The most-anticipated Hindi web series of 2023 (2024)

Mumbai,UPDATED: Dec 27, 2022 20:31 IST

Shahid Kapoor, Kajol, Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Dulquer Salmaan are just some of the actors who will make their streaming debut and the second season of some of the most acclaimed shows will release in 2023. With no box-office figures and TRPs to contest for, the race for subscribers will only get more heated.

The Good Wife—Pyaar, Kanoon, Dhokha (Disney+ Hotstar)

After doing a Netflix film (Tribhanga), Kajol makes her series debut with The Good Wife, an adaptation of the popular US TV drama of the same name. It marks the first time Kajol gets into the robe of a lawyer. Directed by Suparn Varma, whose credits include The Family Man 2, and produced by Banijay Asia, it will be Hotstar’s biggest offerings in 2023.

Farzi (Amazon Prime Video)

Everybody wants to work with Raj & DK. Unsurprising since the duo has been on a roll since the release of horror comedy Stree, which they co-wrote, and The Family Man became a sensation. For their second series, the two have brought together Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi (most likely his Hindi-language debut), Kay Kay Menon and Amol Palekar among others for what Amazon Prime promises will be a “fast-paced, edgy one-of-a-kind thriller”.

Guns & Gulaabs (Netflix)

Oh look another Raj & DK show! The writer-director duo make their Netflix series debut with a crime comedy, and in a reiteration of the ‘Everybody wants to work with Raj & DK’, this one also has quite an ensemble. Rajkummar Rao, Dulquer Salmaan, Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger and Hostel Daze fame) and Gulshan Devaiah are a bunch of misfits in what Netflix describes as “a deliciously wicked tale of crime, love and innocence that uniquely blends the romance of the 90s with a fast-paced crime-thriller”. There will be bullets but there will also be laughs.

Made in Heaven 2 (Amazon Prime Video)

With Made in Heaven, a drama about two wedding planners, creators Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti presented the privileged and middle class New Delhi with a perfect mix of socio-cultural insight and wry humour. Yes, there were weddings with drama, but there was also diversity, conflict, passion; and at the crux of it was a lovely friendship story with Sobhita Dhulipala and Arjun Mathur setting BFF goals. Delivering an equally good second season isn’t an easy task, but if anybody can it is the jodi of Akhtar and Kagti.

The Night Manager remake (Disney+ Hotstar)

The other big Disney+ Hotstar venture is the espionage thriller featuring Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sobhita Dhulipala. Based on John le Carre’s novel, the British show was a sensation which expanded the fan base of both Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, who played a covert agent and arms dealer respectively. Another Banijay Asia and Hotstar collaboration, it will mark the OTT series debut of both Kapoors and is directed by Sandeep Modi of Aarya fame.

Rocket Boys 2 (SonyLIV)

To make a show with plenty of science talk engaging is not an easy feat, but director Abhay Pannu managed the impossible. Season two of Rocket Boys will continue with the journeys of Dr Homi Bhabha (Jim Sarbh) and Dr Vikram Sarabhai (Ishwak Singh) but is likely to devote more screen time to the rise of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (played by Arjun Radhakrishnan). Pannu’s ability to celebrate his real heroes but simultaneously present them as fallible humans makes this drama compelling.

Scam 2003: The Telgi Story (SonyLIV)

Given how well-received The Harshad Mehta Story was and how it changed the fortunes of both Pratik Gandhi and director and showrunner Hansal Mehta, all eyes will be on this to see if SonyLIV and Applause Entertainment have a successful franchise on their hands. The makers this time around turn their attention to Abdul Karim Telgi, the mastermind of the Stamp Paper scam of 2003. Like the first one, this too is based on a book, Reporter Ki Diary, by journalist Sanjay Singh, who broke the Telgi story.

Mehta, Gandhi and Applause are also collaborating on a series on Gandhi, which is likely to drop in 2024.

Soup (Netflix)

Two of India’s finest actors, Manoj Bajpayee and Konkana Sensharma, team up for this dark comedy crime show, which is loosely based on a true-life incident. That they are directed by Abhishek Chaubey, whose filmography includes the Ishqiya films, Udta Punjab and Sonchiriya, makes this outing all the more enticing. Konkana plays Swathi Shetty, an incompetent cook who dreams of having a restaurant of her own, while Manoj is Prabhakar, the suspicious husband who won’t help with her aspirations.

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