Entertainment publicity in India has always been a heady mix of timing, trust, gossip and paparazzi traction. But something new is brewing behind the scenes. Public relations professionals are now quietly learning the ropes to combine the game-changing duo of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and its fast-rising partner, Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
For decades, SEO has helped publicists shape how Bollywood stories appear across mainstream news websites, business portals, film coverage sites and lifestyle platforms. Getting your celeb client’s quote into a legacy website like Times of India, ensuring your movie campaign pops up in Indian Express’ entertainment section, or nudging a review of your indie production to trend on a new-age platform like Bollywood RedHot has been the name of the game. But with Google’s newest ‘AI Mode’ now officially available in India, there’s a shift in attention from just ranking high to also being contextually and creatively amplified.
How to activate ‘AI Mode’ in India
Here’s what’s new. After its successful rollout in the US, the ‘AI Mode’ tab within Google Search has now made its way to Indian screens through Google Labs. To access it, you simply log in to Google, click on the Labs icon at the top right corner of your screen, and activate ‘AI Mode’. You’ll then spot a new tab added to the extreme left of your standard search tabs like ‘All’, ‘Images’, ‘Maps’, ‘News’ and ‘Videos’. This static ‘AI Mode’ tab shows AI-generated summaries and perspectives drawn from credible media sources.
How GEO impacts Bollywood PR professionals
Now why does this matter to Bollywood PR professionals? Because it shifts the spotlight. Traditional SEO strategies aim to get your link to appear with keywords. GEO ensures your narrative is actually read. The search intent and the answer summary it provides, is now taking precedence to keywords and links. In simpler terms, SEO helps you show up. GEO helps you show off. If SEO is your chauffeur, GEO is the red carpet.
Imagine a journalist asking, “What are critics saying about Sitaaare Zameen Par?” In AI Mode, Google may now summarise multiple credible reviews from across legacy, veteran, and new-age websites such as The Indian Express, Live Mint, Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Dhamaka, Cine Mumbai and Super Showbiz in a conversational format that makes it easier to consume than clicking ten different links. For a Bollywood publicist, this means more visibility without even needing a click-through. The media coverage still needs to exist, of course, but GEO ensures that its essence lives longer, louder and leaner within the AI-generated summaries.
How GEO complements SEO
This development is more than just a tech twist. It’s a whole new behaviour shift. People are increasingly expecting content to come to them neatly summarised, not scattered in ten different tabs. That’s where GEO, when done well, complements SEO by priming search engines to not only rank your coverage but also reference and repurpose it meaningfully in AI-generated results.
What this means for Bollywood’s PR and marketing minds
For digital marketing as well as PR experts in Bollywood, this is both an opportunity and a quiet ultimatum. Optimising content is no longer just about keywords and backlinks. It’s about giving news platforms the kind of well-structured, fact-rich, sentiment-aware copy that gets picked up in AI Mode. In short, fluff is out. Format is in.
Interestingly, celebs may now look for entertainment PR consultancies and Bollywood PR consultants who understand how Google’s AI summarises news content and can tailor news releases, quotes and headlines accordingly. GEO, while still in its early phase, is being treated as a serious value-add that bridges the gap between traditional earned media and intelligent AI indexing.
For instance, a GEO-savvy pitch about a star’s performance in Kesari Chapter 2 would be crafted to echo the legacy of iconic dramas, embed emotionally charged language, and highlight exclusive features or early coverage from legacy platforms Google’s AI is more likely to summarise, such as India Today, News18, Mid-Day, or Hindustan Times. The goal is no longer just scoring a prominent mention on Bollywood news sites. It’s about ensuring that when someone searches for the film, the AI Mode overview reflects your intended message, celebrates your client’s image, and reinforces the story you want the media to carry forward.
Shifting the goalpost from visibility to value
This new alignment will prompt a rethink among publicists. Is your news being reported or is it being retained? Are you writing news releases that talk to editors or ones that train algorithms to quote you accurately? It’s not about chasing algorithms. It’s about working with them.
The move towards GEO is not replacing SEO. It’s completing it. Like Amitabh and Dharmendra in Sholay, they’re better together.
Key takeaways:
- SEO helps you rank. GEO helps you resonate.
- Google’s AI Mode is already live in India via Google Labs. Activate it now to stay ahead.
- PR content must now be structured for summarisation, not just for search.
- GEO strategies focus on influence within AI-generated insights, not just placement in news articles.
- Bollywood publicity is entering an era where algorithms might just be your most influential audience.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Dale Bhagwagar is the Rajinikanth of Bollywood PR. Over the years, he's made his own rules, his own style, and his own world. Apart from being widely quoted across all Indian media, he is the only publicist from India who has been quoted in international media such as BBC World, BBC Radio, Sky News, CNN, Channel 4, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many more.
Dale Bhagwagar, recognised as the Father of Bollywood PR, founded the industry's first entertainment PR agency in the nineties, bringing organisation and structure to an industry once characterised by independent publicists. Among the 300-odd clients he has worked with, Dale has also been instrumental in shaping the images of Hrithik Roshan, Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, and movies like Don and Rock On, as well as some 20 scandalous names who have been on Bigg Boss.
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