diff --git a/sendfile/backends/nginx.py b/sendfile/backends/nginx.py
index 29dc348..c986789 100644
--- a/sendfile/backends/nginx.py
+++ b/sendfile/backends/nginx.py
@@ -8,6 +8,6 @@
 def sendfile(request, filename, **kwargs):
     response = HttpResponse()
     url = _convert_file_to_url(filename)
-    response['X-Accel-Redirect'] = url.encode('utf-8')
+    response['X-Accel-Redirect'] = url
 
     return response