The trailer trap and forgetting art of surprise: How much is too much?

What makes a great movie trailer? Audiences, editors, filmmakers and trade experts discuss the fine balance between building curiosity and giving away too much.

In Short

• A large chunk of audiences feels trailers reveal too much
• Marketing now shapes trailers as much as creativity
• Film editors say knowing what to hide is key

The biggest conversation around YRF Alpha wasn't about Alia Bhatt or Sharvari. It wasn't even about Bobby Deol either. It was about the trailer. Within hours of its release, social media was flooded with one complaint: Did the trailer reveal too much?

It is a familiar criticism now. Singham Again, Peddi, Welcome to the Jungle, Batman v Superman, Fast & Furious 6 - all have faced the same accusation over the years. That somewhere between building excitement and selling tickets, the trailer had already shown the film itself.

Ironically, some of the most celebrated films of recent years did the exact opposite. RRR, KGF: Chapter 2, Animal, Jawan, Oppenheimer, Avengers: Endgame and, more recently, Dhurandhar, generated enormous curiosity without revealing every card. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is already doing something similar. People are excited not because they know everything, but because they know very little.

Which raises a larger question: What is a trailer supposed to do?

Should it tell us the story? Should it only introduce the world? Or should it simply make us curious enough to buy a ticket? More importantly, in an age of opening weekends, algorithms and social media, does the art of cutting a trailer even matter anymore?

To find out, India Today spoke to audiences, editors, filmmakers and a trade expert. Their answers reveal that a trailer today is no longer just an artistic exercise. It is a tug of war between storytelling and marketing.

The audience is watching trailers differently

There was a time when a trailer was unavoidable. You watched it in theatres, on television or before another film. Today, people choose how they consume them. Some avoid trailers completely while some cannot decide whether to watch a film until they have seen one. Some others barely care about the story. They watch trailers for the music, editing, visuals and mood.

Freelancer Pallavi belongs to the first group. For her, modern trailers have become too generous. She still remembers discovering actor Aditya Roy Kapur's appearance in Dear Zindagi inside the theatre rather than through a promotional video.

That surprise, she feels, is disappearing. "I do not understand the meaning of a trailer that is more than 2 minutes. Because if it's more than 2 minutes long, you're telling me everything," Pallavi said.

She believes films like Singham Again, Alpha and Welcome to the Jungle have already revealed enough for audiences to predict the experience.

Writer-editor Madhvi Jha looks at trailers differently. For her, they remain an important deciding factor. A trailer tells her whether the story interests her and whether a film deserves her time. But even she believes there is a line filmmakers often cross.

"Sometimes they show key twists, important character deaths, or even the entire storyline. If I mention one example, that would be Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. The trailer revealed many major plot points about the family drama, relationship conflicts, and emotional moments. After watching the trailer, it felt like I already knew much of what would happen, so I wasn't very excited to watch it in the theatre. So, we watched it on OTT," she said.

Then there are viewers like software developer Shaurya Taneja, who solved the problem years ago. He simply stopped watching trailers.

"I don't watch a trailer because it spoils most of the stuff. I want to go there and just completely be shocked, probably be surprised at what the movie has to offer. I think social media has ruined a lot of stuff in that regard, because a lot of the sneak peeks, previews, and all the discussions already go there, sometimes even prior to when the movie releases. The last time I watched a trailer was a decade ago," he revealed.

Product analytics executive Anurag Mishra, meanwhile, hardly focusses on plot anymore. For him, a trailer is about rhythm. "If that makes me excited and interested, then I watch the movie," he said.

Sometimes, less tells you more

Perhaps the most fascinating example came from journalist Akshay Ramesh. He pointed to filmmaker Thiagarajan Kumararaja's trailers. He highlighted the art of revealing everything in the trailers without actually revealing anything.

"It began with Aaranya Kaandam. I can still hear that peculiar, almost fable-like voice narrating over a montage of gangsters, animals, guns and people chasing fortunes that never seemed meant for them. It was unlike anything Tamil cinema had produced. The teaser hypnotised me with its mood; the trailer appeared to lay out the entire story, beat by beat, under that unforgettable narration. Yet, when I finally watched the film, I realised Kumararaja had pulled off an impossible trick. He had shown me almost everything, and somehow revealed almost nothing," he said.

