The year 2024 has been a bumper one for Indian web content. The record for the biggest and most expensive web series made in India has been broken twice, by shows on two different platforms. There have been other star-studded shows with Bollywood stars galore. But when it comes to viewership, all these mega shows have been outdone by a slice-of-life comedy with no stars.
Most watched Indian web series of 2024
According to a report from Ormax Media, the most watched Indian show on OTT in the first six months of 2024 is Panchayat. The third season of the show, which released on Amazon Prime Video earlier this year, had 28.2 million viewers as per Ormax. It beat Netflix’s Heeramandi, which is at the second spot with 20.3 million. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali show is the most expensive Indian web series with a reported budget of over Rs 250 crore and boasted an all-star ensemble of Bollywood divas. The series whose record Heeramandi broke – Indian Police Force – is at the third spot with 19.5 million viewers. Bigg Boss OTT 3 was the most watched non-fiction show on OTT with 17.8 million viewers as per Ormax.
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Panchayat season 3’s stellar show
Panchayat stars Jitendra Kumar in the lead role along with veteran actors Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav, along with Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa, Faisal Malik, Durgesh Kumar, and Pankaj Jha. While most of these are known names, none of them carry the star power that some of the bigger shows pack. For instance, Heeramandi and Indian Police Force are by star directors – Bhansali and Rohit Shetty respectively. Showtime has Emraan Hashmi while The Night Manager has Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur. But Panchayat beat all of them without that star power. The show is reported to have a budget of Rs 20-30 crore, much lower than the Rs 200+-crore budget of some of the bigger shows.
Panchayat 3 has been hailed for its plot and presentation and applauded for being one of the rare shows to have maintained its quality in a third season. The viewership numbers certainly seem to support that.
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