The Indian Films That Skipped Cinemas and Premiered on OTT, from Gulabo Sitabo to Mrs

Shoojit Sircar's comedy about a miserly landlord, played by Amitabh Bachchan, and his tenant, played by Ayushmann Khurrana, in a crumbling Lucknow mansion. It was finished and dated for cinemas when the lockdown closed them, and it became the first big Hindi star film to go straight to streaming. It went on to win six Filmfare awards, including Best Actor (Critics) for Bachchan and Best Supporting Actress for Farrukh Jaffar.

Naranipuzha Shanavas's romance, with Aditi Rao Hydari as a mute woman and Dev Mohan as a Sufi mystic, is widely cited as the first Malayalam film to premiere directly on streaming. Jayasurya plays the man she marries.

Sushant Singh Rajput's last film, released six weeks after his death. Casting director Mukesh Chhabra's debut as a director is an adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars, with Sanjana Sanghi. Disney+ Hotstar made it free to watch without a subscription in his honour, and reported 95 million views in its first 24 hours.

Sudha Kongara's film, inspired by G.R. Gopinath and the founding of Air Deccan, with Suriya as a former air-force officer trying to start a cheap airline. At the 68th National Film Awards it won Best Feature Film, Best Actor for Suriya, Best Actress for Aparna Balamurali, Best Screenplay and Best Background Score, the strongest proof that a direct-to-streaming release did not mean a lesser film. It was remade in Hindi as Sarfira (2024).

Jeo Baby's film premiered on Neestream, a small Malayalam streaming service. Nimisha Sajayan plays a newly married woman ground down by the unending kitchen work her husband's family expects. Word of mouth made it a national conversation, Prime Video picked it up about three months later, and it won Best Film at the Kerala State Film Awards. It was remade in Tamil and in Hindi as Mrs, at the end of this list.

Jeethu Joseph's sequel to Drishyam was meant for cinemas, but Kerala's film chamber had decided not to reopen theatres until it got relief from the government, so it went to Prime Video. Mohanlal returns as Georgekutty, six years after the first film. It was remade in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, and the Hindi remake was a theatrical hit in 2022.

Dileesh Pothan and writer Syam Pushkaran moved Macbeth to a rubber plantation in Kerala during the pandemic. Fahadh Faasil plays the youngest son of a domineering patriarch who sees his chance when the old man has a stroke. It won Kerala State Film Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Laxman Utekar's comedy-drama, adapted from the Marathi film Mala Aai Vhhaychy!, stars Kriti Sanon as a dancer who agrees to be a surrogate for an American couple. It was dated for 30 July, leaked, and was released four days early to limit piracy. Kriti Sanon and Pankaj Tripathi both won National Film Awards for it.

Vishnuvardhan's biopic of Captain Vikram Batra, killed in the Kargil War and awarded the Param Vir Chakra, released for Independence Day week. Sidharth Malhotra plays Batra, and his twin brother Vishal, and Kiara Advani plays Dimple Cheema, the woman he planned to marry. Within three weeks Amazon announced it had become the most-watched Indian film on Prime Video in India. It won seven Filmfare awards, including Best Film.

Shoojit Sircar's film about Udham Singh, who shot Michael O'Dwyer in London in 1940 to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Vicky Kaushal plays Udham, and the massacre is held back until late in the film and then shown at length. It won five National Film Awards, including Best Feature Film in Hindi, and was on the shortlist for India's Oscar entry that year.

T.J. Gnanavel's courtroom drama is based on a 1993 case in Cuddalore, where Rajakannu, a man from the Irula tribe, disappeared from police custody. Suriya plays the lawyer K. Chandru, later a Madras High Court judge, and Lijomol Jose plays Rajakannu's wife, Sengeni. It was IMDb's most popular Indian film of 2021 and the most-searched film of the year on Google in India.

Jasmeet K. Reen's dark comedy is the first film Alia Bhatt produced. She plays a woman in a Mumbai chawl who, with her mother, played by Shefali Shah, turns on the husband who beats her, played by Vijay Varma. Netflix reported more than 10 million hours viewed in its opening weekend, its biggest global opening at the time for a non-English Indian film.

Yashowardhan Mishra's satire sends a small-town police inspector, played by Sanya Malhotra, to find two jackfruits stolen from a local MLA's garden, while a missing girl's case goes ignored. It is a comedy about caste and about whose problems the police take seriously, and it won Best Hindi Feature Film at the 71st National Film Awards.

Sujoy Ghosh's adaptation of Keigo Higashino's novel The Devotion of Suspect X, set in Kalimpong. Kareena Kapoor Khan, in her streaming debut, plays a single mother covering up a killing; Jaideep Ahlawat plays the reclusive maths teacher next door who helps her, and Vijay Varma the policeman investigating. At the time, Netflix reported it as its most-watched Indian film by global viewing hours.

Arati Kadav's Hindi adaptation of The Great Indian Kitchen, with Sanya Malhotra as a trained dancer married into a household that expects her to cook and serve. It screened at festivals from 2023, including Tallinn Black Nights, before premiering directly on ZEE5. It reopened the argument the Malayalam original had started four years earlier.