25 Best Indian TV Shows: List of Rated Series

Indian cinema is one of the oldest in the world. Pure and sometimes naive, colorful and musical Indian cinema is recognizable from the first frames. And the effect of watching an Indian series can be compared to a trip to an exotic country, where everything is completely different from what we are used to. Relax your soul, enjoy Indian series from our list.

Table of contents

Ray

Rating IMDB – 7.1
Genre: Thriller, drama, crime
Production India / 2021
Directed by Vasan Bala, Srijit Mukherjee, Abhishek Chaubey
Cast: Bishakha Thapa, Ali Fazal, Manoj Bajpayee, Kay Kay Menon, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Radhika Madan, Gajraj Rao, Rajesh Sharma, Raguvir Yadav, Bidita Bagh

A modern take on the classic works of Indian writer Satyajit Raiya. The four episodes of the mini-series are based on stories created in completely different genres: from psychological thriller to satire.

The heroes of this intellectual film project are a successful businessman with a unique memory who can’t remember a mysterious woman, a shy prosthetics maker who dreams of becoming a makeup artist, a popular singer with a secret past and a famous actor, suffering from his role as a handsome man.

The renowned Indian film director Satyajit Rai is the first Indian Oscar winner. He is also famous as a screenwriter, children’s writer, producer, publisher and film critic. In addition, Rai composed beautiful music, composed soundtracks for many of his films, and was also a professional artist.

Delhi Crime

Rating IMDB – 8.5
Genre: Drama, crime, detective
Production India / 2019
Directed by Richie Mehta, Tanuj Chopra
Cast: Shefali Shetty, Rajesh Tailang, Rasika Dagal, Anurag Arora, Adil Hussain, Gopal Dutt, Yashaswini Dayama, Denzil Smith, Jaya Bhattacharya

This dramatic multi-episode film reveals to the world viewer the real India: dusty, poor and sometimes very violent. The police chief of one of Delhi’s districts, a woman named Vartika Chaturvedi, assembles a team of top investigators to solve a high-profile crime.

In the early morning hours, the bloodied bodies of a girl and a boy were found on the side of the road. The girl had been mass raped and subsequently died. For Vartica, as a woman and a mother, this case becomes the main and most significant of her career.

The crime series is based on real events. The brutal crime caused a wide public outcry. All of the adult perpetrators of the deadly tragedy were executed by hanging, and the juvenile was sentenced to the maximum prison term for his age. After the events, the number of female tourists visiting India each year dropped by 35%.

Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin

Genre: Drama
Production India / 2020
Directed by Jaideep Sen
Cast: Neil Bhatt, Aishwarya Sharma, Aisha Singh, Siddharth Bodke, Sanjay Narvekar, Yeogendra Vikram Singh, Shailesh Datar, Bharti Patil, Pankaj Vishnu, Ganesh Yadav

Police officer Virat Chavan is in love with a girl named Pahi and intends to marry her. But Chavan is forced to carry out his deeply respected mentor’s dying wish and marry his daughter, a girl named Sai. Past relationships and unfulfilled promises torment the policeman’s soul. Will Virat be able to forget his first love, and will Sai be able to love the husband imposed on her?

A romantic multi-part film made in Hindi in Bollywood. It is a mistake to think that Bollywood is all Indian cinema. It is only a part of Indian cinema, which is shot in Mumbai in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and English. There is also Tollywood in Telugu, Mollywood in Malayalam, Kollywood in Tamil and Sandalwood in Kannada.

Mahabharat

Rating IMDB – 9.0
Genre: Drama, history, military
Production India / 2013
Budget: ₹ 1,200,000,000
Directed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, Kamal Monga, Amarprit G.S. Chhabra
Cast: Saurabh Raj Jain, Shaheer Sheikh, Pooja Sharma, Aham Sharma, Arpeet Ranka, Pranit Bhatt, Arav Chowdharry, Rohit Bharadwaj, Thakur Anup Singh

Two branches of the powerful Kuru dynasty compete for power in the Indian kingdom of Hastinapur. The Pandavas represent the divine origin, while their rivals, the Kauravas, are the personification of evil on earth.

