Hansal Mehta’s Shahid has made its OTT debut on Prime Video after more than 13 years.
Apurva Asrani questioned why the Rajkummar Rao-led film stayed off major streaming platforms for so long.
The film is based on lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010.
Hansal Mehta’s biographical drama Shahid has arrived on OTT 13 years after its theatrical release. Starring Rajkummar Rao, the film follows the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010. Writer-editor Apurva Asrani has questioned its delay.
Shahid OTT release
Shahid is currently streaming on Prime Video. Asrani has asked why a film of this subject and stature was unavailable on OTT for so long.
Asrani's question matters because Shahid has long been seen as one of Mehta’s most acclaimed films and has remained difficult for viewers to access online despite its festival run and awards success.
Apurva Asrani's questions delay
Asrani linked the film’s late streaming release to the kind of story it tells and to the wider public climate around dissent, civil liberties and the rights of the accused.
“Shahid tells the story of Shahid Azmi, a lawyer who defended people accused under terror laws and fought for due process in a climate where Muslims were often presumed guilty before being proven innocent. He was murdered for that courage,” Asrani wrote.
“I’ve often wondered why Shahid remained without a streaming platform for so long. It was released a year before 2014. Then came a political climate in which dissenters, activists, journalists and those defending the rights of the accused increasingly found themselves under suspicion,” he added.
Asrani also asked whether filmmakers and performers had since shifted the subjects they chose to explore. He ended with a direct set of questions: “So why now? Why does a film like Shahid finally find a streaming platform in 2026? Has the mood changed? Is there growing resistance to the politics of fear?”
Shahid was released in October 2013. It also starred Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Prabhleen Sandhu, Baljinder Kaur and others. Sameer Gautam Singh and Apurva Asrani wrote the screenplay.
The film first screened at TIFF in 2012. Rajkummar Rao won Best Actor and Hansal Mehta won Best Director at the 61st National Film Awards.
