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Panchayat is an Indian Hindi-language comedy drama web series created by The Viral Fever for Amazon Prime Video. Written by Chandan Kumar and directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra & Akshat Vijaywargiya, the series stars Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, and Sanvikaa, alongside Durgesh Kumar, Ashok Pathak, Sunita Rajwar and Pankaj Jha. It follows an engineering gradu...

Panchayat is an Indian Hindi-language comedy drama web series created by The Viral Fever for Amazon Prime Video. Written by Chandan Kumar and directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra & Akshat Vijaywargiya, the series stars Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, and Sanvikaa, alongside Durgesh Kumar, Ashok Pathak, Sunita Rajwar and Pankaj Jha. It follows an engineering graduate who becomes the secretary of a gram panchayat in the fictional village of Phulera in Uttar Pradesh due to limited job opportunities. The series premiered on 3 April 2020 and received critical acclaim for its writing, performances, and portrayal of rural life. It has four seasons as of June 2025. In July 2025, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which is scheduled to premiere in 2026. Premise The series deals with the experiences of an urban engineering graduate, unfamiliar with village cultures, who on completing his degree gets a low-salary position as a secretary of a Gram panchayat in a remote village called Phulera in Uttar Pradesh. Cast and characters Source Episodes Overview Season 1 (2020) Season 2 (2022) Season 3 (2024) Season 4 (2025) Production Development In late 2019, The Viral Fever signed a deal with the streaming platform Amazon Prime Video to produce a new streaming television series for their platform, after the success of their previous collaboration Hostel Daze. Sameer Saxena, the creative head of TVF picked Chandan Kumar and Deepak Kumar Mishra to script the show and direct the series. Mishra earlier directed theatre shows and drama in the past, and in his meeting with the founder and then-creative head of TVF, Arunabh Kumar, he expressed his interest in scripting, acting, and direction. Later, he went on to direct the respective second season of Permanent Roommates and Humorously Yours. This was his first maiden attempt at directing a full-fledged streaming series for the media. Mishra drew inspiration from the classic Doordarshan shows Malgudi Days, Potli Baba Ki, Swami and Tenali Rama, and decided to make one of them relatable to the current scenario stating that the kinds of shows are not present in this period. He and Chandan did extensive research and travelled across villages for an idea about the script, which was progressed in 2017, but had been delayed due to the research work. Chandan finally drafted the script whose one-line is about an engineering graduate who joins a low-paid salary job in a remote village and initially titled SDO Saheb, before they changed the title to Panchayat. We wanted to show realism. Usually, villagers are portrayed as 'bhole-bhale' log (simple people), who are ignorant and are shown in a very strange way. People raised their fingers saying that our story was slow, took time to sink in, and without any action, or a leading lady. But my writer and I were clear that we wanted to show a village in 2020 and probably the audience liked that realism. Today's rural youth is watching YouTube on mobile, they make TikTok videos, on 'khaprail' (clay-tiled) roofs they have dish antennas, flat-screen TVs are fitted on mud walls...so it's a different world now! Casting For the main character Abhishek Tripathi, Sameer Saxena picked Jitendra Kumar, who opined that his similarities to the character of the protagonist and the regular collaborations with TVF made it possible. His character had strong similarities with that of Mohan Bhargav, portrayed by Shah Rukh Khan in the 2004 film Swades. About the contrast differences Kumar stated that "The comparisons were inevitable. But I am very happy about it, as I am a huge fan of the film. It left a deep impact on me. I even have a framed poster of the film — the one with SRK sitting in a boat surrounded by local villagers — in my home itself". Neena Gupta plays the role of Manju Devi, the village Pradhan, and a homemaker. She initially accepted the script on the basis of the response to TVF's previous projects as well as their collaboration with Raghubir Yadav and Jitendra (in her second collaboration after Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, in which she played the latter's mother character). Yadav played the role of Brij Bhushan Dubey, husband of Manju Devi, and on the connection with his co-star, he stated "It was a great experience to work with Neena Gupta. She used to get into the character entirely. With her, it didn't feel we are here for acting". Yadav's student, Chandan Roy, played the role of Vikas, the office assistant. He initially confessed that he used to go to auditions every day and one of his friends at the casting bay called him for a small role in the series, which was supposed to be shot in a single day. He initially travelled to Bhopal to shoot for the same series and met one of the assistants in TVF, where the creative team sent a script for Vikas and also got the role, whereas Deepak Kumar Mishra shot the one-day portion which was initially offered to Roy. Filming The series was shot in a real panchayat office located at Mahodiya Village, Sehore district in Madhya Pradesh, whereas the script was set in a fictional backdrop in Uttar Pradesh. According to the lead actor Jitendra Kumar, the series was shot in the month of March and April 2019, which wrapped within two months. However he opined as, during the time period, the temperature was extremely hot and was difficult to shoot, further adding that it was a tough time for the crew members who were 150 in number, as many used to stand in the fields holding umbrellas or lights. Raghubir Yadav eventually said about shooting in real locations, stating that "It turned out to be really well as the aesthetics and the vivid hues of the village life can be clearly seen in the show." In an