Aamir Khan is a very smart man. His Talaash may be five weeks away from release, but the actor hasn’t yet kicked off promotions in full-swing. From what we hear, the star—who recently returned from a long shooting spell of Dhoom 3 in Chicago, and took off just days later for a pilgrimage to Mecca with his mother—has decided to conserve his energy and the lion’s share of the film’s promotional budget until after Diwali. Which would leave him with just a little over two weeks to market the hell out of Talaash.

Reportedly Aamir thinks it a waste of resources to go into overdrive so early, given that two likely box-office behemoths—Shah Rukh Khan’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Ajay Devgn’s Son of Sardaar—are scheduled to open just two weeks ahead of his film, during Diwali. Aamir has advised his team to wait un­til both those films are out of the way by 12 November, and to then go all out with a promotional blitzkrieg for Talaash so that people’s interest in his film doesn’t wane.

So don’t expect to see any major interviews of Aamir or appearances on television until after Diwali. And yet, turns out that it doesn’t mean the Talaash team, or Aamir himself, are in fact sitting idle right now. The marketing team will continue to release new songs and trailers of the film periodically, and the actor will keep popping up now and then to stay in the news. Insiders are saying photographs, videos and the wide coverage of his recent departure to Mecca on Hajj with his mother was a carefully choreographed promotional strategy. You can safely expect the same media melee at the airport when he returns from the pilgrimage. The idea, as it stands, is to not be seen actively campaigning for the film right now, but not to remain so complacent that the film is entirely forgotten either.

Rajeev Masand