15 Best Hindi Original Drama Series On Prime Video Ranked

Summary

• Hindi series on Amazon Prime offers gripping dramas, thrillers, and slice-of-life stories to worldwide audiences.
• India’s TV shows showcase a variety of genres like melodramas and sports dramas, gaining traction globally.
• Amazon Prime Originals in Hindi boast compelling narratives, stellar performances, and captivating storytelling.

The best Hindi series on Amazon Prime Video features some of the highest-quality original dramas to arrive on the streaming service over the last decade, regardless of country of origin. Amazon India Originals has also been slowly but steadily gaining ground, bringing Indian dramas to audiences worldwide with some nail-biting thrillers, sports dramas, and relatable slice-of-life stories. The various Hindi TV shows on Amazon Prime Video not only feature some of the country’s best melodramas that the world has come to know but also gripping, realistic stories that can leave viewers on the edge of their seats.

While most people know about Bollywood, one of the biggest movie production genres in the world, that is only part of what represents Hindi dramas. Add in Pollywood, Tollywood, and more, and India has plenty of variety to offer viewers concerning the look and feel of its TV shows and movies. With several different genres in its offerings, the Amazon Prime Video series produced in India continues to gain traction with its global audience as more and more quality content drops on the service.

15 Panchayat (2020- )

A Comedy About An Engineering Graduate Working As A Panchayat Secretary

Panchayat is an Indian comedy-drama on Prime Video that has run for three seasons and 24 episodes. The drama series stars Jitendra Kumar as Abhishek Tripathi, an engineering graduate from the big city who can’t find a job in the tough economy and decides to take a low-salary job as a secret of a Gram panchayat (a basic governing institution) in a remote village called Phulera. This creates a fish-out-of-water story as he deals with unfamiliar village cultures.

Panchayat won four Filmfare OTT Awards, including Best Comedy Series.

This is a quick binge-watch, even with three seasons, as the episodes are all short half-hour snippets showing Abhishek attempting to make changes in the village that doesn’t care and soon realizing that he might not have all the answers. While the series is an easy watch and doesn’t push too far with its messages, it does offer a bit of a satire on local customs and politics, which don’t always mix. Reviews were positive, and Panchayat won four Filmfare OTT Awards, including Best Comedy Series.

14 Dil Dosti Dilemma (2024- )

Based On The Novel Asmara’s Summer By Andaleeb Wajid

Based on the novel Asmara’s Summer by Andaleeb Wajid, Dil Dosti Dilemma is a teen drama about a teen girl named Asmara, who has to move into her grandparents’ home for the summer while her parents travel to Canada. However, as a popular girl in college, she doesn’t want anyone to know she is staying in a lower-class neighborhood for the summer, so she lies and tells everyone she is going to Canada. However, when she starts to make new friends, she realizes it might be time for change.

Critics praised the Hindi series for its look at how it is important to balance tradition and modernity.

This is a morality tale, with Asmara’s parents forcing her to stay with her grandparents rather than travel to Canada when she shows how embarrassed she is of her mother’s family because they don’t have money. Critics praised the Hindi series for its look at how it is important to balance tradition and modernity and realize that cultural and familial heritage is just as important as social status. The series premiered in 2024 on Prime Video, with its first season totaling seven episodes.

13 Farzi (2023- )

A Disillusioned Artist Begins Making Counterfeit Money

Farzi (meaning Fakes) is a Hindi drama about a young artist named Sunny (Shahid Kapoor) who grows disillusioned by the income inequality in India and decides to go into a life of crime. Instead of working as an artist after losing his printing press business, he starts making counterfeit money with his friend Firoz. However, he soon finds problems when this gets the attention of Mansoor, a criminal mastermind, and Michael, a police officer tasked with counterfeiting cases.

The first season, with eight episodes, was released on Prime Video in 2023, and thanks to its popularity and success, a second season is in the works. Critics praised Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, and Kay Kay Menon’s acting and the intense pacing of the series throughout its first season. It was also the most-watched Hindi streaming series of all time with 37 million views (via The Indian Express), showcasing its popularity. Farzi earned 10 Filmfare OTT Awards nominations, including Best Drama Series.

12 Aspirants (2021- )

A Drama About Three UPSC Aspirants

Aspirants is a Hindi series on Prime Video that follows the lives of three former USPC aspirants (hopefuls) and it shows how their pasts led them to where they currently are in their present-day lives. The drama series focuses mostly on the psychological aspects of working as a civil servant, and it looks at how these friends’ decisions altered their lives. The series picks up with all three friends preparing for the UPSC exam and how their struggles affect their personal lives.

Aspirants
has two spinoff series, both available on YouTube.

