For a film that travelled the world and premiered at international festivals, Kennedy has had an unusually difficult journey back home. Directed by Anurag Kashyap, the film has struggled at every step to find a proper release in India, first in theatres and then on streaming platforms.
Despite strong buzz and critical attention abroad, Kennedy never made it to Indian big screens. There was no loud official ban, but that almost made things worse. The film existed in a limbo. Distributors stayed away, risks were avoided, and the film slowly became another example of how uncomfortable Indian cinema is with anything that feels too dark or too honest.
The problems did not end there. Even on OTT, the film kept getting delayed. At one point, it was released briefly on Letterboxd for a very limited window, but Indian viewers were excluded once again. For a director who speaks openly about censorship and creative fear, this silence around the film felt telling.
Now, for the first time, Kennedy is finally set to release in India on Zee5 from 20 February. The relief, however, comes with anxiety. The real question is whether audiences will see the film as it was meant to be seen, or a softened version designed to be safe and controversy free.
Anurag Kashyap’s cinema works best when it is raw and uncomfortable. If Kennedy arrives trimmed and cautious, it would only confirm why it struggled for so long in the first place.