While international young adult series have cultivated massive fanbases in India, recent domestic romantic projects targeted at the same demographic have largely struggled to resonate. Filmmaker Shakun Batra, who recently explored intricate twenty-something relationships in Lust Stories 3, offers a distinct perspective on why this disconnect occurs.
According to Batra, creators fail when they try to manufacture content based on what they assume viewers want to see instead of expressing their own genuine feelings. He notes that chasing current industry trends often leads to uninspired storytelling. Rather than attempting to guess audience preferences, Batra believes a director's responsibility is to put forth their most authentic self and hope the emotional core translates effectively.
Batra recalls attending numerous creative meetings where formulas were dictated by prevailing trends, an approach he finds impossible to follow. He suggests that trying to execute styles that do not align with one's natural voice results in poor storytelling, which is why he has experienced professional breaks throughout his career rather than compromising his creative vision.
Furthermore, the director points to long-standing cinematic tropes as a major factor behind the generational disconnect. He argues that the film industry has done a disservice over the past decade or more by reducing romance to a simplistic narrative where meeting a soulmate immediately solves all of life's challenges. Because real life rarely mirrors this idealized pattern, young people often experience a jarring realization when entering marriages or long-term partnerships that bear little resemblance to what they watched on screen.