India, May 3 -- Filmmaker Aditya Aman, who is debuting with his feature film Rajni Ki Baraat -shot in his hometown of Darbhanga, Bihar-says that stories set and shot in the Hindi heartland are connecting well with audiences and are currently in trend.

​"The storytelling mode has changed. Either you are in the Dhurandhar (2025), Animal (2024), or (director) SS Rajamouli 'zone', or you are in a very realistic story setting. Now, very few movies take the middle path. Not everyone can make big-budget films, so realistic films in real locations are being made. That's the reason films are being set and shot in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand. People connect with the Hindi belt and the Ganga basin," says A...