Fans of Anurag Kashyap have been waiting a long time see Kennedy, which had a starry start in 2023 at the Cannes Film Festival. After its world premiere, the Hindi film faced all sorts of delays and issues
securing a theatrical release in India. It was shown at a few Indian film festivals, but mainstream audiences had no access to the neo-noir thriller. Now, after three long years, Kennedy is all set to make its digital premiere in India. It will premiere on Zee5 in February 2026. Starring Rahul Bhat as Kennedy, the feature film also stars Sunny Leone, Mohit Takalkar, Abhilash Thapliyal, Shrikant Yadav, and Megha Burman.
Kennedy to make its OTT debut on Zee5
The announcement of
Kennedy’s digital premiere was made by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on social media with a new teaser. On X, he stated that
Kennedy, which was their “labour of love, angst and all things” was finally coming to India after travelling the world at various film festival. He thanked his team, the producers, and Zee Studios, and shared that he was grateful to have made the film. Kashyap added, “J
ab jab Jo Jo hona hai tab tab so so hota hai.”
In December 2025,
Kennedy was the only Indian film selected for the launch of Letterboxd’s Video Store. It was the first time that the Hindi film was available to audiences outside of a film festival. The global TVOD release included 20+ countries, excluding India. The thriller had its Indian premiere at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2023 to sold-out screenings.
More about Kennedy
Kennedy star
Rahul Bhat and filmmaker Kashyap have earlier collaborated on
Ugly (2013) and
Dobaaraa (2022). The
Gangs of Wasseypur director wrote the neo-noir film during lockdown in 2020. Produced by Ranjan Singh, Anurag’s Good Bad Films and Zee Studios,
Kennedy was filmed in Mumbai during a gruelling 30-day schedule, mostly at night. Bhat plays a former cop named Kennedy who is presumed dead and now works for a corrupt system while seeking redemption.
Sunny Leone plays the femme fatale character named Charlie, while Mohit Takalkar plays the corrupt police commissioner of Mumbai. The cinematography has been done by Sylvester Fonseca while the music is composed by Boyblanck and Aamir Aziz.
Kennedy was shown out of competition at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in the Midnights Screening Section. After debuting at Cannes in 2023, where Kennedy received a seven-minute standing ovation, it was screened at over 30 film festivals.