The pages of best-selling novel Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone/ Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling, a story of three young wizards Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and their adventures became an escape from reality for lakhs of people when Warner Bros under the direction of Chris Columbus brought it to life on the cinema screens on November 4, 2001.
The movie was a blockbuster making approx. $975 million worldwide and becoming the second highest grossing movie after Titanic in 2001. The book was already on top of the New York Times best-selling fiction list for two consecutive years 1999 & 2000. So, to many it may have been a predictable success. But, was the well-established fanbase of novels the only reason for the success of the movie?
According to scholar and author Dr. Kumar Vimlendu Singh, “After World War 2, certain filmmakers started filming with their cameras on streets that gave rise to neo-realism and many filmmakers were taken in. Even in India, Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor and the likes started making movies around real life. After many years when someone came up with an adorable child character and a magic school it attracted people. The audiences had enough of realism and neorealism so the change gave a sort of relief to all age groups of people. Post globalisation chaos was already there and people were not getting time to give wings to their imagination and Harry Potter enabled that.”
Any movie’s success can be traced back to the intelligent and creative marketing of that product. But a bad product can only be sold to a certain extent, if the consumers’ expectations aren’t met the product is going to fail no matter what. This was not the case with Harry Potter, the story was, in the words of Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) himself, “An intricately, perfectly designed universe”
Kalyani Sankrityayan, a potterhead from Gorakhpur who runs an Instagram page by the name @rainbow.on.the.canvas and sells handmade potter merchandise says, “the most fascinating thing about these movies is the values that it teaches us. The mother’s love that saves a baby, an unimaginable bond between three friends, teachers who become family and eternal love. Besides the mystery, suspense, hidden meanings and the whole aura, it is so inspirational as well as intriguing.”
The movie was accepted and loved by many people who hadn’t even read the novels before. A magical storm had swept every country around the world. The Indian subcontinent was no exception to it. When Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone released in India on April 12, 2002, it was a phenomenal success.
Pankaj Shukla, a renowned film critic says, “India is a country where folktales are among the most loved stories. Children love to listen to stories their grandmothers tell filled with mystery, fear and magic. Harry Potter was a story resembling to Indian folktales. It connected with these folktales through magical objects, curses and witches and wizards. That is what attracted people of India towards it.”
He further adds, “Cinema is a community entertainment medium unless you are catering to a community, individual viewership isn’t going to make a blockbuster. It can be a hit film, but will never become a blockbuster. Only those movies which are watched together by families will survive. Harry Potter succeeded in India because Indian filmmakers seldom make community movies. When it got released, children along with their families watched it. These kinds of movies have a special space and any movie that fills up this space becomes a blockbuster in India.”
Fariha Khan, a Potter fan from Lucknow sharing her experience says, “I don’t even remember when I saw it the first time, but it was love at first sight for me. I still remember the first scene I saw, the scar on the forehead of little Harry. It’s like a forever love at first sight moment.” She further adds “My sister is also a big fan. The franchise has made each and every character unique and has created its own value. You don’t just love a few, but you love everyone in it.”
The instant success of the on-screen adaptation of the first novel paved the way for one of the most successful franchises ever made, which earned $7.73 billion worldwide. Harry Potter was never a brand but became one as people started to relate to it, rely on it and talk about it. Potterheads came up with fan websites, portals and fan pages on various social media platforms.
Keshav from Hyderabad runs one such insta fanpage @harrypotter.galaxy. He says “I am extremely obsessed with Harry Potter. I like getting lost in the wizard world and re-watch it many times. Every time I see it, it gives me a meme idea, so I opened this page”
Anurima from Kharagpur who runs insta fanpage @potter.1980_slytherin says “I had been in HP fandom since long. For a few years in between I was away from it. Then suddenly out of nowhere I saw a HP post in my insta feed. It was like a call for getting back into HP fandom. So, I opened a fanpage to keep HP fandom alive.”
The Potterverse has spread its wings with new companion stories, a new sister franchise ‘Fantastic Beasts’, interactive games ‘Wizards Unite’ and ‘Hogwarts Mystery’ and has its own interactive website Wizardingworld.com. Yet the magic of the first film and original 8 movies’ franchise hasn’t faded. To celebrate this magic Warner Bros. in partnership with HBOmax and Prime Video released a quiz show centred around the Potterheads and allowing them to participate and win the cup for their Hogwarts house in November 2021. They came up with a retrospective special ‘Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts’ on 1st January 2022. Fans had been waiting for it to premiere since the rumours began.
Fariha Khan says “It’s the biggest reunion of the decade! Seeing that precious hug between Hermione and Weasley, my heart melted”
“I had been looking forward to hearing from Mr. Voldemort, his experiences, his character and his personal opinions on the movies. It was exciting to listen to his side.” said Kalyani Sankrityayan, , another die hard Potter fan.
The ‘Muggle’ world has embraced the story of the boy who lived and Hogwarts for two decades. In the words of Dr. Kumar Vimlendu Singh “Whenever you get a sense of relaxation or a sense of freedom, it clicks. You can never predict the age of any artistic creation, sound waves travel creating crest and trough, fashion tends to get repeated. Shakespeare and Tulsidas are read till date because everything can change but love, hate, revenge, ambition, these human tendencies are never going to change. They will remain the same and that’s why Harry Potter will always be read. Maybe it will hit the brakes once in a while, but it will bounce back and I am pretty sure that for the next thousands of years Harry Potter and J.K Rowling will survive.”
Edited by: V. Prem Shanker