KASHI'S NEW CACHET

Varanasi is now a regular pit stop for shoots and film promotions. What explains the film world's obsession with the holy city?

- Suhani Singh

WHEN KARTIKAARYAN WANTED TO celebrate the fantastic opening of his latest release, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, he didn't think of lazing by the beach in Bollywood's favourite holiday destination, the Maldives. The actor, instead, chose Varanasi, where he took a boat ride on the Ganga and prayed at one of the many ghats on its banks.

But then he's hardly the first film celebrity to be smitten by the holy city. In the past few months, filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, and Ram Charan and NTR Jr, the leading men of his period action spectacle, RRR, held a press conference by the Ganga; Akshay Kumar and his Samrat Prithviraj co-star, former Miss World winner Manushi Chillar, visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple for film promotions; and so did Kangana Ranaut who released a track from Dhaakad. The song played on a floating LED screen on the banks of the river.

Unfortunately, Kumar and Ranaut's prayers went unheard as both films sank without a trace. Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, who shot a segment of their upcoming film, Brahmastra, and the song 'Kesariya' in the city, will hope for a better fate. But such is the entertainment influx in the temple town that it begs the question: why is Bollywood suddenly besotted with Banaras?

"Varanasi has a hold over the collective subconscious of the country...it is its heart," says Prabhat Choudhary, founder of communication agency Spice. "What happens in Varanasi resonates throughout the country." A veteran entertainment marketing strategist, Choudhary began suggesting the city as a pit stop for promotional campaigns over 12 years ago. But not everyone saw the possibilities he did. "We faced a lot of resistance initially. To the film distribution teams, it didn't make sense, as Varanasi is not a huge revenue centre," he says. Currently, it has four multiplexes and two single screens, but the city doesn't even rank in the top 15 in revenue generators.