When the eldest and wisest member of the Pandav clan becomes the king of Hastinapur, the dastardly Kauravas devise a cunning plan to overthrow him.

The series is based on the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. It was commissioned by the Indian government to introduce young people to the sacred scriptures. Each episode of the project has an insert with explanations and teachings of God Krishna.

Rangrasiya

Rating IMDB – 6.9
Genre: Melodrama
Production India / 2013
Budget: ₹ 100 000 000
Directed by Siddharth Sengupta
Cast: Sanaya Irani, Ashish Sharma, Vishal Gandhi, Anania Hare, Padam Bhola, Tarun Khanna, Kelly Prasad Mukherjee, Ankita Sharma

Every year one of the brides of the little village of Birpur is given in marriage. This year it is the turn of the beautiful Parvati. But the wedding serves only as a backdrop for the illegal smuggling of arms across the border.

The smuggling case is handled by officer Rudra, who takes Paro as a witness. In order to protect her from the encroachments of criminals, the officer is forced to put the girl in his house. But tradition dictates that Rudra must marry her after such a step.

The creators of the project claim that the plot is inspired by Shakespeare’s drama Othello. And the audience liked the main characters so much that people talk about it, as usual, married them. Despite the rumors, each of the actors has his personal life, but they did not mind to work together on new characters.

Tanhaiyan

Rating IMDB – 7.7
Genre: Melodrama
Production India / 2017
Budget: ₹ 100 000 000
Directed by Gorky
Cast: Barun Sobti, Surbhi Jyoti, Mohit Abrol, Ansh Arora, Rahul Sharma, Neelam Shiva, Nisha Nagpal, Priya Tandon, Sheeba Chadha

Heider, a prodigy, and Mira, a modest beauty, have both suffered an irreparable loss in the past. Hyder blames himself for the death of his only friend, while Mira is crushed by the death of her parents.

Both young men are withdrawn and not ready to reveal their souls to the first person they meet. At the friends’ wedding, a spark flashes between Haider and Mira. But can mutual feeling heal their wounded hearts?

The project is a representative of the actively developing cinematic genre of web series in India. Such projects are much shorter than classic telenovelas, have a complete plot, and are broadcast only on the Internet. For example, the web series Loneliness was released on the Hotstar website and consists of only 10 episodes of 20 minutes each.

Call My Agent Bollywood

Rating IMDB – 6.9
Genre: Drama, comedy
Production India / 2021
Directed by Shaad Ali
Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Ahana Kumra, Soni Razdan, Ayush Mehra, Priyasha Bhardwaj, Rohan Joshi, Suchitra Pillai-Malik, Radhika Seth, Anushka Soni, Merenla Imsong

The series shows the unpleasant underside of Indian Bollywood. The unexpected death of the owner of a talent agency forces four managers to take it upon themselves to save his brainchild from bankruptcy. To avoid a hostile takeover, the managers try to get along with aged and feisty actors, and revive the careers of long-forgotten movie idols.

Since as many as 2,000 films are made in India every year, screenwriters often lack imagination for new stories. That’s where foreign films come in. Even the beloved film “Irony of Fate, or Easy Bird!” has its Indian counterpart. And the web series is a remake of the French project of the same name.

Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani

Rating IMDB – 7.1
Genre: Fantasy, melodrama
Production India / 2010
Directed by Raminder Singh Suri
Cast: Vivian Dsena, Sukirti Kandpal, Mohit Keswani, Nita Shetty, Abhinav Gautam, Karuna Verma, Priya Wal, Gautam Chaturvedi, Madhura Naik, Ritwik Dhanjani

Priya Jaiswal moves to the northern Indian city of Dehradun to continue her studies. On campus, she meets an enigmatic guy named Abhaya Rajchandu. For unknown reasons, Priya is attracted to this unsociable young handsome man. But Abhaya is not at all happy about this and pushes the girl away.

