The absence of box-office numbers makes OTT the playground for creative storytelling. Ram Madhvani, whose Aarya 3 dropped online recently, however, says the first weekend of release is as crucial on OTT as it is on the big screen.

“Numbers are at play in OTT as well. These numbers have made Aarya 2 and 3 possible. Return of investment is important in any art form. By Monday, I’d know if people have watched Aarya or not. In two weeks, I will know if I have the next season. A weekend is an important benchmark,” explains the creator-director. Madhvani, who also co-produces the Sushmita Sen-starrer, says viewership data and the freedom to push boundaries go hand-in-hand.

Aarya was originally supposed to be a film. He is glad that it instead became a Disney+ Hotstar series, and a popular one at that. “It was about a daughter who puts her father in jail. I had questions like, is that a good thing? It took me seven years to understand what to do with the story. But when I understood that it’s about a woman being a daughter, mother, working woman, homemaker, and the moral crises that emerge, I knew how to make it.”