My Hero out on OTT: Real-life inspired take on caste oppression streaming now

My Hero, the English movie with smatterings of Kannada, by Avinash Vijaykumar, which explores caste-based oppression that is still prevalent in many parts of the country, including Karnataka, is now on OTT. The film, which hit theatres in August last year, after a fairly good festival run, has made its way to Amazon Prime Video, and is available to stream from May 30, 2025, albeit on the store only, where it is available on TVOD (transactional-video-on-demand) or rental only for Rs 99. Once bought, the film is available to a user for 30 days, with 48 hours to finish it once started. The film’s a little over 2 hours in run-time, and has been tagged, for some strange reason, under erotic on the platform.

Sylvester Stallone inspires the story of My Hero

The film is headlined by Djilali Rez Kallah, who is joined by child actor Vedik Kaushik of Drama Juniors fame, as well as Dattanna, Prakash Belawadi, Tanuja Krishnappa, Niranjan Deshpande and Ankita Amar. Hollywood actor Eric Roberts has a cameo in the film. Avinash reportedly took inspiration from two real-life incidents to stitch together as the script for My Hero. Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone’s half brother, and some other extended family members had visited Haridwar in 2015 to perform ‘thithi shradh’ for the actor’s deceased son, Sage.

This became the setting for Djilali Rez Kallah’s character Gary, who comes to the Maheshwar Ghats in Madhya Pradesh to conduct rituals for his late son. In the days before the rituals, he is shown around town by a young boy posing as a guide, Vishwa (Vedik Kaushik) and the two develop a bond. It then comes to Gary’s attention that the youngster has left his home in north Karnataka behind, after a traumatising incident. Gary, a former US army veteran, then takes it upon himself to take the young boy back home.

*All about caste oppression: Stream titles like Fandry, Sairat, Jhund *

This bit, according to reports, was inspired by a more recent incident of a dalit boy and his family being penalized by the village council for accidentally touching the idol of a deity. The film was lauded for its sensitive portrayal of the subject and core social message.