Chandigarh, Apr 17 (PTI) : He has seen plenty of ups and downs in a career spanning three decades and Sunny Deol says that in today's time an actor needs a good publicist, not talent, to survive in the industry. 

The National award winning actor said that a good script and story alone don't guarantee a film's success, the marketing has to be equally good.

"Earlier, there were days when one used to think that talent speaks for itself. We never used to make appearances, give interviews and talk about our films. But today even if you have abundant talent, you will still need publicity or else the talent will remain hidden from the people," the 54-year-old actor told PTI.

Despite being a good film, he said said 'Right ya Wrong' failed at the box office because it was not widely publicised.

"We analysed the reason behind it and probably we were publicity shy. In my last film 'Yamla Pagla Deewana', which I did with my father (veteran actor Dharmendra) and (brother) Bobby, we made sure it got the right publicity," he said.

The actor said that the present situation lent a lot of power to the media as they influence the audience's decision whether or not to watch a film.

"It is through media reports that most of the people form an opinion whether to watch a particular film or not," said Deol.

At present, Deol is all set to revive his home banner Vijeta films with a sequel of his 1990 blockbuster 'Ghayal', which had won seven Filmfare awards.

In his long career, Deol has several other hits including Damini (1993), Darr (1993), Border (1997) and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001).