Thums Up for Kaante Sanjay Gupta on his cola preference.

Sukanya Verma

In-film advertisements works well in fetching publicity for the product as well as earns the filmmaker good money.

Pierce Brosnan flaunted his exquisite Omega watch as James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies, while Tom Cruise used a Nokia cell phone in Mission Impossible II.

Back home, Ajay Devgan promoted Hero cycles in Mahasangram. Subhash Ghai's Taal relentlessly advertised Coca Cola, while his Yaadein had scenes specially written to impress audiences with Paas Paas mouth freshener.

We now have Sanjay Gupta with his magnum opus Kaante, the first film to be launched under the banner of Sanjay Dutt and Gupta's joint production, White Feather Films. This multi-crore, multi-starrer film, inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs with Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar and Kumar Gaurav, has tied up with the giant cola company Thums Up.

Sanjay Gupta's logic for doing so is simple; "They are providing me an international platform".

His confidence is justified as promos for the film have already started appearing on Indian television. Gupta says, "It is impossible for anyone to find this scale of advertising, hoarding and banners. All the major television channels have started airing the promos on television."

About how Thums Up will benefit, Gupta says, "There is in-film placement of the product. Events are also on the cards, but these will be finalised after discussion with the company."