For those of you bored comatose of Jantar Mantar, Gen Z protests, the Election Commission, what Modi said, where Rahul Gandhi holidays, Iran, Ukraine-Russia, Trump truths, trade tiffs and politics from right to left and backwards, ThePrint has a treat for you.
It’s called Culture.
We cover art exhibitions, book launches, theatre, musical performances and all the artistes who work these wonders.
‘Reel Take’ is our window into Indian cinema. Its old-movie revisits, pre-2000s, run under the tag Filmi Flashback. A recent one that our readers liked a lot was a revisit of 1985 multi-starrer Geraftaar. There are deeper dives into old cinema too. Read this recent article on what happened to the three actresses who featured in the three most iconic Hindi movie songs. The entertainment coverage extends to Hollywood, TV shows, and all that jazz.
There’s more: discussions, debates, lectures, talks, interviews, and anniversary profiles of artistes. Read provocative opinions on contemporary social trends: modern dating habits, queer stories from the world of LGBTQ+ or why ‘Nike’s runway run was beautiful. But the right to be out at night shouldn’t need a brand’.
ThePrint does culture differently. For instance, we don’t do book reviews, because much of book reviewing is a cosy cabal of back-patters and back-scratchers. Instead, we cover the conversations around book launches.
And good news for those who enjoy the sporting life: ThePrint is beginning to play catch-up. We aren’t quite there yet. Our sports coverage still lags, but we are on the path to come up to speed.
Taking culture seriously
As you’ve probably guessed by now, this month’s Readers’ Editor column looks at ThePrint’s coverage of culture, society and sports.
As Readers’ Editor, I applaud it. As a reader, I enjoy it. I am a culture-vulture in my spare time and a sports fan. I read newspapers backwards: I begin with sports pages and return to the front page.
ThePrint takes culture seriously — often with a light touch. This is not Page 3 high-heeled society or celebrity gossip about red carpet cleavages or clingy clothes: It’s not the lifestyles of the rich and (in)famous — although it can be that too, such as the one about Gurugram’s richest gated community, Camellias, and what makes it India’s most exclusive pin code.
Even so, that was also about economics and power, not just heated swimming pools.
I asked Rama Lakshmi, Editor, Opinion and Ground Reports, who also oversees the culture, arts and entertainment sections, about her approach to ThePrint’s coverage.
“I don’t view culture, books and the arts spaces in silos,” she replied. “It has always been loaded and coded with politics. And all politics is ultimately symbolic. Now, with the raging culture wars underway across the world, a society caught in profound, transformational change, digital era anxieties, nationalistic politics being increasingly invested in history and origin theories – a new kind of public sphere is being constructed.
“The traditional newspaper coverage and understanding of culture, arts and society is outdated. Journalism has to capture these new cultural conversations. That is why I introduced new offerings and columns for ThePrint’s readers over time,” Lakshmi explained.
What does this translate into on the website?
Into quick news copies, expansive features on events, people and places. Into commentary on arts, lifestyle and social trends. Into everyday entertainment features, book excerpts, video interviews with authors (sometimes). And into reports on events for the ‘Around Town’ section, which captures the goings-on in the city — an exhibition, a cultural performance, a book talk, a stand-up comedy show. The canvas is vast.
Then there are columns such as ‘Vigyapanti’ on advertising: ‘What happens when SRK, Ranbir and Alia brainstorm a Rungta TMT bars ad? Bollywood takes over’. Advertisements do a lot of cultural and social signalling, and it is important to reflect on and review them.
Also read: How ThePrint School of Journalism’s Batch 5 interns learned journalism the hard way
The Dating Story and Queer Stories
Culture is also where the unusual meets the undiscovered lives and longings of the younger generation. Two lively columns by young journalists at ThePrint — ‘The Dating Story’ by Ratan Priya and ‘Queer Stories’ by Prasanna Bachchhav — take us where many young people are and have been.
Reading them is instructive: I call it ‘Educating Shailaja’.
From Ratan Priya, I have learnt about dating apps like Hinge, stereotypes in North–South love affairs, why weddings are fertile dating sites and, of course, the (dis)continuing relevance of Valentine’s Day. I am learning a whole new vocabulary too: sapiosexuals, for example.
