Radhika Apte has put a familiar Hindi cinema anxiety into plain terms: for a woman-led film to get a theatrical opening, the industry has to believe the lead can pull an audience. In most cases, that belief is reserved for very few names.
“I’m not an Alia Bhatt or Deepika Padukone where you can, at least, hope that they’ll be opening,” she said in an interview with PTI.
The opening guarantee decides casting
Apte said a theatrical release where she is the lead would probably tank even if it is the best film, because she does not carry the same perceived opening draw. “That means I have to be in a film where men are doing the main part,” she added.
The comment is less about individual actors than about how theatrical Hindi cinema prices risk. Distribution and exhibition still lean on an opening guarantee — the expectation that a lead name will deliver a minimum first-day audience. Outside a small set of women stars, that guarantee is not assumed.
Streaming as release route, not artistic choice
Apte’s recent titles — Lust Stories 3, Saali Mohabbat, Mrs Undercover and Monica, O My Darling — all premiered directly on streaming. She said the medium does not drive her choices: “I don’t take a project based on whether it’s theatrical or OTT. I don’t really care about it.”
What she describes is a business default, not a creative preference. The release route is often decided after a film is made, based on whether a theatrical run is seen as recoverable.
- Female-led theatrical releases outside top stars are priced as risky.
- Apte says she does not choose projects by theatrical or OTT.
- Her next series Akka, co-starring Keerthy Suresh, streams on Netflix from October 30.
Why this matters now
This is not a new tension, but it has become sharper as mid-budget theatricals find it harder to guarantee returns. For an actor such as Apte, whose recent work has found audiences on streaming, the choice is often between a theatrical film built around a male lead and a streaming title where she can be the centre.
As theatrical Hindi cinema tries to recover a consistent audience, the gap between star-led and story-led openings has widened. Apte’s candour points to a structural problem: if only a few women are seen as “opening,” many female-led stories will keep moving to streaming or will be packaged around male leads.
The distinction Apte draws is between star equity and performance. A film may be the best version of itself, but the theatrical system first asks who can open it. That is why the same actor can headline a streaming project and take a supporting role in a theatre-bound film.
For our readers, this is a useful lens for the next release calendar. Ask not just whether a film is good, but what opening the market is willing to bet on. Akka will be a small case study when it begins streaming on October 30.
Source: The Times of India
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