The guy has a secret. In fact, he is immortal and has supernatural powers. To keep Priya safe, he is forced to ignore the girl’s feelings.

The fantasy melodrama Dark Love Story is an Indian version of the American saga Twilight and the Vampire Diaries series.

Radha Krishn

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: Melodrama, fantasy
Production India / 2018
Directed by Loknath Pandey
Cast: Sumed Mudgalkar, Basant Bhatt, Malika Singh, Rishi Raj Pawar, Malini Sengupta, Arpeet Ranka, Rakesh Kukreti, Gavi Chahal, Tarun Khanna, Amar Deep Garg

The love story of the immortal couple Radha and Krishna, the earthly incarnations of Goddess Lakshmi and God Vishnu. Radharani had to be reborn on earth in human form. With her, Krishna also came into the material world.

The heavenly lovers met again in the Indian village of Vrindavan. Krishna needed to show her beloved and the world what True Love is.

The mythological telenovela has become one of the most expensive projects on Indian television. The series has a prequel about the early years of God Krishna called Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki, which premiered in 2021.

Madhubala

Rating IMDB – 5.6
Genre: Melodrama
Production India / 2012
Cast: Drashti Dhami, Vivian Dsena, Seema Kapoor, Raza Murad, Pallavi Purohit, Avinesh Rekhi

The life of a beautiful girl named Madhubala has been associated with Bollywood since birth. She was born live right on the film set, because her whole family works in the film industry.

One day, the meek Mathubala inadvertently touched the male pride of handsome and superstar Rishabh Kundra. Spoiled by female attention, the young man decides to take revenge. To have complete power over the girl, the spoiled and cruel handsome man marries her.

According to Indian statistics, arranged marriages are stronger than love unions. The positive aspects of such marriages are the equality of the spouses in terms of social status. In addition, many of the nuances of life together, often spoiling the life of the couple in love, are negotiated in advance.

Even the stars of Indian cinema conclude such marriages. For example, his father found a bride for the popular actor Shahid Kapoor.

Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon

Rating IMDB – 7.5
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2011
Budget: ₹ 700 000
Directed by Aakash Pandey
Cast: Barun Sobti, Sanaya Irani, Akshay Dogra, Deepali Pansare, Vishesh Bansal, Jaishree T., Abhas Mehta, Utkarsha Naik, Daljit Kaur

The young and successful businessman Arnav Singh Raizada is uncompromising, unforgiving of mistakes and never asks for forgiveness himself. Arnav’s only weakness is his sister named Anjdali. For her sake the young man is ready for anything.

But fate repeatedly confronts Arnav with a girl named Khushi. Khushi is no less strong in character and also never compromises her principles. When they talk to each other, sparks fly in all directions. What is it? Could it be love?

One of the Indian series with a very high audience rating. The main line of the series was supposed to be the relationship between the main character and his sister Anjali. But the couple Arnav and Khushi became so popular that they decided to give them more filming time.

Also, the screenwriters thought that the original idea of making Arnav’s grandmother’s pet a dog was too boring. So the dog was replaced by …a goat.

Jodha Akbar

Rating IMDB – 5.7
Genre: Melodrama, history, drama
Production India / 2013
Budget: ₹ 100 000 000
Directed by Santram Varma, Pratap Jadon Samar, J.P. Sharma
Cast: Rajat Tokas, Paridhi Sharma, Kapil Lalvani, Manish Bisla, Pawal Ravi, Svetlana Kanoy, Chetnaa Miraa, Ravi Bhatia, Chetnaa Miraa

India. Late fourteenth century. An army of thousands of Moghul under the leadership of Jalaluddin Mohammad, nicknamed Akbar or the Great, approaches the borders of the country. In order to conquer all of Hindustan, Akbar decides to marry Jodha, the daughter of the Rajput king of Amer.

Akbar is a Muslim by religion, but he allows the girl to keep her religion in the marriage. The union of a Muslim and a Hindu woman was supposed to reconcile the two religions, but it ended up joining two loving hearts.