The series has two seasons so far on Prime Video, with a total of 10 episodes. While the first season was released on TVF Play, Prime took over the production for the second season as its exclusive home. It was so popular that spinoffs were produced, with SK Sir Ki Class released in 2023 and Sandeep Hhaiya released in 2023, both on YouTube and not on Prime Video. Aspirants earned two Filmfate OTT Awards nominations, including Best Screenplay and Best Original Soundtrack.

11 Flames (2018- )

A Coming-Of-Age Romantic Drama

Flames is a coming-of-age romantic drama starring Ritvik Sahore and Tanya Maniktala as Rajjo and Ishita, two students at a tuition center in west Delhi. The Hindi drama series on Prime Video has had four seasons and 20 episodes so far. The series follows these two young adults as they attempt to finish their studies, fall in love, and deal with their personal relationships along the way. As expected in these dramas, the two experience highs and lows but always find their way back to each other.

While playing mostly as a comfort food drama in the young adult sphere, it also received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising it for its heart and its likable cast, making it a heartwarming watch. As an original Prime Video Hindi series, all four seasons are available to stream. While it wasn’t nominated for any awards during its run, it still offers a lot for fans of coming-of-age young adult dramas. At the moment, it appears the series has ended at four seasons.

10 Mirzapur (2018- )

A Town Embroiled In A Lethal Family Feud

Mirzapur is a hardcore crime thriller that focuses on Kaleen Bhaiya, the head of a crime family in the town of Mirzapur, where guns and knives dictate the law of the land. A bloodbath ensues as the trigger-happy son of Kaleen Bhaiya, Munna, unfurls chaos in the land, and another family, the Pandits, gets involved with the gangsters. The series offers battles of power and ambition where the lawless city finds itself in the grasp of violence and fear.

With some stellar performances from a strong ensemble cast, Mirzapur keeps Amazon Prime Video subscribers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Although the second season has been widely touted as not at par with the first, the audience still stays hooked to this saga of power-mongering, greedy mobsters in whose hands lie the fate of the town. The second season won the Critics Award for Best Drama Series at the Filmfare OTT Awards.

9 Hostel Daze (2019-2023)

Engineering College Drama That Hits Familiar Notes

A quirky trip down memory lane, Hostel Daze focuses on three students enrolled at an engineering college. The first season sets up the premise and characters, many of whom are classic college-comedy stereotypes. Four hostel friends start their first year on campus and become roommates as they try to traverse their new university life.

In season 2, the freshers-turned-seniors get an opportunity to boss around young blood. The third season of Hostel Daze premiered in 2022, seeing more hijinks and even a mystery or two that the students must band together to solve. It came to an end in season 4 when the friends said goodbye to their dorm lives. Notably, the series features young Adarsh Gaurav of The White Tiger fame as one of the main leads. The show was so well-liked that it even received a remake in Tamil, called Engga Hostel, which is also available on Prime Video.

8 Breathe: Into The Shadows (2020-2022)

The Son Of A Bollywood Superstar Leads This Psychological Thriller

The second volume of the Breathe series was on par with the first and is one of the best Hindi series on Amazon Prime Video. It focuses on the life of a psychiatrist, Dr. Avinash Sabarwal, whose six-year-old daughter goes missing for months. Avinash and his wife, Abha, receive cryptic instructions from a mystery man who wants the couple to commit heinous crimes if they ever want to see their daughter alive again. The second season starts three years later, with Avinash in an asylum, before a former inmate breaks him out and demands he start killing again.

The psychological thriller is a commendable effort to address mental health issues, especially dissociative identity disorder. Audiences know the main actor, Abhishek Bachchan, as the son of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Between its complex plot and high stakes, Breathe: Into the Shadows ranks high in terms of some of the best Hindi drama series on television.

7 Breathe (2018)

An Incredibly Bingeable Hindi Mystery

With a cast led by actor R. Madhavan, the taut crime thriller Breathe delved into the dark side of love and the extent to which some people will go to save those dear to them. One of the first Indian Originals created for Amazon Prime Video and arguably one of the best Hindi series on Prime Video, Breathe looked at Danny Mascarenhas and his desperate search for organ donors for his little son, Josh, whose lungs are failing.

Soon, crimes are committed that strangely involve the death of registered organ donors, and Danny locks horns with embittered police officer Kabir, who is himself trying to come to terms with a tragic loss in his own life. As the origin story of a serial killer, it presents them in a way that forces the viewers to see things from the killer’s perspective. While critics gave Breathe mixed reviews, audiences remained enthralled by the bizarreness of the story, and it’s a binge-worthy mystery that will have viewers on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

6 Laakhon Mein Ek (2017-2019)

Hindi Anthology Drama With Endearing Characters

Telling a different story in each of its two seasons, Hindi original drama series Laakhon Mein Ek received a great deal of traction on Amazon Prime Video thanks to the performances of its central cast. Laakhon Mein Ek season 1 focused on Akash, a young man who wants to be an internet sensation. However, his dad wants him to become an engineer and destroys his dream by seeing him to an institute called Genius Infinity, where he works hard to make his dad’s dreams come true.

