How Bollywood’s digital marketing agencies manipulate X and Instagram!

Have you ever seen a Bollywood movie trend out of nowhere on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram, even when no one seems to be talking about it?

Of course, you have. And here’s the thing—it’s not an accident.

While PR agencies get blamed for “overhyping” films and stars, the real puppeteers are the Digital Marketing agencies working behind the scenes, gaming algorithms, buying trends, and flooding your feeds with manufactured buzz.

And guess what? No one’s calling them out.

The illusion of organic hype

Picture this: A new Bollywood movie drops its trailer. Within minutes, it’s trending at #1 on X. The PR team gets credit (or blame) for “making it happen.”

But here’s the truth — PR doesn’t control social media trends. Digital Marketing agencies do.

They use a mix of bot farms to inflate engagement. Hashtag manipulation to force topics into trends. Paid influencer collabs disguised as “organic reactions”. Mass retweet and engagement pods to create artificial virality.

And the best part? They never get caught. Because when a film flops, the narrative is always: “PR failed.” Not: “The digital team bought fake hype.”

Why PR agencies are the perfect scapegoat

PR teams handle press, interviews, and media relations — not Twitter bots. Yet, when a star’s film underperforms, who gets blamed? The PR agency.

Why? Because:

1. Digital Marketing is invisible. Bots don’t give interviews.

2. Studio execs don’t want to admit they paid for fake trends.

3. It’s easier to fire a PR firm than admit the marketing was smoke and mirrors.

The dark playbook of digital manipulation

Want to know how it’s really done? Here’s the playbook:

1. The “instant trending” trick. A movie’s trailer drops. Within 30 minutes, 50,000 tweets appear. 80% are from bot accounts. The topic trends. Mission accomplished.

2. The “faux fan reaction” strategy

Paid influencers post scripted praise (“OMG, this is the best trailer ever!”). Their followers (real and fake) amplify it. Suddenly, it looks like the whole internet is obsessed

3. The “selective amnesia” tactic

If the film flops, the digital team deletes evidence of forced trends. PR takes the heat for “overpromising”. The cycle repeats.

The real question: who’s really fooling who? The studios know. The marketing teams know. The PR agencies definitely know. But as long as the blame game works, nothing changes.

So next time you see a Bollywood film “trending for no reason,” ask yourself: Is this real love… or just a well-paid illusion?

Because in Bollywood’s digital circus, the greatest trick the marketers ever pulled was convincing the world the hype was real.

And now… you know the truth. What are you going to do about it?