The history is still debating whether Akbar was really married to the Rajput princess Jodha. It is known only that he had about 200 wives and more than 5,000 concubines.

Siya Ke Ram

Rating IMDB – 7.9
Genre: History, melodrama
Production India / 2015
Directed by Darmesh Shah, Nikhil Sinha
Cast: Madirakshi Mandl, Ashish Sharma, Karan Suchak, Hemant Chaudhary, J. Kartik, Danish Akhtar, Duleep Tahil, Snigdha Akolkar, Grusha Kapoor, Sampada Wazeh

Yeh Hai Chahatein

Rating IMDB – 4.1
Genre: Drama
Production India / 2019
Cast: Sargun Kaur Luthra, Abrar Kazi, Aishwarya Sahuja, Indira Krishnan, Mallika Nayak, Siddharth Shivpuri, Satyajit Sharma, Yagya Bhasin, Upen Chauhan

The convoluted but happy love story of Dr. Prisha Srinivasan and rock star Rudraksh Rudra Khurana. Prisha’s beloved sister dies, leaving her newborn son Saransh to raise as a girl.

The boy grows up and becomes a fan of rock star Rudra. By chance Rudra discovers that the boy is the son of his dead brother Rajiv. The man decides to marry Prisha in order to raise the boy in his family.

Indian screenwriters still put deep hidden meanings into the events that occur in the frame. If a woman faints, she is certainly pregnant. An extinguished candle by the bed means the hero is dead. And a man’s growing beard means big problems in his personal life.

Aapke Aa Jaane Se

Rating IMDB – 7.1
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2018
Directed by Shashank Bharadwaj, Sumit Sodani
Cast: Sukhashi Dhami, Karan Jotwani, Roy Cheema, Hetal Gada, Richa Bhattacharya, Sailesh Gulabani, Geeta Tyagi, Resha Konkar, Priyanka Purohit, Barsha Chatterjee

Vedika and Sahil are a very unusual loving couple for India. He is the 24-year-old irresponsible heir to a wealthy family; she is a 42-year-old widow raising her daughter alone.

Indian tradition does not allow widows to live a normal life, much less have a relationship. And the fact that the man is almost twice the age of his wife makes such a relationship impossible. So what are lovers to do?

Marriages in which the wife is older than her husband are nonsense even for modern India. According to the UN, almost 50% of marriages in the Indian subcontinent are concluded with a huge age difference. But in couples, the man is always older, and the girl is on average 20 years younger than her husband.

Tashan-e-Ishq

Rating IMDB – 7.5
Genre: Drama
Production India / 2015
Directed by Rakesh Malhotra, Santram Varma
Cast: Jasmine Basin, Sidhant Gupta, Zain Imam, Naman Shaw, Ram Manohar Yadav

Young and cheerful Twinkle Taneja is in love with a young man named Yuvraj Lyutra. But the girl cannot admit it to her family, because the families of Taneja and Lyutra are feuding. In addition, the young Indian’s mother has found a suitable groom for her – the promising and wealthy Kunji Sarna.

At first Twinkle decides to run away with her lover, but her love for her mother stops her. The girl decides to marry into an arranged marriage. But Kunjdi does not want to marry Twinkle either, for he has a lover, Alisha.

The interesting Indian series was an international success and was broadcast in South Africa, Pakistan, Mauritius, Kenya, and even France.

Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani

Rating IMDB – 7.6
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2015
Directed by Pawan Parhi
Cast: Drashti Dhami, Siddhant Karnik, Eisha Singh, Sartaj Gill, Anita Raj, Surekha Sikri, Moon Banerjee, Anjum Fakih, Akshay Anand, Parul Chaudhary

The royal family ruling the Indian state of Amerkot is experiencing financial difficulties. In addition, Crown Prince Rana has recently lost his beloved wife. But the place by the prince’s side cannot be empty, and Rana begins to search for a suitable bride.

