Actor Aditi Rao Hydari had a busy 2021, and it appears like she will have a busy 2022 as well. Her next project, the Tamil film Hey Sinamika, which has been ready for a year now, is all set for a theatrical outing. The actor, however, adds that because of the pandemic, one must always be prepared for unexpected changes.

“Before any release, I get butterflies, because you don’t know what is going to happen or how it is going to go. Also, people’s relationship with theatres seems to be different now. We don’t know how they are going to respond if [and when] they go to theatres,” says the 35-year-old.

Hydari’s last few releases have been direct to OTT — The Girl On The Train, Sardar Ka Grandson and the segment Geeli Pucchi in Ajeeb Daastaans (all 2021). Ask her if she prefers a theatrical release instead, and she says, “Today, I’d not say I prefer one over the other. But as somebody who has been enchanted by them (cinemas), they are an escape from the world. You are shut out and kind of unreachable.” 

Point out to her that the popularity of web platforms has also changed the game now, and the actor agrees: “In the last two years, a lot of my films have gone to OTT. I was disappointed [at first], but then I saw how close you get to people, so intimate in their home space.”