Does the resounding flop of the big budget film Samrat Prithviraj suggest that nationalism no longer works as a subject and that audiences are shifting to small and independent films, and to streaming platforms?

Alankrita Shrivastava, who has made films such as Lipstick Under my Burkha – for the big screen – and shows like Bombay Begums for OTT platforms, doesn’t think so.

She says that the theatre-going experience has become very expensive and there has to be “a high level of excitement” in making someone spend a lot of money to go to the cinema to watch a film.

“The film must have that X factor – many films, big and small, have proved very successful in recent weeks.”

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