The second season is about the misadventures of Dr. Shreya Pathare who single-handedly confronts the mistrust of villagers, the politicization of health care, and a team of health workers in a remote Indian village. Despite some mixed critical feedback, Laakhon Mein Ek stands out for its likable protagonists trying to find their own way amid others’ expectations and the overarching systems they’re forced to involve themselves with.

5 Jubilee (2023)

Period Drama About The Early Years Of Bollywood

The period drama Jubilee dropped on Amazon Prime Video in April 2023 and quickly rose through the ranks as one of the best Hindi original series on the platform. Set over the six tumultuous years of 1947-1953, Jubilee explores the black-and-white studio era of the film industry and the lengths that both studios and stars would go to achieve fame in Bollywood, as well as the political unrest of the time.

The story features melodrama all set in the real history of Bollywood moviemaking, and it was a huge success. Jubilee is stunning, both visually and narratively, weaving a tragic and complex tale that is sure to stick with audiences long after watching. It’s also one of the best Hindi dramas for new viewers. It went on to pick up 17 nominations at the 2023 Filmfare OTT Awards, winning nine of them (the most of any nominee that year), including Best Director in a Drama Series for Vikramaditya Motwane.

4 The Family Man (2019-2021)

An Unassuming Father Is India’s Best Defense Against Terrorism

Srikant Tiwari, a middle-class married man, works undercover as an intelligence agent in a fictitious counter-terrorist wing of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) in one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video. His family believes that he is employed at a government office and his extended family looks down upon him for not being ambitious enough and not earning as much as his peers. Srikant, however, is the reason behind the country successfully thwarting multiple terrorist threats.

From racing against time to stop biological terror attacks to sniffing out the trail to a plot to murder the Prime Minister of India, he is indispensable to the agency. Lead Actor Manoj Bajpayee is a master of his craft and skilfully portrays the pressures of balancing his family life with being undercover. Despite some controversy with the series’ politics, Family Man is critically acclaimed and a high-octane, intriguing watch. In its two seasons, The Family Man won 11 awards at the Filmfare OTT Awards, including Best Actor for season 1 and Best Original Story for season 2.

3 Inside Edge (2017 – )

Intense Hindi Drama Set In The World Of Professional Cricket

The very first Amazon India Original and one of the best Hindi series on Amazon Prime Video, Inside Edge is a dramatized take on the world of cricket in India. With a steady ensemble cast, Inside Edge brings alive the murky politics that reign supreme behind the glamorous universe of T-20 cricket, i.e. the shortened version of the game completed in 20 overs per innings instead of the traditional 50 overs. From match-fixing, spot-fixing, performance-enhancing drugs, blackmail, and even murder, the owners of these fictitious cricket teams would stop at nothing in their lust for power and money.

The series also attempts to weave a narrative about casteism within teams, and the queer-phobia that haunts celebrities and athletes in India. The series was so highly acclaimed that it was nominated for an Emmy for Best Drama Series, losing out to Money Heist. The show was a success and picked up a second season in 2019 and a third season in 2021.

2 Made In Heaven (2019- )

A Drama-Filled Slice Of Life In India

Created by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, this Amazon Original is one of the best Hindi drama series on Amazon Prime Video as it offers a sophisticated peek into the myriad layers of Indian society through the lens of a wedding. Karan and Tara are wedding planners who come in contact with a motley group of people as they organize lavish weddings for their wealthy clients. The drama plays out as each wedding looks at a different family that brings hypocrisies, superstitions, and prejudices.

Running parallel to these stories is the continuous narrative following the lives of Tara and Karan as they battle an unhappy marriage, and homosexuality, respectively, in their own lives in a society marred with parochialism and ignorance. Lead actor Arjun Mathur received an International Emmy nomination for his role as Karan Mehta. A second season, with seven additional episodes, arrived on Prime Video in 2023.

1 Paatal Lok (2020)

A Dark And Gritty Dive Into Delhi’s Criminal Underworld

An unabashed glimpse into New Delhi’s dark underbelly, Paatal Lok literally translates as “the netherworld.” Cynical cop Hathiram Chowdhury (Jaideep Ahlawat) gets dragged into an assassination gone wrong of a celebrated journalist and finds himself in the middle of a stark cat-and-mouse drama that takes him deeper and deeper into the Delhi criminal underworld.

The gritty drama picked up some rave reviews for its sharp script and sharper performances. It brings forth thematically the idea that the three layers of the world — heaven, earth, and hell — intersect where the aristocrats, humans, and animals exist respectively. The investigative thriller won five major awards at the 2020 Filmfare OTT Awards, including Best Series, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay, with six additional nominations. Paatal Lok also won two Indian Television Academy Awards.