A Rajinikanth film release is nothing short of a festival in Tamil Nadu. With just days to go for the Pa Ranjith directorial Kaala to hit the screens, Rajini mania has gripped fans once again. The production house behind the film, Wunderbar Films, has officially tied up with the creative design company Cover It Up, to make the movie’s merchandise.
The Chennai based company has been around for five years and offers ‘eccentric and edgy’ products including mobile cases, T shirts, and stationery items. For Kaala, they have created a wide range of products, including posters, T shirts, mugs, laptop sleeves and more.
Speaking to TNM, Ronak Sarda, design strategist at Cover It Up says, "We make a lot of products for companies and brands. Wunderbar wanted someone who works with retail and merchandising. The problem is that you can't just take the posters as they are and print them on the products, so we redesigned everything for them. Since we manufacture all the products available on our site, they were happy that one vendor was taking care of everything."
In line with the film's promos the designs have shades of grey, red, and black.
Kaala products from Cover It Up
Cover It Up, incidentally, was also the official merchandise partner for the previous Ranjith-Rajinikanth collaboration Kabali.
"We did the merchandise for Kabali as well and this was yet another Thalaivar film. The last time around, everything went well, so we were in their good books," shares Ronak. He adds that for Kabali, the team took 11 days to complete the design and that it was instantly approved by the filmmakers.
"When Cover It Up was approached for Kaala, the entire team went full force to come up with amazing designs. References were taken from the Kaala moview trailer. Rajinikanth's look was kept in focus to create the products," he notes.
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Kaala products from Cover It Up
Ronak says that Cover It Up is currently also in talks with some IPL teams to create merchandise and that they also have plans to create official merchandise for three other films this year.
"To be honest, once you do a Rajini film, everything else doesn’t seem as exciting. There was a festive feel around Kabali's release. Which is why we decided we’d only develop merchandise for a handful of films which would reach the right people," says Ronak.
Pa Ranjith with Ronak Sarda
Though Wunderbar has officially partnered with Cover It Up for merchandising, there are other vendors who are selling Kaala merchandise.
"A lot of people have been doing this without taking permission from the production houses. The concept of merchandising is still not taken seriously here. They think it's like Ranganathan Street, ‘let's sell whatever we want.’ But at the end of the day, the rights belong to the producers. And anything you use, whether it's the name or design or anything else, the intellectual property belongs to them," says Ronak.
Ronak adds that several people who have been merchandising without permission have been sent legal notices by the production house.
"Action has been taken by Wunderbar to ensure that this doesn't happen again. A lot of people have actually removed their products after we came into the picture. A few continue to do so still, but it’s all done at their own risk," he says.
Fully Filmy, another player in the merchandising market, had earlier sold Kabali merchandise. However, this time around, they are not selling Kaala products because of the official tie-up between Wunderbar and Cover It Up.
The Superstar, nevertheless, features prominently in several of their products.
Fully Filmy Superstar scrapbook
Anand, Managing Director of Fully Filmy, says, "Fully Filmy was started with the phrase 'Superstar Thunai' in mind. We have a wide range of products dedicated to Rajinikanth which happen to be favourites among our customers. We will never be tired of making these tributes for our demi-god, Rajini sir."
Fully Filmy Superstar phone cover
Rajinikanth can be seen everywhere on their products: from scrapbooks to fridge magnets, phone covers, T-shirts, coffee mugs and more. For fans, this merchandise is just another way through which they can express their love and affection for the one and only Thalaivar.
Kaala releases on June 7 in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi.
Also read: Hold your breath, 'Kaala' trailer 2 is here!