International drama TV shows are all the rage, and here are the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video right now. Amazon India Originals have been slowly but steadily gaining ground for the Indian audience across the world with some nail-biting thrillers, sports dramas, and relatable slice-of-life content. The OTT platform offers opportunities to some of the best talents in the country who are eager to perform in script-driven content.
With a variety of content, the Amazon Prime Videos produced in India are fast bridging the gap between the commercial and the non-commercial. As more and more quality content is created for this platform, fans’ anticipation goes up exponentially. With some of the best Korean dramas taking the foreground, Hindi dramas are often overlooked. Thankfully, streaming services have introduced the incredible genre to international audiences, and some of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video have taken the world by storm.
10 Mirzapur (2018 – )
While there is full on reality TV entertainment such as Netflix’s The Fabulous Lives Of Bollywood Wives, there are also other things to watch out for as far as Indian content is concerned. A hardcore crime thriller and one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video, this is the story of Kaleen Bhaiya, the head of a crime family in the town of Mirzapur where guns and knives dictate the law of the land. Bloodbath ensues as the trigger-happy son of Kaleen Bhaiya, Munna, unfurls chaos in the land and another family, the Pandits, get involved with the gangsters.
With some stellar performances from a strong ensemble cast, the series keeps fans 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 lies the fate of the town.
9 Hostel Daze (2019 – )
A quirky trip down memory lane, Hostel Daze is one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video and takes audiences back to their hostel days as they slog through engineering college. The first season sets up the premise with relatable characters who are the archetype of individuals that every student would have encountered during their college days.
In the second season, 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. 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 – )
The second stint of the Breathe series was on par with the first and is one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video. It takes fans into the life of a psychiatrist, Dr. Avinash Sabarwal whose six-year-old daughter goes missing for months until Avinash and his wife, Abha, begin to receive cryptic instructions from a mystery man who wants the couple to commit some heinous crimes if they ever want to see their daughter alive again.
The psychological thriller is a commendable effort to address mental health issues, especially multiple personality disorder. Audiences know the protagonist Abhishek Bachchan as the son of yesteryear Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, some of whose greatest movies are highly rated. 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)
Led from the front by actor R. Madhavan, this taut crime thriller delved into the dark side of love, and how far one would be willing to go to save their loved ones. One of the first Indian Originals created for Amazon Prime and arguably one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video, Breathe looked at Danny Mascarenhas and his desperate search for organ donors for his little son, Josh, whose lungs are on the verge of giving up.
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. While Breathe got some mixed reviews from critics, audiences were 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 Lakhon Mein Ek (2017 – 2019)
With two separate stories in two seasons, one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video captured fan’s hearts with its honest performances. Lakhon Mein Ek season 1 focused on Akash from Raipur in India’s Chattisgarh district; his ambition was to break the internet with his videos, but he is forced by his father to join a coaching center that trains students for engineering colleges.
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 rag-tag team of health workers in a remote Indian village. Despite some mixed critical feedback, Lakhon Mein Ek stands out for its likable protagonists trying to find their own way in the midst of others’ expectations and the overarching systems they’re forced to involve themselves with.
5 Jubilee (2023 – )
The Hindi period drama Jubilee hit the streaming service in April of 2023, and it quickly rose the ranks as one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video. 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 begins one month before the Independence Day of India and Partition, seeing producer Shrikant Roy on the hunt for a new lead for his upcoming film Sunghursh. He selects an unknown theater actor named Jamshed Khan. However, there’s a slight problem: Khan is having an affair with Roy’s famous Bollywood actress wife Sumitra Kumari. 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.
4 The Family Man (2019 – )
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 but is in the dark about the true nature of his work. Everyone from his own kids to his extended family looks down upon him for not being ambitious enough and not bringing home the big bucks like almost everyone else.
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.
3 Inside Edge (2017 – )
The very first Amazon India Original and one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video, this series is a dramatized take on the intrigue associated with the world of cricket in India. With a steady ensemble cast, Inside Edge brings alive the murky politics that reigns supreme behind the glamorous universe of T-20 cricket, i.e. the shortened version of the game that is 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, but unfortunately didn’t win.
2 Made In Heaven (2019 – )
Created by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, this Amazon Original is one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video, and offers a sophisticated peek into the myriad layers of the Indian society through the glammed-up lens of the great Indian 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 with it its own 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. Fans waited with bated breath to see if the show deserved a 2020 Emmy win, although it missed the mark.
1 Paatal Lok (2020)
An unabashed glimpse into New Delhi’s dark underbelly, Paatal Lok literally translates as the netherworld, as opposed to the heavens above. In one of the best Hindi original drama series on Prime Video, cynical cop Hathiram Chowdhury gets dragged into an assassination gone wrong of a celebrated journalist and finds himself bang in the middle of a stark cat-and-mouse drama that takes him deeper and deeper into the Delhi 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 did an awards sweep at the 2020 Filmfare OTT Awards, garnering five accolades and six additional nominations. Paatal Lok also won two Indian Television Academy Awards.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
