Ektaa R Kapoor made a trip to the Vaishno Devi shrine this week, and the timing isn't incidental. The Vvaan, the folklore-fantasy she's producing with TVF's Arunabh Kumar and director Deepak Mishra, opens in theatres on September 25, and the film's entire universe hangs off a goddess figure it calls Van Devi.

So a producer seeking blessings before a big release isn't new. Half of Bollywood does it before a Friday that matters. But here the spiritual gesture and the film's own subject matter line up almost too neatly, and that's clearly the point. The Vvaan is being sold as a story steeped in Indian folklore and devotional tradition, and Ektaa standing at one of the country's most visited shrines two weeks out from release reads like part of that pitch.

It's not the only devotional beat the marketing has leaned on. The film's second song, Chhathi Maiya, dropped recently and is built entirely around Chhath Puja, leaning into the emotional weight of that festival rather than treating it as set dressing. Between the song and now the temple visit, the makers seem intent on framing The Vvaan as something rooted in belief systems audiences already carry, not just another fantasy adventure borrowing mythological wallpaper.

The film itself is an odd, interesting mix on paper. It's got Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah in the lead, Arunabh Kumar writing off TVF's playbook, and Deepak Mishra directing with Manu Anand behind the camera as DOP and visual director. Presented by Balaji Motion Pictures alongside TVF and 11.11 Production, and produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa Kapoor, Arunabh Kumar and Niraj Kothari, it's positioned as a commercial family entertainer with folklore and fantasy at its spine, adventure and mystery layered on, and some humour to keep it from tipping into pure myth-telling.

There's also a comic book in the mix. The Legend of Vvaan is meant to widen the story world beyond the film itself, which suggests Balaji and TVF are thinking of this less as a one-off release and more as something they'd like to build out further if it lands.

Whether any of that survives contact with a September 25 box office is the actual question. Folklore-driven originals are a hard sell in a market that's grown used to sequels and known IP, and The Vvaan is neither. The prayers, the songs, the comic book tie-in, all of it points to a studio trying to generate a sense of scale and belief around a film that doesn't have a built-in audience waiting for it.

Two weeks out, that's still an open bet.