Bollywood and South Asian films are known around the world for their vibrant storylines, romances and dramatic family moments, and unique screenplays that lean towards the tropics of the subcontinent, but Indian television is greatly underestimated. While North American and English television has increased the number of Desi characters being protagonists, South Asian entertainment continues to innovate and receive more awards year after year. With the victory in 2023 of RRRa South Indian movie, with the Golden Globes and the continued success of Bollywood, it seems like the world is ready to embrace Indian entertainment.
Hindi-language shows have been a staple of India for years, but streaming platforms have given creators and writers a new platform to test their content to a wider audience. Netflix, for example, has leveraged the region’s potential to create original content that is not only high quality, but also highly entertaining and compelling. That said, these are the best Indian shows to watch on Netflix right now.
10 Stories of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian and non-white person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the most celebrated writers in contemporary Indian history. His stories are the pride of Bengali literature, and when he lived in the early 1900s, he was one of the most celebrated writers in the world. 2015, Stories of Rabindranath Tagore, which was produced in Hindi, not Tagore’s Bangla, attempted to adapt several of Tagore’s short stories and novellas for the screen. Two to three episodes were dedicated to one story each, set in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, with original music and a soundtrack composed for the series. Stories of Rabindranath Tagore is a blast from the past with its old world charm of Bengali life in the early 1900’s as well as Tagore’s classic stories.
9 Bombay Begums
Bombay Begums was created by Netflix to become a web series in 2021, and was created by Alankrita Shrivastava, who is known for her film Lipstick under my burqa. The television series focuses on the lives of five women living in Mumbai, all of whom come from very different walks of life. However, there is a similarity between them: they are ambitious and chase their dreams. Each of their stories tells a different aspect of life in modern urban India, as well as from the perspective of women simply trying to survive and make it through these situations. The series was somewhat controversial upon release due to its themes and topics.
8 She
Released March 2020, She characterizes the leading role of the strong woman. Bhumika Pardeshi is an officer in the Indian Police Service and at the beginning of the series she joins the Anti Narcotics Group. She comes from a poor background, and although she now has to pose as a sex worker in Mumbai as part of her job to catch a drug lord, her husband is an alcoholic at home. She wants a divorce and is in the process of doing so, but at the same time she has to support her relatives because she is the only one who brings an income home. The show was renewed for a second season, which will be released in 2022.
7 Spirit
The Miniseries Spirit was the second Netflix Original from India and is set in a distant future. Fascism is commonplace in this future, and its protagonist, Nida, has just been recruited to help the government. She is a loyal soldier in the eyes of those in power and she believes she would do anything to protect the leadership. But when she is assigned to interrogate one of the nation’s top terrorists, Ali Saeed, she realizes he is not human. What happens next places Spirit in terms of horror and supernatural shows, but with a twist due to the show’s political undertones. The show is inspired by actual torture and events that took place in the aftermath of 9/11, such as the situation in Kashmir.
6 Small things
a romantic comedy, Small things was originally released on YouTube. After the success of the first season on the platform, Netflix bought out the franchise and produced three more seasons, concluding Small things after four seasons. Dhruv Sehgal, who also created the series, and Mithila Palkar play two young people living in Mumbai. They are a couple living together, and many of the show’s episodes explore the fears and everyday experiences they face. The show goes through many different crises, ranging from social media and the fear of not doing enough, to what it means to be a young adult trying to carve out a career for herself. With how few characters and the time constraints of working five to ten episodes in one season, Small things relies on its performance and simplicity to stand out.
5 Leila
Leila is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Indian author and journalist Prayaag Akbar. The novel, which was successful with critics, won several awards in its native country. In Leila, it is the 2040s, and the country in which the story is set has a deep segregation built into its architecture and society. Shalini and her husband live well together with their daughter, Leila, but one day, after swimming in their pool, thugs attack them, kill Shalini’s husband and take Shalini away. Now forced to live in a re-education center, a new law is passed that takes away mixed-race children. Because her husband was a Muslim, Shalini begins to live in fear of her daughter and decides to take matters into her own hands.
4 Kota factory
Kota factory, named after the city of Kota, finds its protagonist in Vaibhav. He has just moved to Khota and enrolls in school there, despite it being the middle of the academic year, and is told he will be placed in a certain class: A10, the last set of Prodigy classes. In the city of Kota, education is a priority and coaching centers are commonplace. After trying to resist his original placement, Vaibhav studies hard and experiences life in a competitive academic environment. His goal is to get into one of the best universities in the country, but given his experiences and the other students who attend his school, getting there won’t be easy at all. A third season is currently being worked on Kota factory.
3 Masaba Masaba
Masaba Masaba has had two seasons so far and features mother Neena Gupta and her daughter Masaba Gupta portraying themselves. The show is written by Sonam Nair and Nandini Gupta, among others, making this a potentially intimate yet fictionalized look into the lives of Neena and Masaba, a fashion designer in India. The story is highly scripted and dramatic with the intention of being a show, not a full-blown biopic, and it shows in the screenplays the two go through. Masaba navigates her love life through the series and the daily struggles of everyday existence as a designer.
2 Delhi crime
Canadian director Richie Mehta conceived Delhi crime, which is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape, where a young woman was fatally assaulted, in the first season. The show’s second season focuses more on the underground gangs that exist in India. However, in the first season, the story follows the tragic crime that happened in Delhi and its aftermath. The police investigation into what happened is concentrated throughout the episodes, as is the search for the perpetrators of the crime. In Season 2, the police try to uncover the truth behind the murders in the area.
1 Sacred Games
Sacred Games was the first Netflix original series from India and was based on a novel by Vikram Chandra. Strongly leaning towards neo-noir territory, the crime thriller focuses on a Mumbai police officer who hates his job due to the massive amount of corruption he has witnessed during his time in the force. One day he receives a call from a missing mobster who says he only has 25 days to save the entire city. It’s now up to this one disillusioned officer to try and put all the pieces of the puzzle together before it’s too late and the violent underworld rises to seize the day.