The warning signs are already flashing. Long before Prem Keetanu reaches theatres, the conversation around it has begun to sound familiar, below par teaser, grounded mood, muted musical recall, and a treatment that feels more at home on streaming than in a packed cinema hall. In an industry still nursing theatrical misfires, that is not a small concern.
Over the past year, Maa, Maalik and Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan arrived with recognisable faces, saleable themes and enough ambition to justify a big screen push. Yet none emerged as a meaningful box office success. What bound them together was a recurring creative disconnect, directors shaped by the OTT ecosystem stepping into theatrical storytelling without fully shifting their instinct for scale, rhythm and payoff.
Apoorv Singh Karki now finds himself under the same spotlight. IMDb lists Prem Keetanu as a 2026 title directed by Karki, whose most admired work so far includes the acclaimed series Aspirants and the Manoj Bajpayee-led Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, which built its reputation primarily through streaming before also seeing a limited theatrical run. That trajectory makes Prem Keetanu an especially interesting test case.
When Streaming Craft Meets Big Screen Expectations
There is no shortage of talent in this crop of directors. OTT storytelling has produced some of the sharpest writers and mood builders working today, creators comfortable with silence, emotional detail and slow burn character arcs. The problem begins when that same grammar is transplanted wholesale into a theatrical feature, where audiences still expect lift, immediacy, visual scale and moments that play to a crowd.
That is exactly where the recent examples become instructive. Pulkit, whose earlier work includes Bose: Dead or Alive, Bhakshak and Dedh Beegha Zameen, made his theatrical directorial debut with Maalik. Santosh Singh, known for digital drama titles including Broken But Beautiful, moved into cinemas with Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan. Vishal Furia, already established in dark genre storytelling through Chhorii, Chhorii 2 and Forensic, brought Maa to the big screen with far more experience than the others.
The results, however, were underwhelming. Maalik finishing at roughly ₹19 crore India net, Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan at about ₹1.71 crore India net, and Maa near ₹36.08 crore India net. Together, they reinforced one hard truth, theatrical cinema punishes tonal modesty when it is not backed by spectacle, momentum or breakout music.
Maalik: Strong Acting in a Stale World
Pulkit’s Maalik featured Rajkummar Rao in a full-blown massy gangster role. Rao gave the film his all and his performance was committed, intense and transformative. But the world around him felt generic. The 1980s Allahabad underworld setting lacked freshness or detail. Characters followed predictable arcs, and the emotional beats didn’t hit hard enough. For a film about ambition and power, the storytelling felt too safe. The action was serviceable, the dialogues underwhelming, and the narrative borrowed too heavily from better gangster dramas.
The opening at ₹4.02 crore was decent, but it lacked the energy or novelty to pull in repeat audiences. The film will find it tough to build beyond its initial curiosity.
Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan: A Half-Baked Debut
Santosh Singh’s Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, meant to be a modern romance, ended up being a showcase of everything that doesn’t work when a director brings OTT pacing and aesthetics into a theatrical format. Shanaya Kapoor’s debut film opened at a dismal ₹35 lakh, one of the lowest openings in recent memory. Despite having a capable lead in Vikrant Massey, the film never established its emotional core. The characters remained underdeveloped, and the romance felt forced. The screenplay lacked flow, with long stretches of nothingness broken by sudden bursts of symbolism that didn’t land.
The biggest flaw was structural. The film seemed like a long-form web series episode stretched to fill two hours, with no narrative urgency. Singh’s failure to adapt to the demands of cinematic storytelling was evident from the first frame to the last.
Maa: All Mythology, No Horror
Directed by Vishal Furia, Maa positioned itself as a genre-blending supernatural thriller. With Kajol in the lead and a promising horror-mythology concept, expectations were high. But the director quickly abandoned horror after the initial setup and leaned entirely into mythological exposition. The shift diluted the tension.
Instead of creating fear or mystery, the film turned into a sermon-heavy narrative about faith and destiny. Furia, known for his chilling work on OTT projects like Chhorii, forgot the primary requirement of horror atmosphere and dread. As a result, Maa lacked both the thrills horror fans expected and the coherence a mythological story demands.
Despite an encouraging opening of ₹4.5 crore, the film plateaued by week two and ended up with lifetime collections of around ₹37 crore. Audience fatigue set in quickly, and many walked away confused about what genre the film was trying to serve.
Why Prem Keetanu Has Become A Talking Point
That is what makes Karki’s next move worth watching. His first theatrical feature, Bhaiyya Ji, closed with a disaster ₹9.82 crore India net. Before that, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai proved his command over contained, performance driven storytelling. He also said, “Can’t repeat myself, want to try all genres.”
It is a compelling creative instinct, but Prem Keetanu now carries a very specific burden. If it retains the understated, OTT leaning treatment that has tripped up similar transitions, it may struggle to cut through theatrically. And in the current market, that line is brutally clear, audiences may admire restraint at home, but in cinemas they still pay for a rush.
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