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At the 61st National Film Awards in 2014, Shahid (2012) won two major awards. Rajkummar Rao was named Best Actor, while Hansal Mehta took home the trophy
for Best Director Award. The biopic is based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010. After its release, it was on digital platforms for a brief time before disappearing. Now, after 13 long years, audiences can once again watch the gritty Hindi drama on Amazon Prime Video, which remains relevant even now. Director Hansal Mehta and screenwriter-editor Apurva Asrani both took to social media to share the news and ask viewers to tune in.
Shahid is back on OTT after 13 years
On Instagram, filmmaker Hansal Mehta shared a sincere note about the film returning to digital on Amazon Prime Video. He wrote, "I wish the film had grown less relevant since 2013. It hasn’t. We live amid hate, polarisation and the steady erosion of our multicultural roots."
He added, "But relevance aside, this is the purest, most honest work from everyone who made it happen. I speak for all of them, even the ones who don’t agree with me. Please watch it."
Editor Apurva Asrani urges fans to watch important film
Meanwhile, Apurva Asrani, who made his debut as a co-writer for the film with Hansal Mehta and Sameer Singh, informed his followers that the film was on digital platforms for a short while before being taken off. He reminded viewers on Instagram, "A lot of the film was also improvised by brilliant actors like Rajkummar Rao, Vipin Sharma, Prabhleen Sandhu, Shalini Vatsa & Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, which made the edit even more demanding, but ultimately extremely gratifying."
"It really warms my heart to see this film finally available for the world to watch, especially in times like these. Thank you, Amazon Prime Video, for giving Shahid a streaming home," his post concluded.
More about Shahid film
The Hindi feature had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012 and was screened at several other film festivals in Mumbai, Dubai, Chicago and New York. It was released in theatres in India on October 18, 2013.
Shahid Azmi, the late lawyer played by Rajkummar, was shot dead in his office in Mumbai when he was only 32. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta began researching his life for a biopic nearly three months after his murder.
