Streaming entertainment has become popular viewing for the past five years now. With even mainstream producers and creators embracing streaming, the market is booming for content creators, producers and viewers. Today, there are several homegrown streaming platforms and international ones coming to Indian shores with their products. While international content creators are coming with excellent series, we have Indians coming up with mind-blowing conceptsn and the best web series.
Each of these series has become the best performances of the actors involved. Saif Ali Khan essentially reinvented himself with his outing in Sacred Games. Nawazuddin Siddiqui became a force to reckon with, while Radhika Apte added to her brand’s saleability. Huma Qureshi got a rare outing, and she excelled at it, opening up the possibility of meatier roles for her. The world of streaming has upped the careers of several actors, including Huma. Because of the back to back successes of the web series, there were some memes about Radhika Apte being a Netflix girl.
Others, like Farhan Akthar, brought their unique, urban brand of entertainment to the streaming platforms and made superstars out of people who were still trying to get a foothold in the world of entertainment, even though they were talented and just needed that big break.
Best Indian Web Series that Will Blow Your Mind
Sacred Games (Netflix) (IMDb Rating 8.6)
Sacred Games was a two-season Indian web series that truly brought streaming to India. Saif Ali Khan played a cop who unravels a plan that has been going on for decades. There was everything in it that would interest the audience. From corrupt politicians to nervy godmen and a criminal from hell who’s wanting to save what he loves the most. The series was a searing piece of entertainment, and the first season is one of the best seasons we have ever seen.
The second season was disappointing in terms of screenplay, but then, that was how the book turned out to be – it’s not like Varun Grover thought about what would be the end. Sacred Games made the world of web series big, and we had iconic characters like the gangster’s crony Bunty, the transvestite Kukku, and so many others.
Sacred Games had its share of controversy. Several armchair reviewers and some of the audience did not like the violence and the cuss words. Maybe, we won’t experience such content ever again, but it was a great experience and a memorable one.
Sacred Games is one of the top book to screen adaptations. And that’s not just in the world of web series but movies too It is an adaptation of a Vikram Chandra book, so it was surprising that so many people who saw the series didn’t know about the book or its story. All of it worked well for the series, with more and more people wanting to know what happens in the end and waiting for the second season of the series.
The audience loved the rawness of the characters, the screenplay and the story that passed through more than three decades of their favourite city, Mumbai. The writers did an excellent job of wrapping up the story arcs of all the characters, a rarity when it comes to entertainment writers today.
Delhi Crime (IMDb rating: 8.5)
Sacred Games made watching series online popular viewing. Delhi Crime made the other creators sit up and take notice. Delhi Crime took information from the true-life Delhi rape case that became popular among the people as the Nirbhaya rape case. The gritty screenplay, realistic portrayal of the characters and the story enraptured the audience, telling them a story that everyone knew on a general basis; few knew about what it was all about.
The series caused an influx of true-crime based series. There were several on the various streaming platforms. The audience, who had grown up on television series that spoke about true crime embraced this series, which wasn’t just about a crime but also something that had riled up the population no end.
Ghoul (IMDb rating: 7.0)
Ghoul is a lesser-known web series, but an equally great one with Radhika Apte in the lead role. Netflix is popular for placing strong female characters in hard-hitting and realistic circumstances. Ghoul has Radhika play a cop forced to arrest her father on sedition charges. The entire series set in the future, like Leila. Ghoul is a rare horror web series that sets its story up in such an intense and realistic background.
Leila (IMDb Rating: 4.8)
Before Huma Qureshi slews everyone with her performance in Maharani, she was acing it in Leela, a Netflix web series about a well-heeled family in a dystopian family whose world changes overnight after they are all arrested on trivial charges. The series is an intense one, and it stops abruptly on a cliffhanger, so you are left to wonder whether the people over at Netflix give the greenlight to only the series with a cliffhanger ending. Whether it’s Sacred Games or Leila, there’s the cliffhanger at the end of it all.
Ragini MMS Returns 2 (IMDb rating 4.5)
When streaming first started becoming big time in India, Balaji was one of the first to launch their streaming channel, ALTBalaji Sometime in December 2018 we saw the series Ragini MMS, the first spin-off series from a movie. Horror has always been the streaming platform’s darling, and Balaji promoted the series as a holiday watch – it worked.
Ragini MMS worked because of the skin-show and the wafer-thin concept. These two allowed the audience and the makers to concentrate on what they wanted – the gory scenes spelt death and destruction to everyone on screen. Ragini MMS 2 is a fun, popcorn flavoured series that will cater to the night owls who want to watch something more than the bland stuff.
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (IMDb Rating : 9.5)
Scam 1992 is the big daddy of true-life crime series in India. It told the story of Harshad Mehta, the first economic criminal who became big as Indian became bigger – in the nineties. The series is one of the few people have binge-watched in reality, meaning, watched all the eight to ten episodes in one go or over the weekend. Before this, one only gave this preferential treatment to a series like Sacred Games or Mirzapur. But Scam 1992, which is available on Sony LIV, proved that a place at the table is available. Sony is in the Indian entertainment sector for decades. The multinational company and has given us several successful series, albeit on television. People still remember their series like Bhanwar, Aahat and others.
People loved Scam, which takes its source material from a book by Sucheta Dalal, the woman who single-handedly unravelled the scam. Audiences loved this because they had heard about the names and the scenarios while growing up but never had all the juicy details that one would want.
