Almost a year after its successful theatrical run, Sitaare Zameen Par lands on OTT, with SonyLIV streaming the Aamir Khan film that celebrates being different through the feel-good story of a neuro-divergent sports team and their coach, played by the superstar-actor. The long gap between its theatrical and OTT release was, of course, a well thought-out strategy, with Aamir making the film available on YouTube on a pay-per-view model last August. With Sitaare Zameen Par now targeting a wider audience in the digital space, t2 caught up with its director R.S. Prasanna.

Sitaare Zameen Par was named the ‘Best Inspirational Film’ of 2025 at the recently concluded International Film Festival of Delhi. What does that mean for the film?

Awards are always beautiful. I remember the first award I got as a short filmmaker in Chennai... it gave me so much validation. As a mainstream filmmaker, any award, any love is always special. But this time, it is even more special because Sitaare Zameen Par is a once-in-a-lifetime movie for those who made it. We had special people making the film and special-needs communities supporting it.

We lived in a whole different world for four years while making the film and I really miss that journey. I am happy the movie got so much love. This is a film with neuro-divergent actors at the mainstream level with a superstar producer like Aamir Khan backing it and making it work at the box office and also winning awards. It is a beautiful feeling not only for the community, but for all of us who want to celebrate humanity, who want to celebrate love.... In my speech (at the International Film Festival of Delhi), I dedicated the award to the special-needs community. What was special for me is that I got to be the storyteller for a whole community, which I never calculated on, which I never anticipated. It just came to me and I feel blessed.

The film had a theatrical release, a release on YouTube and is now on streaming. As a maker, do the emotions hit different every time there is a release, even if it is for the same film?

When a film is put out, as a maker, I feel I should disappear into thin air, and wonder if there is some way one can push time or stop it! That is because you are so scared that maybe you got it all wrong, maybe nobody is going to love the film. For my first film, Kalyana Samayal Saadham (2013), the worry I had was whether anyone would even turn up in the theatres. It was a small film and we didn’t have superstar actors, but we had a wonderful cast. But then the audience came and that experience gave me the confidence to make all my movies after that.

With Sitaare Zameen Par, the responsibility was even more because we were representing a community. Until the first show opened and the audience walked in, I was scared. But two hours later, when the love started pouring in, it felt special. By now, so many people have watched the film and have loved it. I am excited that it is on SonyLIV and many more people can watch it now.

This is a rare film that has released on an OTT platform almost a year after its theatrical release. Do you think this strategy has the potential to set a precedent?

It is in keeping with what the movie says, which is ‘sabka apna apna normal’. What is fantastic about working with a genius like Aamir sir is that he thinks out of the box all the time and he constantly wants to work for the good of the film industry. It is hugely inspiring to be with that kind of positive energy. He took the film to theatres and then to YouTube and now to OTT.

We are living in a world where filmmaking is going to come in all shapes and sizes and movie distribution is already going where the audience wants it to go. It is a wonderful time we are living in in terms of accessibility. There are still a lot of people in this world who can’t access theatres because of physical challenges and various other reasons and that is where TV and OTT come in. This gives people the chance to access the film where and how they want to.

What, for you, counts as the most special feedback to Sitaare Zameen Par so far?

There are a lot of them. This film opened the floodgates of people crying, laughing, dancing.... We also received a lot of videos of neuro-divergent people dancing and laughing at scenes. With Sitaare Zameen Par, many of them had been to a theatre for the first time. I met some people who told me that somewhere they had been like Gulshan (Aamir’s character), but the film had brought about a change in them. I think all of us have a Gulshan in us, in terms of being discriminatory at times, and people coming up to say the film had changed them for the better simply warmed my heart.

Another interesting thing is that many told me they took their parents to the theatres after a long time, and also that this was the first Hindi film many young kids had watched in the theatres. The film also sparked chatter about why we are not catering to more children. That is something that I am going to be working on very soon.

Not much of Indian cinema caters to children, right?

Yes, it is a huge opportunity in waiting. Yesterday, I watched Project Hail Mary and my kids loved it. It is time we invested in more films that entertain and educate children, that teach them values. For Sitaare Zameen Par, we had a lot of schools booking special shows, which goes to show how much we need to cater to children as an audience base. A lot of schools also bought a YouTube subscription and had special shows. At a temporary theatre in Ladakh, we had a screening with students and also did a Zoom session with them. This film has sparked conversations about neuro-divergence and Down Syndrome in a completely different way.

Do you feel you are a different filmmaker post the Sitaare Zameen Par experience?

One always hopes to make cinema that changes you for the better. The technical as well as the storytelling aspects of Sitaare Zameen Par have evolved me as a filmmaker. The film was made at a time when Aamir sir had almost given up on acting, and to see him come back to doing what he loves, along with so many other unbelievable memories, will always be special.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am discussing something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. I am also writing a project. I am focusing on Srinivas Ramanujan (a biopic titled Dreams of Ramanujan, based on the legendary mathematician) and working with some partners in order to make it an international story. There are some really good conversations and good energies on that. I think Srinivas Ramanujan deserves to be taken global. I think it is an incredible time to look at Ramanujan and what he represents as kind of an OG immigrant. I am also interested in finding out what is the neurological science behind the brains of geniuses like him. There are wonderful opportunities of telling this story globally.