Filmmaker Aditya Kriplani’s Not Today (2021), which tackles the subject of suicide and mental health, has travelled to different film festivals and won awards, but the journey of its release is turning out to be an arduous one. He reveals that with OTT getting dependent on stars, independent filmmakers have to pay the price of this star-led culture.

“It (securing a release for the film) is challenging, because for the last few years (due to the pandemic), OTT platforms have all become very star driven. Right now, the streaming world is overcrowded with star-backed projects. And we don’t have enough stars in our films. So, it is very challenging, and I can only hope for things to get better in the next six to nine months,” Kriplani tells us.

The film, which stars Harsh Chhaya and Rucha Inamdar, has been to several festivals across the world, including UK Asian Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart and Ottawa Indian Film Festival. And recently, the film bagged the Best Film Award at the Asian Competition and Fipresci International Critics Award at the Bengaluru International Film Festival.

Opening up about the importance of travelling to different festivals with the film, the director says, “Going to different film fests has taught me that the budget of a film doesn’t matter. Our film is one seventh of the budget of all the other films that we have competed with, yet we ended up getting recognised in such a beautiful manner. It really teaches you that it is about the performances.”