Dhurandhar On OTT? Nahin Yaar; Let Me Tell You Why

Two things have happened in a short span of time. Dhurandhar has finally released on OTT, and Aditya Dhar has debuted the teaser for Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar 2 – but that is a whole different controversy. At this juncture – and I do not say it lightly, nor from a place of nostalgia-riddled theatrical romanticism, but as someone who consumes cinema across formats, screens and attentions spans. As someone who tries to understand the economics of OTT, the convenience it offers and the creative freedom it has unlocked, the idea of Dhurandhar premiering on OTT feels fundamentally misguided. For starter, some films are not just stories, they are experiences and Dhurandhar, by design, scale and intent belongs to that endangered but essential

species of cinema that demands a theatre. Built on spectacle - of performance, confrontation and atmosphere, it isn’t the kind of film that politely waits for you while you check your phone midway, pause in the middle of a scene, or split your attention between WhatsApp, daily chores and the screen. Instead it asks something of its audience – Dhurandhar demands time, focus and surrender. But even more than that, there is a very real problem – Dhurandhar is not family viewing.

Let’s Start With The Scale

When I first watched Dhurandhar on the big screen, I had gone there, in all honesty, without any lofty expectations, but a part of me was blown away by the theatrics onscreen. Theatrical scale is not just about wide shots or loud background scores, but rather, it is about the psychological contract between the filmmaker and the viewer. When we walk into a cinema hall, we subconsciously agree to submit. The lights dim, the world recedes, sometimes we drown in surround sound and the film becomes the only thing that exists. Dhurandhar - with its confrontational energy, its moral binaries, its simmering tension - needs that submission. However, when the same thing finds itself on a mobile screen or a living room TV, that intensity leaks out. The pauses get longer, the silences feel awkward, and the ultimate buildup is less rewarding. OTT flattens the impact and the roar becomes just noise and the stare becomes another performance.

Then There Is Performance

A spectacle like Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar lives and dies by the performances that make it. From the micro-expressions to the unspoken threat accentuated through pauses and silences – Dhurandhar is a sum-total of a lot of moments. In a theatre, a single close-up can feel almost invasive. On OTT, however, everything feels scaled down with the viewer having direct control over pacing. The ability to rewind, skip, fast-forward seem detrimental for a tension-driven cinema. Dhurandhar doesn’t deserve casual consumption.

A Cultural Moment On OTT

Let’s face it, we have seen how massively even a content tailored for OTT faced significant backlash for not meeting up to the lofty expectations it had set. The Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things Season 5 got hit hard by audience negativity on release, simply because it could not match up to the hype it had created. So when something as theatrical as Dhurandhar which already became an event trickles down to OTT, it faces the very real danger of audience fatigue. Theatrical releases create events alongside conversations that spill out of cinema halls, onto social media, into offices and tea stalls. However, a trending hashtag today is forgotten by next week’s algorithmic recommendation. And Dhurandhar has the bones of a film that could polarise audiences, provoke arguments, and dominate discourse. A release on OTT robs it of that life it had garnered in public consciousness. It becomes content instead of cinema.

Algorithms Are A Problem

Most importantly, OTT platforms prioritise retention over artistic intent. A dense, layered, confrontational film like Dhurandhar risks being mislabelled. In theatres, a film finds its audience organically. On OTT, the audience is decided for it.

OTT Trained Us To Undervalue Cinema

A film on streaming platform is disposable. If it doesn’t grip you in ten minutes, you move on. If it feels heavy, you postpone it till you feel better. Someone I know took a whole 12 hours to watch the film, pausing occasionally since the film started feeling ‘too much’. If it challenges you, you abandon it without guilt. That behaviour might work for comfort viewing - but Dhurandhar was never comfort cinema.

One can counter-argue that economics is a factor. For filmmakers, OTT offers safety, guaranteed money, and insulation from box office unpredictability. But safety and meaningful cinema were never bedfellows. Some films need risk to justify their existence. Releasing Dhurandhar in OTT questions the audience’s intelligence and patience.When filmmakers give the audience, like yours truly, a reason to show up – we do. Theatres did not fail cinema - mediocre cinema failed theatres. And let us be honest, Dhurandhar does not feel mediocre – the Ranveer Singh film felt deliberate, weighty and uncompromising. Sending it to OTT seemed like a lack of faith in cinema itself and the intent of the audience who consume it.

The Matter Of Legacy

Years from now, Dhurandhar should have been remembered as a bold theatrical experience which was birthed on the big screen, lived its life in the proscenium and faded with the final credit-roll. It should have become memory. An OTT release just robbed its of its release. Let us be honest, cinema history is written in theatres. And while OTT has its place for intimate dramas, Dhurandhar is not whispering; it is shouting and it needs space to echo.

Finally, Family Viewing?

Finally, the very real concern we conveniently keep sidestepping is when we talk about the OTT space as ‘democratic’. Dhurandar is not family viewing. The Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khana and Sanjay Dutt film was not designed to be watched in living rooms where children wander in and out and where parent controls are more theoretical than enforced. A film which is known for its thematic violence, darkness and emotional aggression, require context and maturity. In theatres, that line is clearly drawn – that is why certification matters and buying tickets become a choice. At home, unfortunately, those barriers see a total collapse. A film like Dhurandhar risks being half-watched, misunderstood, or prematurely consumed by audiences it was never meant for, which in turn dilutes its intent, impact and responsibility. Some stories demand adulthood - and the theatre, imperfect as it is, still enforces that boundary.Putting Dhurandhar on OTT is a dilution of intent, impact and belief. It feels almost like a disservice.Aditya Dhar, are you listening?