mean I thought Ryan had potential in Blade Trinity and then definitely as Deadpool in X-men: Origins, but honestly I was not a believer of his Hal Jordan - but I am SO converted ...)

Blake Lively as 'good' Carol Ferris / 'evil' Star Sapphire





















Mark Strong as Sinestro and Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond
(Though poor Mark has become type-cast s the villain now, it is good to see someone recognize Peter's potential for super-villainy)

These are the posters joining to form the rings -- one with good and the other evil --- very - very - very nice design!



I don't know about you -- but this teaser has me super-excited about the movie already. I think it will be fun to see how the DC guys keep the marketing going for the next year.

There and back again ....

It has been a while -- a year almost that I have blogged about anything.
I have wanted to -- many, many times but I find that an entrepreneur lives in fear of everyone so the whole 'writing about my company' is never going to happen. Besides really boring procedural blogs, all the gossip and the interesting encounters will have to remain as coffee-table conversations.

The one thing I figure I can blog about is my passion for posters and credits. Actually this was suggested by Nikhil and Ashutosh and I think it is a brilliant idea.

I love - LOVE - to analyse movie marketing campaigns. I think the ones in India are SORELY lacking. It is such a pity to see so much potential wasted because the producers did not understand the last mile. This statement of course does not include the smart marketing campaigns conducted by the Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar and Amir Khan camps. But, even their marketing campaigns are targeted only at the audience in the cities.

Marketing movies to India is like marketing to many different countries. There are so many types of audiences that in creating a generic, vanilla campaigns, the producers lose out on majority of the potential of the movie. I am going to blog about the movie marketing campaigns that I really like and why and I hope that you will comment/respond and let me know whether you agree.

Tchuss!

Oeejay-san - The Harbinger of Hope

Meet Oeejay-san (O-E-J san) - our Japanese silent partner (he has no mouth - yet!). Hugo got it for us when he came for Mohit's wedding. Oeejay-san is a Daruma (dharma) doll. These dolls are traditional Japanese good luck charms. The dolls themselves have no hands or feet and are really quite cute. They just have white spheres instead of eyes. You are supposed to make one black eye when you make a wish and the other one when the wish is fulfilled.



Nikhil and I made a wish for our company and now our Oeejay-san (One-Eyed-Jack san) sits on Nikhil's grandmother's ledge reminding us about the wish.





In fact, you might say that Oeejay-san is the entire charter and scalability plan for 'Sapnay' rolled into one. The poor guy is not going to have a life or a mouth until we get our wishes! Hamaaree maange pooree karo - or else! :)





Poor Oeejay-san has to earn his body parts - our first customer gets him his smile - the first paying customer his dimples and the first time the company breaks even - Oeejay-san gets his second eye.

While he waits for his body parts, we have left him on the ledge, burdened by our wishes .... he really is quite cute and quite alone ...




Nikhil is the only one who dusts him once in a while. Me - I am just waiting to draw the damn body parts! lol!














Here's to Hugo - Oeejay-san and the Hope that it brings us!

Of INSEAD Dings and shared rejection

For those who don't know - one of the most cherished traditions at INSEAD is the 'Ding' Bell. It's a Bell in the bar at Fontainebleau which is rung by a student after getting rejected (dinged) for a job. Fellow students are supposed to buy a drink for the poor soul to cheer him/her up and share in the misery. (Special mention and a big shout-out to Gautam Narasimhan for telling the best post-ding interview stories over his beer).

Given that my class graduated in December 2008 - the bell was ringing off the hook - every day of the last two periods. For me - especially - it was cathartic to ring the bell - admit defeat - get a free drink - laugh at myself and move on to another fight. What joy in knowing that the market was so democratic in its rejection of my class!

The Dings back home are less enjoyable. They are emails (ugh!) or phone calls (double ugh!!!!)..... rejections followed by espousals about how GOOD I am - how GREAT INSEAD is and how they CANNOT believe that I will not have an offer soon. (seriously!)

I really WISH to have a drink - in fact - I really WISH for a FREE drink. However, life in Mumbai is different .... I don't drink - when I do, I do so consciously or secretly as I am living with family. Having a good reputation is such a bitch!

So - this is me raising a long-distance glass of pure, adulterated mineral water in honour of the Dings and the rejection we have shared at the INSEAD Bar my friends.

Dashamlove

'Dashamlove' - literally means the decimal point - the distance between 0 and 1.

It signifies the importance of everything, irrespective of how miniscule it is and provides a means to represent it. It is also representative of the digital world - binary and yet with a universe separating the distance between 0 and 1.

This word was suggested by my मामू and it struck a chord. All alone in this city, pursuing my dreams - I often find myself pondering about important and insignificant things with equal enthusiasm. Solitude allows me the space to follow whims that I would never be able to get past my family and friends.

This blog records the trials, whims, dreams, self-motivational speeches ... eccentricities ... of a 'phoren-returned' entreprenuer in Mumbai.