Ratan Priya was first noticed by Rama Lakshmi for an account of a recent break-up she wrote on Substack.
“Rama came up to me one day and said, ‘There’s a voice here.’ And so I began writing about my dating life and those around me,” said Ratan Priya. “I am snoopy and quite shameless in asking questions of complete strangers,” she said on getting ideas for the weekly column, published every Sunday. “Young people are forthcoming.”
Here are some of her columns:
If you can’t eat rice with your hands in front of him, he’s not the one
Single at an Indian wedding? Prepare to be matched, judged and monitored
Mama’s boys from MP to dominating Mallu women—North–South romances doomed by stereotypes
What if your partner doesn’t believe in Valentine’s Day and you do
Prasanna Bachchhav’s ‘Queer Stories’ began with Pride Week in 2025 and stayed on.
“I write it mostly because there’s a way I look at the world. There’s a joy in saying what I and others like me think and feel,” Bachchhav said.
It’s not an easy ask. Bachchhav writes honestly, without any distance between him and the reader. His visit to a queer hangout, Big Banana, is tactile in its details: One night at Big Banana—uncle vs queers, Kajra Re and azaadi
Here are some of his other columns:
Tattoos, piercings, hair colour: The absolute joy and terror of presenting queer
Drag is not ‘womanface’. It’s more than just men pretending to be women
Dear queer community, biphobia is not cool. Stop rolling your eyes at bisexuals
Is Indian govt warming up to queer community? I wouldn’t celebrate just yet
Indian queers will settle for flower over the bouquet. No marriage equality? Recognise live-in
The openness and willingness to be ‘naked’ in front of an audience make both columns compelling reads. However, Ratan Priya and Prasanna Bachchhav realise ThePrint is a PG-13 website, and so they “filter” their language.
Do they enjoy writing these columns? Their answer is identical: it’s the “best” part of their work.
Also read: What ThePrint readers wrote to us: Exam complaints, Panchayat, Bollywood, roads and much more
A city, one event at a time
‘Around Town’ says what it is: events in different cities. It’s the oldest regular culture feature on the website, active since May 2023, and believe you me, there’s a lot happening everywhere.
You can join us on a walk through the renowned Chanakya atelier for a fashion check-up in Mumbai
Or enjoy the gallery where the artistry of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró is on display.
Then come along to a drag queen contest with ‘drama queen’ Rakhi Sawant as one of the judges.
You could also attend a book launch on the Somnath temple, which Meenakshi Jain explains could have been in Pakistan, or listen in on a discussion about Indian media: Govt, marketplace and now algorithm. Indian editors talk of new challenges.
Want to stretch your legs? Take a walk down the lanes of Partition history: Durga Puja walk and the forgotten partition story of Delhi.
That’s hungry business. Maybe you could pop into musician Shankar Mahadevan’s new South Indian restaurant Malgudi for a bite in Rajouri Garden.
Looking for something quirky to read? How about Karan Johar’s coffee that went cold?
These articles are written primarily by feature writers. However, Stela Dey, Senior Assistant Editor with the Opinion and Ground Reports team, said that whenever correspondents go out of town on assignment, they’re asked to look out for possible ‘Around Town’ pieces.
“Like we recently did a feature on India’s only mine open for tourism in Jharkhand. I always tell the reporters, if you find something interesting, go for it. When I went to the North East for a bunch of different stories, I stumbled upon a bootstrapped art fair in Shillong and immediately wrote about it.”
Also read: What five years as Readers’ Editor at ThePrint taught me
Daily dal-roti, with fresh eyes
The daily dal-roti of ThePrint’s culture coverage is entertainment and lifestyle news. This is where ThePrint gets a little spicy with a diet of quick news stories.
Films, television and OTTs dominate this section. “We don’t look at just Bollywood or Hollywood. We look at what’s happening in the South. We have good readership in the South,” said Dey.
These are supplemented by columns such as ‘Reel Take’ on old films, and by star profiles and features. Short, snappy entertainment features also capture some of the “noise” on social media.
