Actress Aditi Rao Hydari has weighed in on the growing debate around excessive film marketing, asserting that no amount of promotional machinery can rescue a poorly made film. Speaking during the promotions of her upcoming streaming release 'Parivarik ManuRanjan' in Mumbai, Hydari drew a vivid analogy between filmmaking and cooking to make her point.

The Food Analogy That Captured Her Argument

Hydari, appearing alongside co-actor Pankaj Tripathi at a property in Goregaon East, Mumbai, framed her thoughts with characteristic clarity. 'I have not learnt filmmaking so, pardon me but, I feel that like how we make food, if we are not putting the right ingredients, and not giving that recipe be it khichdi or biryani the desired time and attention then it won't turn out good,' she said. 'You will reject it after a few bites irrespective of its presentation.'

The analogy speaks to a broader industry conversation — as streaming platforms and theatrical distributors pour increasingly large sums into promotional campaigns, questions persist over whether marketing budgets are outpacing investment in the craft itself.

Artistry Must Come Before the Sell

Hydari was emphatic that the creative process must take precedence. 'The work we do, what we make is an art form. We are part of an artistic industry. So we should put artistry in our work while making a film,' she said. She invoked the legacy of filmmaking visionaries who, she noted, made films on conviction rather than commercial calculation. 'No matter whoever said that, ‘This won’t work, this will work’, they would go by their conviction. I wish that we would still make films like that. I really, really pray and wish for it because I love this field.'

Notably, her remarks come at a time when mid-budget films increasingly rely on aggressive promotional blitzes — celebrity appearances, brand tie-ups, and social media saturation — sometimes at a scale that rivals the production budget itself.

On Love, Story, and Long Shelf Life

The actress also spoke about the importance of emotional investment in storytelling. 'We love our film, we must love our story, we must love our actors, we must know why we have our actors there, how we are showing them,' she said. 'And with marketing, if we don’t put love in it, we can’t fix it.'

She added a note of optimism for quality content: 'First, we have to make it really well then we have to sell it. You taste it, you love it, you come back for more. A good story will eventually find its audience. Even if a good story doesn’t work at the time of release, it will have a long shelf life.'

About 'Parivarik ManuRanjan'

'Parivarik ManuRanjan', featuring Aditi Rao Hydari and Pankaj Tripathi, is set to premiere on SonyLIV on 13 November 2026. The film's release on a streaming platform underscores the shifting consumption patterns of Indian cinema audiences, where OTT debuts are now a mainstream — and strategically significant — route for new releases.