To save himself from bankruptcy, he chooses the daughter of the richest moneylender, a girl named Gayatri. Raised in a simple family, Gayatri must learn to be a true queen and win the heart not only of her husband, but also the love of all the people.

The multi-story film is based on the events in the life of one of the most famous Indian women of the 20th century, the third wife of the last ruler of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi. In contrast to the heroine, Gayatri Devi was the daughter of the ruler of the small state of Koh Bihar in Bengal. After independence and abolition of the principalities, Devi became a successful politician.

Punar Vivah

Rating IMDB – 3.3
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2012
Directed by Arvind Gupta, Siddhartha Vankar, Manish Khandelwal
Cast: Kratika Sengar, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Geeta Tyagi, Amit Singh Thakur, Samraji Nema, Zaida Parveen, Dishank Arora, Chetan Pandit, Rakesh Kukreti

A man named Yash Sindhia is widowed and is raising two children alone. Arti’s girlfriend is also unhappy, having just recently been abandoned by her husband and her child for another woman. People around them are sure that Yash and Arti are meant for each other and just have to get married. But right on the wedding day the young people realize that they have made a big mistake. Will they be able to be together?

The release of the telenovelas has caused a wide resonance among the Indian public. Divorce and remarriage of widows and widowers are still frowned upon in the country. This was the first time such a relationship was shown as the norm, which led to much discussion and controversy in the press.

Kumkum Bhagya

Rating IMDB – 3.1
Genre: Drama, melodrama, comedy
Production India / 2014
Directed by Samir Kulkarni
Cast: Sriti Jha, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Mrunal Thakur, Arjit Taneja, Pratyusha Banerjee, Liina Jumani, Ankit Mohan

Sarla Arora, the owner of a bridal salon, has only one dream: to successfully marry off her daughters Pragya and Bulbul. The elder Pragya is practical and obedient, working as a college teacher. The younger Bulbul has her head in the clouds, dreams of great love and does not agree to an arranged marriage. How will the girls’ fates pan out? Will they be able to be happy?

Originally, the plot of the soap opera, which consists of 924 episodes, was based on the 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility by the English writer Jane Austen. It is hard to say at what point in the series it ceased to correspond to the original…

Diya Aur Baati Hum

Rating IMDB – 4.2
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2011
Directed by Rohit Raj Goyal, Siddhartha Vankar, Ravit Kumar Tyagi
Cast: Deepika Singh, Anas Rashid, Neil Bhatt, Akshay Batchu, Charu Asop, Neela Vagela, Kanika Maheshwari, Arian Harnot, Gautam Chaturvedi

The protagonist of the series, a girl named Sandaya, is not attracted by the usual fate of an Indian woman – a house and children. Since her childhood, Sandaya dreams of a career in the police force. In an accident, the girl’s parents die, and her brother arranges for Sandaya to marry a local boy, Suraj.

Suraj’s family owns a small candy store and is looking for a simple, uneducated daughter-in-law to take over the household chores. Sandaya has no intention of accepting her fate and is determined to fight for her dream.

The telenovela, released six years in a row, has become one of the most popular in India. The authorities of Pushkar were forced to rename one of the city’s streets Hanuman Gali. This was the address where the family of the main character lived.

Your Honor

Rating IMDB – 7.2
Genre: Action, thriller, drama
Production India / 2020
Directed by E. Niwas, Abdul Aziz Khokhar
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Varun Badola, Parul Gulati, Mita Vasisht, Pulkit Makol, Mahavir Bhullar, Suhasini Malay, Richa Pallod, Kunj Anand, Vansh Chabra

The son of influential judge Bishan Khosla becomes the culprit in a car accident that kills the son of a local criminal mastermind. The father realizes that his son must be rescued.

The judge makes every effort to get his son out of the trap. And when the legal means run out, Bishan Khosla, without thinking about the consequences, resorts to illegal methods.

One of the best Indian series of recent years. The dramatic multi-part film is a remake of the Israeli crime series Judge 2017. In addition to the Indian adaptation, remakes of the series were released in the U.S. and Russia.

