diff --git a/youtube_dl/postprocessor/execafterdownload.py b/youtube_dl/postprocessor/execafterdownload.py
index 90630c2d73..64dabe790b 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/postprocessor/execafterdownload.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/postprocessor/execafterdownload.py
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@ import subprocess
 
 from .common import PostProcessor
 from ..compat import compat_shlex_quote
-from ..utils import PostProcessingError
+from ..utils import (
+    encodeArgument,
+    PostProcessingError,
+)
 
 
 class ExecAfterDownloadPP(PostProcessor):
@@ -20,7 +23,7 @@ class ExecAfterDownloadPP(PostProcessor):
         cmd = cmd.replace('{}', compat_shlex_quote(information['filepath']))
 
         self._downloader.to_screen('[exec] Executing command: %s' % cmd)
-        retCode = subprocess.call(cmd, shell=True)
+        retCode = subprocess.call(encodeArgument(cmd), shell=True)
         if retCode != 0:
             raise PostProcessingError(
                 'Command returned error code %d' % retCode)