Even as Huma Qureshi’s Single Salma was the new Hindi release of the week, most single screens and multiplexes played Baahubali: The Epic, which was a re-release. The Qureshi, Shreyas Talpade, and Sunny Singh-starrer opened in 200 cinemas across the country. Sharing fan messages on Instagram, Qureshi — who is also one of the producers of Single Salma — revealed that her timeline is flooded with requests for more shows of the Nachiket Samant-directed film (Fighting for screens, Nov 1). Many people from Jamshedpur and Delhi wrote to her on social media that the movie wasn’t available in their local cinemas.

This isn’t the fate that Qureshi had envisioned for her production. “It’s tough out there for films like Single Salma. It does not have massive marketing budgets or star-driven optics. Theatres are fighting for space between superhero movies, franchise films, and re-releases. So smaller, heart-led stories get squeezed out — not necessarily because the audience doesn’t want to watch them, but because they never get the chance to. The system still prefers to play safe,” she says.

Single Salma tells the story of the protagonist, who, after years of taking care of her family, decides to tie the knot. The actor understands that such an intimate story doesn’t offer the extravaganza that tentpole films promise, but all she is fighting for is a fair chance. “What’s missing is balance. Every big banner release should co-exist with a few story-driven ones,” she urges.

Often such movies go on to find popularity when they drop on OTT platforms. But the promise of an eventual digital release has changed the mindset of producers.

Qureshi explains, “Smaller films often get caught in a crossfire between studios and platforms. The OTT [heads] say, ‘We’ll support it after a theatrical release,’ and the studio then does a token release just to honour that agreement. So it’s not a proper run; it’s just ticking a box. A film like this deserves an honest chance in theatres. We need more courage. Not every film has to be a Rs 200-crore spectacle to deserve attention. Theatres and studios have to stop treating smaller films like trial runs. Give them good slots, let the audience discover them. Also, we need to stop calling them small films. A good story is a good story, the screen size doesn’t define its impact.”