"Years later, Super Deluxe arrived with another trailer that refused to behave like one, using the same confidence in narration, rhythm and imagery to draw you into a world that felt wonderfully strange. Long before I became a fan of Kumararaja's films, I had become a fan of the way he introduced them to the world," Akshay added.

That may well be the real craft of trailer-making: not hiding information but meaning.

Every trailer begins with one simple question

Eight-time National Award-winning film editor Sreekar Prasad believes every good trailer starts with the same thing: the film's central idea.

"You excite them with the core idea. Every film is made on a premise. The filmmaker is excited about the premise, and that is why he's making that film. That is the premise that you are expecting your audience to get excited about. That we open it out. We don't give the ending and all that stuff," he explained.

Praveen KL, whose editing credits include Rajinikanth's Kabali and Vijay's Master, echoed the same thought. "It's a combination of everything, but to put it in hierarchical order, it is definitely a story, but not revealing the interesting aspects that would hinder the film's watching," he said.

He remembers cutting the trailer for Kabali. The goal wasn't to explain Rajinikanth's story. It was to make audiences remember his presence, the iconic dialogue, punch moments and the swagger.

"So, you got to hold on to some of it because you definitely need the audience to be surprised by the key moments," Praveen said.

Director Anil Sharma, known for the Gadar series, follows the same principle. "The trailer should reveal the gist or the core premise of the story - for instance, a father doing everything for his son, or a son for his father, or a husband for his wife. It should convey the central idea or concept of the story, without giving away the actual screenplay or plot details," he explained.

Interestingly, Sharma says directors often imagine their trailer while imagining the film itself. "A director often envisions the trailer the very moment the story comes to mind... They then convey this vision to the agencies, editors, or creative teams involved," he said.

And yes, there are moments they deliberately protect. "There are times when you simply don't want a particular element of the trailer to reach the audience. It happens frequently; in fact, it is a very common occurrence," he revealed.

So why do trailers reveal so much now?

Because cinema changed. Sreekar Prasad says the biggest shift happened when opening weekends became everything. "Now, taking a cue from the Hollywood films over the last 20 years, where the window of real run in the theatre has gone down... they want the opening weekend to be big," he said.

Social media only accelerated that race.

"When these marketing teams came up, they started saying that you show everything that you have, the star, the plot, just to come and see that fully in the theatre. That sort of whole era has changed over a period of time," he went on.

Praveen agrees. Today's trailer is competing not just with another film, but with millions of videos on a phone screen.

"Because when you're catering to the current generation of audience, most of them are on their phones. And with all the traffic that they're getting, how do you find your space in it? So, we do definitely consider that," he said.

Art meets marketing

The interesting part is that trailers are no longer shaped only by filmmakers, especially in Hindi cinema.

Sreekar points out that while South Indian filmmakers often work closely with editors, Bollywood trailers usually involve marketing agencies, studios and corporate teams.

"In the South, whoever cuts the trailer works in tandem with the director. In the North, they have specialised companies, so it's not an organic, gut-feeling thing; it's more like a very clear marketing way they do the trailer," he highlighted.

Anil Sharma admits marketing teams are now deeply involved too: "Yes, absolutely. Marketing teams are involved in everything these days."

Praveen perhaps summed up the tension best: "It's definitely the marketing pull. Sometimes the producer might say, 'We spent so much on this fight. So, you definitely have to show it in the trailer'."

That one sentence explains why audiences often complain that trailers reveal too much.

Can one trailer decide a film's fate?

Trade analyst Girish Johar believes it absolutely can. "It is the sole deciding factor. The trailer is the most critical thing. It can go 80 to 90 per cent for a film's make-or-break," he said.

But he is also quick to add that there is no fixed rule. A comedy like Welcome to the Jungle can afford to show more jokes. A thriller or horror film survives on a mystery.

According to Johar, confidence also plays a role: "I think the makers are somewhat underconfident, that is why they allow it and show everything."

The hardest cut in cinema

Perhaps making a trailer has become one of the hardest creative jobs in filmmaking: Reveal too little and audiences scroll away. Reveal too much, and they feel they have already watched the film.

The perfect trailer sits somewhere in between. It tells you what kind of journey awaits, but never how it ends. It gives you a feeling, not a summary.

So what are the best trailers? Probably the ones that make you forget about the marketing campaign or those which didn't explain the film, resisted enough and yet made you feel curious to discover the film yourself.

- Ends