Begusarai

Rating IMDB – 8.2
Genre: Action, drama, crime
Production India / 2015
Directed by Pritha Nag
Cast: Shweta Tiwari, Shivangi Joshi, Sartaj Gill, Vishal Aditya Singh, Sudesh Berry, Vibha Anand, Riya Dipsy, Vaishnavi Dhenraj, Saptrishi Ghosh, Ankit Gupta

In the small Indian town of Begusarai in Bihar state, a lot of passion is brewing. The town is ruled by the powerful Thakur family, which is torn by family squabbles, jealousy and hatred from within. The Thakur brothers cannot share power over the town, and the two of them, Reception and Lakhan, also vie for the heart of a girl named Poonam.

Things get even more complicated when the beautiful dancer Bindia arrives in Begusarai. The girl is not so simple and hides her true reasons for coming to Begusarai.

The crime drama was indeed filmed in a town called Begusarai, which is the administrative center of one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar.

Gangaa

Rating IMDB – 6.6
Genre: Drama
Production India / 2015
Directed by Yusuf Ansari, Ramesh Pandey, Wasim Sabir
Cast: Aditi Sharma, Vishal Vashishta, Shakti Anand, Ram Kishan Dhakad, Ruhana Khanna, Sushmita Maherji, Hiten Tejwani, Gungun Uprari, Akash Gill, Puran Kiri

According to Indian tradition, young Ganga was given in marriage as a girl. But it so happened that on the day of the wedding her husband and father died. Ganga was left alone in the world. Her husband’s relatives do not accept the girl, and she has to live in a shelter for widows. But young Ganga does not agree to give up on her life and fights for her rights.

Before the 19th century, in many states of India it was a common rite of “sati”: a widow was burned alive with the body of her deceased husband. Nowadays the fate of widows in India is no less tragic. The husband’s relatives can deprive the woman of her property and kick her out of the house. Widows must live in a separate commune and are not allowed to marry or earn a living. Many of the unfortunate women go to live in the holy city of Vrindavan, where several ashram dormitories are set up for them.

Ishq Subhan Allah

Rating IMDB – 5.0
Genre: Drama, melodrama
Production India / 2018
Directed by Vikram Ghai
Cast: Eisha Singh, Adnan Khan, Ankit Vyas, Shurya Lathar, Salman Shaikh, Shalini Arora, Vinan Jain, Gunn Kansara, Monica Khanna, Piyush Sahdev

The plot of the series revolves around the lives of newlyweds Zara and Kabir. Despite the fact that the young people share the same faith, they have different views of Islam.

Zara is a progressive, confident young woman who is against outdated traditions and in favor of gender equality. Kabir is more conservative and not ready for drastic changes. On this ground between the spouses there are many disputes and quarrels. Will they be able to find the compromise that their loving hearts so desperately need?

Islam is the second most important religion in India after Hinduism. Muslims constitute almost 15% of the country’s total population, and their numbers are increasing every year.

Yeh jadu hai jinn ka

IMDB Rating – 6.7
Genre: Fantasy, drama, melodrama
Production India / 2019
Cast: Aditi Sharma, Richa Bhattacharya, Vikram Singh Chauhan, Jaswinder Gardner, Seema Azmi, Guri Agarwal, Vaibhavi Kapoor, Garima Srivastava, Sharma Shruti

Foster parents found baby Roshni floating down the river in a basket. Roshni grew up to be a real beauty and learned to dance beautifully. One glance was enough for the beautiful girl to capture the heart of Prince Aman when she met him.

The young man is pursued by the evil Jinn, and in order to rid himself of his spell, Haman must marry the girl with the heart of an angel. But is the beautiful Roshni such a girl?

Indian soap operas usually contain elements of melodrama, action, comedy, drama and musicals at the same time. This format of popular cinema is called “masala” in India. This is also the name of a favorite Hindu spice, a mixture of spices that is added to many dishes, even to tea.