interview with Hindustan Times, Jitendra stated "My initial understanding of a panchayat was a big tree with five PANCH or sarpanch and other people sitting in its shade. They are usually fighting over a land dispute and come up with a solution right there. But actually, a Panchayat is like an office and every panchayat follows a process. The show talks about the problems of villagers which appear to be very funny for us." Location The series was filmed at a real panchayat office in Mahodiya, Sehore district, Madhya Pradesh, located about 40 km from Bhopal. It marked Deepak Kumar Mishra’s first full-length directorial project following his work on the second seasons of Permanent Roommates and Humorously Yours!. The soundtrack and background score were composed by Anurag Saikia, while cinematography and editing were handled by Amitabha Singh and Amit Kulkarni, respectively. Soundtrack Anurag Saikia composed the soundtrack and background score for Panchayat. The background score and songs include the use of acoustic guitars, a pianist, an accordion, and the kora, despite the setting in rural India. Saikia initially noted that "The creative producer Abhijeet Singh Parmar wanted 'anything but the usual music,' So we initially tried symphony, then rock, and even jazz. The music for episode one took a month or two to be locked in. Once that was in place, we decided to keep the music acoustic and minimalist". He initially added that the biggest challenge for him is to feature an ambient sort of music, with a bit of rock. However, the score featured only acoustic instruments. Saikia, in an interview with Scroll.in opined that "When an entire score for a scene got chucked, I had to bring the musicians back to the studio, and they often played for the same scene thrice a week. This happened with the theme that is used to introduce the village pradhan's husband." One of the songs in the series, "Hiya Tho", was received positively by the audience for producing a soulful tune with gibberish lyrics. The word "Hiya", stands for heart in Assamese. Due to his early exposure to Assamese and Western classical music, Anurag Saikia stated that "the song is inspired by the chants we have grown up hearing in monasteries in the North East". He recruited fellow Assamese singer Shankuraj Konwar for vocal duties since he would understand the song's Assamese roots. The original soundtrack album for the series was unveiled on 10 April 2020, followed by the original score on 1 May 2020. The soundtrack features five songs and theme music, all have been performed and written by Saikia, whereas Vivek Hariharan, Raghav Chaitanya, Vinnie Hutton, and Shankuraj Konwar sang the vocals. The background score which released as a separate album format features sixteen tracks Release Season 1 Amazon Prime Video announced the release of eight new Indian originals in January 2020, with Panchayat being one of them. The official trailer of Panchayat was released on 29 March 2020. The eight-episode series premiered on 3 April 2020. Season 2 On 28 April 2022, the second season was announced after the completion of the production. On 2 May 2022, it was announced that the second season will premiere on 20 May 2022. However, Prime Video released all the episodes on 18 May 2022, two days earlier than its actual premiere date. Season 3 Deepak Kumar Mishra revealed to social media that there would be a Panchayat Season 3. It was later confirmed that season 3 would also have eight episodes like the previous two seasons and would be released in late 2023. However, it was further delayed to early 2024. Finally, after many delays, it released on 28 May 2024. Season 4 On 3 April 2025, marking the fifth anniversary of the series, the makers originally announced that its fourth season will premiere on 2 July 2025. Later, the date was changed to 24 June 2025. Season 5 On 7 July 2025, TVF and Amazon Prime Video announced on social media that the fifth season will be released in 2026. Reception Panchayat received mostly positive reviews from critics who praised its writing, performances, direction, and technical aspects. The show's rural setting was appreciated as a refreshing change from the urban themes often seen in TVF’s earlier shows. At the inaugural Filmfare OTT Awards, the series won multiple awards in the comedy category except for Best Actress. It was also nominated for Best Original Story, Screenplay, and Dialogues for Chandan Kumar. Critical response Season 1 Sreeparna Sengupta of The Times of India rated four out of five stars and wrote "What keeps Panchayat ticking are the well-timed dialogues and situations that keep you chuckling all along." Nandini Ramanath of Scroll.in wrote "The series is better placed to explore the foibles of its handful of characters. Panchayat unfolds as a comedy of mofussil manners. A proposal to install solar-powered lights teaches Abhishek the art of negotiating with the locals. A poorly phrased slogan for family planning leads to the discovery of hidden allies. The theft of a computer monitor is a sign that Abhishek is finally settling into his role." Ruchi Kaushal of Hindustan Times stated "Panchayat is a perfect example that what you really need to make a series sing is a solid script. If you are looking for something beyond the good old Ramayan and Mahabharat during the lockdown, Panchayat should definitely be on your must-watch list." Ektaa Malik of The Indian Express gave three-and-a-half out of five stating "Panchayat incisively breaks the dual-tone presentation of the Indian small town in mainstream narratives. Jitendra Kumar is continuing his fine form after Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and his 'hairan-pareshan' expression has only gotten better. Though we wonder how long will he keep doing these underdog-needs-to-be-rescued roles." Nairita Mukherjee of India Today summarised "Panchayat teaches us why rural India is possibly more equipped to handle isolation compared to its urban counterparts. Jitendra Kumar and Raghuvir Yadav drive the show, but we wanted to see much more of Neena Gupta." Saraswati Datar of The News Minute stated "There are plenty of laughs but just as many genuine moments of emotion which force you to pause an