Khan has altered his plans for how his sports comedy-drama Sitaare Zameen Par will be shown digitally. After saying the film would not be on subscription streaming and would instead be shown on YouTube with people paying to watch, the actor and producer has now said it will appear on streaming soon. Sony LIV is the service and has said that this is a very important event, and a release date will be given shortly.
Sitaare Zameen Par’s streaming on OTT is a big change for Aamir Khan, who didn’t want this film to be on subscription streaming. The film opened in cinemas in June, and will now be on Sony LIV some months after being in cinemas, and after being available on YouTube with a fee. Sony LIV says Sitaare Zameen Par will be the first Hindi film from cinemas to be on the service. Though the exact date is not known, the streaming service has said the launch is close. This will give the film new life after it left cinemas and will allow it to be seen by people who subscribe to the service.
Before it was released, Aamir Khan said Sitaare Zameen Par would not be on OTT, but would instead be the first film to use a YouTube pay-per-view system. The film was on YouTube for a short time, costing about Rs 100, weeks after it opened in cinemas in June 2025. Khan believed that shorter periods on OTT could harm the success of films of average size in cinemas. By choosing to deal directly with viewers on YouTube, he wanted to have the most control over price, when it was shown, and who could see it.
This idea caused a lot of discussion about how long films should be available on different platforms in India.
Behind the scenes, the rights to the film and how much it cost were unusually difficult. Sony was a producer with Sitaare Zameen Par, and had a small share. To be able to use the YouTube system, Aamir Khan is said to have bought back the rights, giving Sony its money back. In all, Khan spent between Rs 122 crore and Rs 133 crore after the buyback. He also turned down good offers for the rights to be on OTT – about Rs 125 crore – in favour of the direct-to-viewer model. The split of money from YouTube was about 55-45, though the exact amounts have not been made public. The move to Sony LIV shows a plan in stages: cinemas, then YouTube pay-per-view, and now subscription streaming. It also shows that the film will still make money in different ways, even though how much the YouTube part made is not known.
Directed by RS Prasanna, Sitaare Zameen Par is said to be a follow-up to the 2007 hit Taare Zameen Par.
The story is about a basketball coach who, after driving while drunk, is told to teach the sport to a group of people with neurodiversity. The idea mixes comedy, emotion, and the spirit of people who are seen as unlikely to succeed. Aamir Khan is in the cast with Genelia Deshmukh. The group also includes Ashish Pendse, Aroush Datta, Aayush Bhansali, Rishi Shahani, Gopikrishnan K Varma, Rishabh Jain, Vedant Sharma, Simran Mangeshkar, Samvit Desai, and Naman Misra. The film got good reviews and people said good things about it. In cinemas, Sitaare Zameen Par made more than Rs 265 crore all over the world, with Rs 167 crore made in India. The results showed that people want character-based sports comedies and dramas, and set up a good life for the film after it left cinemas.
For Sony LIV, having Sitaare Zameen Par as its first Hindi film from cinemas on the service shows a step up in the positioning of feature films. For Aamir Khan, the OTT release allows more people to see it than in cinemas and on YouTube, reaching those who waited for a streaming option. The decision shows how flexible the ways films are shown can make a film’s life longer. It also shows that streaming services are happy to show films later when the film, the people in it, and the brand are all right for each other. The rights to be shown on television are said to still be being decided, which shows that the film will make money in other ways too.
A formal date for streaming has not been given yet, but the service says it is coming soon. We can expect more talk about what the film is about, the acting, and where it stands with Taare Zameen Par in Aamir Khan’s films. Online talk will likely follow the change of plans from only YouTube to a full OTT release. For viewers, the main thing is that Sitaare Zameen Par is finally on a main streaming service, making the sports comedy-drama easy to watch at home.
