In 2019, when I met Ajay Bijli, founder of PVR, India’s first and largest multiplex chain, we were talking about OTTs versus cinemas. Before I can even remind him about exactly what he’d said then, he interrupts: “I feel the same even now. Look around you, [on OTTs] people usually ask about shows, Khaki dekhi, aapne?” Ajay has just binged on The White Lotus S2.

Meaning, people are chiefly consuming long-form series on streamers. Conversations around cinema on the OTT are at best restricted to films commissioned directly by those platforms.