Chetak Screen Awards 2026: Cinema is no longer just about what appears and unravels on the big screen. In fact, the smaller screens have become just as important and cosy a home to movies as theatres, thus fostering more opportunities for aspirants. Hence, it is only right for us to specifically recognise excellence in cinematic achievements in the OTT domain. And the Chetak Screen Award for Best OTT Film has been bagged by Stolen starring Abhishek Banerjee.ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEOThe movie emerged victorious, defeating Arati Kadav’s Mrs, Honey Trehan’s Raat Akeli Hai – The Bansal Murders, Anusha Rizvi’s The Great Shamsuddin Family, and Boman Irani’s The Mehta Boys.Saurabh Shukla and Guneet Monga presented the trophy to the team of Stolen at the star-studded ceremony held in Mumbai on Sunday, April 5. Bollywood star Alia Bhatt, comedians Zakir Khan and Sunil Grover, and eminent journalist Saurabh Dwivedi (Editor – Hindi, The Indian Express) served as hosts in the ceremony.About Chetak Screen Awards 2026India’s most prestigious and credible film awards is finally back after a flood of requests from fans worldwide seeking their reinstatement. But the ceremony isn’t merely back; it has returned bigger, better, and grander. What makes the Chetak Screen Awards unique and unrivalled is their transparent selection process, anchored in the belief that art must be recognised purely on merit, integrity, and peer respect, rather than external factors.And that’s why the Screen Academy — an independent, not-for-profit body comprising 53 acclaimed filmmakers, artistes and cultural voices — was established. The Academy selected the nominees and, subsequently, the winners through a careful, rigorous process.Screen Awards’ selection processAfter an initial shortlisting from a large pool of movies released in 2025 — both in theatres and OTT — the Screen Academy evaluated them through structured voting. For this, Dr Priya Jaikumar, Chair of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Los Angeles, and scholar-in-residence at Screen Academy, developed detailed grading guidelines. The Screen Academy members followed these while analysing the movies.While the films were evaluated based on creativity and overall experience, technical excellence, viewer connectivity, and innovation, for the performance-based categories, a fifth shared criterion — authenticity — was also added. Thus, the winners in each category were finalised after a meticulous procedure.Story continues below this adWho are Screen Academy members?The eminent Screen Academy members include Shoojit Sircar, Deepa Mehta, Sriram Raghavan, Ram Madhvani, Guneet Monga Kapoor, John Abraham, Kabir Khan, Karan Johar, Mukesh Chhabra, Payal Kapadia, Prosenjit Chatterjee, RS Prasanna, Rajiv Menon, Rajkumar Hirani, Resul Pookutty, Rima Das, and Vidya Balan, among others.Watch Chetak Screen Awards 2026 LIVE on YouTube, Sony Entertainment Television, and Sony LIV