Best Series from Amazon Prime
Inside Edge (IMDb rating: 8.0)
Inside Edge is a two seasons series that’s available on Amazon Prime. The series is by Farhan Akthar and Co and was an influential look into the world of sports entertainment, crime, and the politics of it it all. The series had a stellar cast and ended on its second season. There have been rumours about a third season, so let’s see where that gets all of us.
Inside Edge was the booster shot for the careers of several individuals, including Vivek Oberoi, Amit Sial, Flora Saini, and so many others. Inside Edge is one of the most expensively shot Indian web series. It is about a fictional cricket franchise that’s a front for a big betting syndicate.
The audience liked how the show progressed and gave more and more facets to the characters who were around from day one.
Mirzapur (IMDb Rating: 8.4)
Mirzapur was the series that brought crime stories to the streaming audience. It was vastly different from Sacred Games. Sacred Games spoke about urban crime, and Mirzapur was about a crime family that ruled the badlands. Mirzapur also had two seasons. The second season was as effective as the first one, with an end that was satisfying and evoked the audience’s interest in a third season. It’s rare for the audience to get such a reaction, something that we have only seen before with the second part of Gangs of Wasseypur.
There’s rarely any person who doesn’t know what Mirzapur is. But the story is an all-encompassing one and a study for all screenwriters and screenplay writers, we should take a moment to revisit it.
Pankaj Mishra plays the male heir of a crime family that runs the city. His son is a hot-headed person who thinks later and shoots first. In all this, come two quite talented and brave individuals who want a taste of power, and their paths cross. What happens next forms the rest of the story.
Mirzapur, like Sacred Games, created a lot of memes that were fodder for the influencers until the second season came up. The second season was so serious and intense – not to mention bloody – that it seems the influencers went cold looking at the violence and didn’t make any memes on the second part.
Shaitaan Haveli (IMDb rating: 7.2)
Let’s not forget that campy horror movies still have a big market in India. Put on your television, and you will some of the older horror movies running on a channel. The makers of Shaitaan Haveli understood the aspect of campy horror. They understood the audience’s love of it and came up with Shaitaan Haveli. Shaitaan Haveli ithe finest offerings that Amazon Prime has. It’s about a down and out director who decides to make a web series signing up an unknown acto. The twist, the man is the son of a man who has taken a loan. They shoot a horror series in an old palace-like place, and all hell breaks loose.
Tandav (IMDb rating: 3.8)
Tandav is a web series that brought several A-listers to the world of web series – including Dimple Kapadia. It was Saif Ali Khan’s second outing with the world of streaming, and he aced it. Khan plays the corrupt family member of a political family who wants the ‘kursi’ all to himself. Granted that the series has had just one season right now, but it was a riveting series that had an incredible story that kept us all enraptured until the final episode. We are waiting for another go at the family that believed in staying apart to rule.
Tandav launched during the pandemic, and maybe that’s why we didn’t have the kind of launch the Indian media is familiar with watching. The story and the performances make this a top-notch series as exciting and engaging as it is controversial.
Best Series from Other Streaming Channels
Samantar (IMDb rating: 8.4) – MXPlayer
Samantar is a Marathi language web series that’s now showing on MX Player. The series mixes sci-fi tropes with some aspects of the occult to make a watchable concoction that eggs on the audience to watch more and all. The first season launched before the lockdown, and the second season hampered because of the pandemic. It stars Swapnil Joshi, Nitish Bhardwaj and Saiee Tamnhankar, among others.
Samantar is about a person who doesn’t believe in superstition. A chance visit to an astrologer tells him that everything that is happening with him has happened with someone else. Though he doesn’t believe it at first, fate forces him to. Now, he is hellbent on finding out who’s behind all the quirks that his fate is giving him.
MX Player didn’t spend much on the promotions of the first part. However, they went all out on the promotions of the second season. Also, the second season ends on a cliffhanger, which means the creators are testing the waters. Who knows, we might have a third season pretty soon.
Thinkistan (IMDb rating: 8.9) – MX Player
MX Player is a streaming platform that offers free content. And it routinely offers some of the best stuff that we are seeing. One of the most underrated ones is Thinkistan, which’s about an advertising agency. Not just any advertising agency, it’s one of the tops in the country. The story is in the 90s. So we get a front seat view of the changing mindsets of just people but an entire population.
The series has a well-known cast, sprinkled with people we know and natural actors. In the credits are Mandira Bedi, Kabir Bedi, Shravan Reddy, Naveen Kasturia, so on and so forth. The series is everything rolled in one. It’s about bromance, it’s about office politics, it’s about real-life politics raising its ugly head, so on and so forth.
So, these are the dozen Indian web series that anyone can spend a good weekend watching. These series are critically acclaimed and commercially successful. More important, they are high on the entertainment factor and audiences can view them repeatedly.
Also Watch
Apaharan
Apaharan is a web series on the ALTBalaji platform. It has Arunoday Singh and is one of the better ALT Balaji web series. Arunoday Singh plays a down and out cop who falls into a trap set by a mysterious woman. The woman wants him to kidnap her daughter and return her for money, but as things are supposed to, they go awry.
The best way to view these series is on a Smart TV that has the inbuilt capacity to stream content. You would need the subscription to each of them to view them in the manner that one is supposed to. If you don’t have a Smart TV yet, you can watch it on a laptop, just makes sure that the laptop has the capacity to play content in full HD resolution. You can read our article about the gaming laptops and ones that have an FHD here.
