No box office pressure: Why star kids are debuting on OTT projects

Star kids who were once launched with theatrical debuts—often fuelling the nepotism debate—are opting for streaming platforms to make their first appearances.

- Lata Jha

Star kids who were once launched with theatrical debuts—often fuelling the nepotism debate—are opting for streaming platforms to make their first appearances. Suhana Khan, Junaid Khan, Khushi Kapoor, and Ibrahim Ali Khan debuted in original Netflix films, while Aryan Khan is set to make his directorial debut on Netflix, too.

Entertainment industry experts say while the nepotism debate cannot be avoided entirely, shifting to over-the-top (OTT) provides a way to control the narrative, allowing for a less harsh debut without the concern of a commercial flop affecting their careers. "Unlike theatrical films, which are judged by their opening day box office numbers, an OTT release offers a safety net where success and failure are evaluated internally by metrics like viewership and engagement, not publicly visible box office collections," said Ushmi Desai, visual communication designer at BC Web Wise, a digital marketing agency.