Ayushmann attributed the change to the audience while speaking at FICCI Frames 2026 in Mumbai on Tuesday. Because of the emergence of social media stars, actor Ayushmann Khurrana believes stardom is no longer an ‘exclusive club’ like it used to be,.
The actor also said a film’s script and authenticity are now more important to its theatrical success.
“We are dwelling in multiple universes, where there are multiple worlds of entertainment and there are multiple stars of each world, be it influencers, or YouTubers, etc. “So, stardom is relative and script is the star. It is not one size fits all… “I’m going back to my core, which is authenticity. If we give authentic subject to people that’s a good draw. I believe in my next film, Udta Teer it is like a reverse uno stuff but I’m excited about it as I’m going back to my core. It is my genre,” he added. The session also had filmmaker Sriram Raghavan and Denzil Dias, VP and Managing Director, India Theatrical at Warner Bros Discovery on stage with Ayushmann. Udta Teer revolves around a Pakistani spy named Bilal Ahmad (Ayushmann), who enters India and suffers from memory loss after an accident, mistakenly believing he is an Indian spy. The film also stars Sara Ali Khan, along with an ensemble cast including Rahul Bose, Ram Kapoor, Suhail Nayyar, Gulshan Grover, Raghubir Yadav, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Smita Tambe, and the late Mukul Dev, among others. It is Mukul Dev’s final posthumous performance. We need to be budget-friendly, connect more with people.
At the inaugural day of the 2026 FICCI Frames, Ayushmann participated in a session titled ‘Cinema at Crossroads – The Rules of the Big Screen’, where he said that the definition of stardom has changed with the emergence of influencers and YouTubers, who have created their own audience base.
There are certain stars who are big and you probably don’t know about them and there are certain people who know about them,” Ayushmann said. The actor also said that the increase in significance of scripts in mainstream Bollywood has helped diminish the exclusivity of stardom. Ayushmann also said he has always believed that the story should be bigger than the actor or the star, as he spoke about his upcoming film, Udta Teer, a spy comedy. Earlier reporting noted: Ayushmann Khurrana says more small-budget movies like Hanuman Ansh and Obsession should be made Actor Ayushmann Khurrana spoke at the session ‘Cinema at Crossroads – The Rules of the Big Screen’ on day one of FICCI Frames. The actor who is gearing up for the release of Udta Teer , said that a film’s script and authenticity are more important to its theatrical success in an entertainment landscape where audiences have access to multiple stars across different platforms. Earlier reporting noted: What Ayushmann said What Ayushmann said Earlier reporting noted: “Hanuman Ansh and Obsession belong to two different worlds and are small-budget films, I think we need to make movies like that. It sounds simple but it isn’t,” the actor said.
It used to be exclusive club earlier but not anymore,” he added.
