After a long and winding journey through the international festival circuit, Kennedy is finally set to reach Indian audiences — not in cinemas, but on streaming. Directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, the gritty neo-noir thriller will premiere on ZEE5 on February 20.
The OTT release marks a significant moment for a film that was completed years ago and earned strong critical attention abroad, yet struggled to find a theatrical path in India. Kennedy premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, where it drew attention for its uncompromising violence, stark black-and-white aesthetic, and Rahul Bhat’s ferocious central performance. Reviews from the festival described the film as a brutal, sleepless-night descent into the mind of a man trapped between survival and self-destruction.
Despite that festival momentum, Kennedy never received a wide theatrical release in India. While the film reportedly cleared certification hurdles, distributors remained cautious about backing a project so steeped in graphic violence and moral ambiguity. Trade coverage at the time pointed to concerns over its niche appeal and limited commercial upside in a theatrical market dominated by spectacle-driven releases. For a film as raw and confrontational as Kennedy, the risk was deemed too high.
The newly released trailer, unveiled ahead of the ZEE5 premiere, underlines why the film both impressed critics and unnerved potential distributors. Cut at a relentless pace, the trailer introduces Kennedy as an insomniac hitman navigating Mumbai’s underbelly, moving through a world of guns, bloodshed and fractured loyalties. Rahul Bhat’s physicality anchors the footage, while Sunny Leone appears in a role that adds emotional texture to the violence rather than softening it. The trailer makes little attempt to dilute the film’s intensity, positioning it clearly as adult, hard-edged viewing.
For Kashyap, Kennedy fits squarely within a body of work that has consistently challenged mainstream Hindi cinema conventions. Known for films that blur genre and realism, the filmmaker has often found his most daring projects embraced more readily by global festivals than by domestic distributors. In that sense, Kennedy’s eventual shift to OTT feels less like a compromise and more like a correction — a platform finally aligned with the film’s tone and target audience.
The move also highlights a broader trend in the Indian film ecosystem. Streaming platforms have increasingly become safe harbors for films that fall outside conventional theatrical formulas — especially those driven by violence, anti-heroes, or bleak worldviews. For Kennedy, OTT offers not just visibility, but the freedom to be experienced without edits, dilution or marketing gymnastics.
For Rahul Bhat, the digital release could prove transformative. His performance in Kennedy has been cited repeatedly in international reviews as one of the film’s defining strengths, with festival exposure bringing him renewed critical recognition. The ZEE5 premiere now gives that performance a chance to reach a much wider audience at home, long after the initial festival buzz.
Nearly three years after it first made waves abroad, Kennedy is finally poised to find its Indian audience — not under the glare of multiplex lights, but through the intimacy of personal screens. When it arrives on ZEE5 on February 20, the film’s journey from Cannes to streaming will stand as a reminder of how OTT has reshaped the destiny of bold, uncomfortable cinema in India.
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