The aim is to keep readers up to date with the very latest news from across India and the globe. This could be anything hitting the headlines, from film launches to new OTT shows, from Koffee with Karan to Ramayana’s first audience reactions in Los Angeles.
And, of course, controversies.
However, the effort is to reflect the “big picture”. For example, take this opinion piece on why reality TV should stop treating sexism as entertainment.
These quick takes and many of the culture features are written by young reporters such as Triya Gulati. She has been joined by two fresh recruits, Tarini Unnikrishnan and Harsh Tiwari. Each day, they have to come up with four or five ideas on the beat. They also contribute to ‘Around Town’.
Unnikrishnan is in Mumbai, where it’s all happening. She said she’s into all things “culture”.
“But I never realised how little I know until now.” She considers it’s “an advantage” that she could go in with a pair of fresh eyes, an “outsider’s” perspective. One example is her piece on the fashion atelier, Chanakya. Another is her piece on an unusual installation.
“I am really a very curious person and enjoy that I am learning about things I didn’t know about,” she said.
Tiwari works from Delhi. He’s a film buff.
“I love films more than anything else in the world,” he told me. Cinema “not heard of” and independent films are his first love. “I am now trying to understand why mainstream is mainstream,” he added.
He said he’s now keeping a sharp eye on cinema in the South. He tracks everything about cinema, down to counting the number of screens for a new release.
That’s why you will find many movie stories by him, including the ‘Reel Take’ column, such as the one on Nana Patekar; profiles such as the recent ones on Gulzar and Kader Khan; and ground reports.
“I want to bring a fresh perspective to film writing,” he said.
For example, there’s his piece on the missing Indian village in Bollywood. And another on how Drishyam has been adapted in many different languages. There is also a piece on two actors selling out English theatre in Lucknow’s museums and cafes, and a feature on the bond between Tiger Shroff and his fan clubs.
Be a good sport
ThePrint’s increase in sports reporting is a no-brainer.
Everybody may not be a sports fan, but every other person is interested in games people play. The estimated global audience for the FIFA World Cup was 6 billion cumulative viewers and 1.8 billion for the Argentina–Spain final.
For last summer’s football extravaganza in the US, ThePrint had regular reports and profiles of players, as well as a live blog — for the first time — of matches from the quarter-final stage.
This month’s Asian Games, where India had many medal aspirants in different events, ThePrint offered a bird’s-eye view of our performance — good, bad and indifferent. Here are some of those stories.
We have been batting for cricket too. The coverage of India’s beloved obsession has been continuous but in short spells. And it’s had variety: From celebrity games like Prince William at the crease to Jammu and Kashmir’s hosting the Irani Cup, there’s been an effort to tap into readers’ interest in the 22-yard pitch.
We know we are not doing enough on sports. One reason is that we have been developing and concentrating on other core areas of interest: Defence and strategic affairs, politics and governance.
Another is that with extensive daily coverage in newspapers and websites by dedicated sports journalists, ThePrint must have a distinctive approach to sports content. There’s no point in simply trying to copycat what others already do and can do better.
That brings us to the third reason: if ThePrint wants to increase its coverage of sports and be original, it must have journalists who know their sports. Journalists like Saptak Datta, who works on the copy desk in the Opinion team and has been ThePrint’s go-to journalist for sports stories.
“I love to write on any sport,” he said, but admitted that football was his abiding passion. “I can write effortlessly about it,” he added. Perhaps because he played for Mohammedan Sporting Club, one of India’s premier football clubs, at the under-17 level and then for Aryans at the under-19 level.
He led the coverage on the 2026 FIFA World Cup and manned the live blog. “Only The Indian Express, The Hindu and ESPN did live blogs, so we gave it a go and it turned out well,” he said.
Like Datta, Gulati from the Ground Reports and Features team and Mohammad Hammad from the Video section write on sports out of love and interest.
We have crossed the starting line and are on our way. Hopefully, you’ll come to ThePrint for its sports coverage, too.
Shailaja Bajpai is ThePrint Readers’ Editor. Please write in with your views and complaints to readers.editor@theprint.in
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)