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Ayushmann was also asked whether the audience buys a ticket for the actor or the content, and who is the bigger star — the actor or the content. The Vicky Donor actor replied, “In the films that I do, the stories are always bigger than the actor. I always believed that story is the superstar, right from my first film. I have done 20-odd films. I think I have dabbled in every kind of genre. I am going back to my core, which is, the authenticity. If we give authentic subjects to people, I think that’s the good draw. I believe with my next project, Udta Teer, it’s like a reverse uno kind of stuff.”

Also present at the annual convention was Denzil Dias, VP and Managing Director, India Theatrical, Warner Bros Discovery, who reflected on how audience tastes in cinema have evolved. “When I speak from a theatrical distribution perspective, what makes it more important is that the audience needs to connect with the film, and that connection comes from the place of trust. They need to trust the filmmaker, the talent, they trust the franchise, they trust the genre. The word of mouth is also a very critical aspect because a lot of times people probably don’t know about the film.”

Explaining it with a recent example, he said, “I’ll speak on behalf of the film that we distributed this year, a film called Obsession. We saw the film in February and thought that the film has potential to work in India, but on its own, the film will never be able to survive. We took a decision to not release the film along with the US. We postponed the film 2 weeks later, clashed with the IPL matches, why because at that point of time there is no other film (laughs). There’s lesser distraction. This was a director and cast that nobody heard about. I wanted to wait for the buzz to come from the international and then travel to India. That’s exactly what happened, and the curiosity happened.”

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He recalled how the strategy worked in their favour. “We opened at 300 odd screens on week 1 and the moment it opened up, we then started focusing on the word of mouth. It was the audience’s response that we needed to amplify,” said Denzil Dias.

Adding to this, Ayushmann Khuranna said that, for him, it is the heightened emotions and newness that bring audiences to theatres.

The actor added, “Agar Sriram Raghavan koi film banaate hain toh vo Obsession hoti hai (If Sriram Raghavan makes a film, then it’s like Obsession only). It’s like Sriram Raghavan’s genre. I was like if Sriram sir would’ve made this film, it would look exactly like this, and I was obsessed with Obsession. More than anything, it was the newness of the emotion.”

“For me, it’s the newness that attracts you to theatres, and it could be heightened emotions of anything: comedy, romance, horror. For me, newness and heightened emotions is the combination that I would look out for if I had to go out as a consumer of the film,” concluded Ayushmann.

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On the professional front, Ayushmann Khurrana is awaiting the release of his film, Udta Teer, alongside Sara Ali Khan. Directed by Akash A Kaushik and produced by Guneet Monga, this spy comedy is slated to release on October 9, 2026.