''Gangstars'' is a 2018 Indian

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

series in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

, produced by Swapna C Dutt, Chakravathi Gutta, Sanjay Reddy, Anil Pallala under the Early Monsoon Tales and Silly Monks Entertainments banner and directed by Ajay Bhuyan. The series was created by

B. V. Nandini Reddy B. V. Nandini Reddy is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema and television. She debuted with 2011 Telugu film, ''Ala Modalaindi''. Early life Nandini Reddy was born in Hyderabad. Her father Bharath. V. Reddy was ...

. The series stars

Jagapathi Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Rao Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in a few Tamil, , Kannada and Malayalam films. ...

Navdeep Navdeep Pallapolu (born 26 January 1986) is an Indian actor and television personality who appears in Telugu films along with Tamil films. He made his film debut in 2004 with the patriotic sports drama '' Jai''. He starred in films such as ''Ar ...

Shweta Basu Prasad Shweta Basu Prasad is an Indian actress. She has acted predominantly in Hindi films and television. She won the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for her role in ''Makdee''. Personal life Shweta Basu Prasad was born in Jamshedpur, in ...

Siddu Jonnalagadda Siddharth "Siddhu" Jonnalagadda is an Indian actor, screenwriter, playback singer and editor who works in Telugu cinema. He debuted in a lead role with the film '' Life Before Wedding'' (2011). Jonnalagadda went onto to co-write and star in film ...

Apoorva Arora Apoorva Arora is an Indian actress and model who appears in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Kannada films. She has also appeared in various web series and music videos. Career She stars in Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi and Gujarati films. She enter ...

and music is composed by

Sai Karthik Sai Karthik is an Indian music composer, multi instrumentalist, and playback singer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. Although he entered the film industry as a drummer for live shows, he soon turned film composer with the film ...

. It is the first ever Amazon Prime Video original series in Telugu, and has 12 episodes with dubbed versions in Tamil and Hindi.

Plot

The series is set in the backdrop of the film industry and involves two movie stars, two ex-lovers, and one gangster. How one incident sets up a chain of events in motion and interconnects the lives of all these characters, interspersed with murder is the intriguing crux of the narrative.

Cast

Main

as Kumar Das "K.D.", a gangster who has been informed that he has cancer and is going to die *

as Vishwa, an arrogant and controversial film hero. *

as Aishwarya, a haughty film actress *

as Ajay, who tries to become a film director. He is the manager of Aishwarya. *

as Keerthi, who tries to become a film producer and manager of Vishwa

Recurring

Sivaji Sivaji is an Indian actor who appears in Telugu films. He won Nandi Award for Best Male Dubbing Artist for the movie '' Dil'' (voice for Nitin). Career Sivaji is from Narsarsopet in Guntur district. Sivaji started his stint as an editor in ...

as C.I.Anjaneyulu, a corrupt police officer *

Posani Krishna Murali Posani Krishna Murali (born 22 January 1958) is an Indian screenwriter, actor, director and producer who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He worked as a writer for over 150 Telugu films and directed a number of films. In 2009, he also conte ...

as Blockbuster Paala Subramanyam, a film producer who produces the movie for helping KD *

Thagubothu Ramesh Ramilla Ramesh, better known as Thagubothu Ramesh, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Telugu films. He is a recipient of Nandi Award for Best Male Comedian. He got the moniker "Thagubothu" as he portrayed several roles as a drunkard. ...

as Rani Rajkamal, Aishwarya's make-up *

Krishna Bhagawan Krishna Bhagavan (), (born 2 July 1965) is an actor in Tollywood, who has appeared in more than 350 films, mostly as a comedian. He is also well known as a writer. Early life Krishna Bhagavan was born Veeraraju Paparao Chowdary in Kaikavolu ...

as P.K.R., Vishwa's father *

Rahul Ramakrishna Rahul Ramakrishna (born 15 January 1991) is an Indian actor, writer and journalist. He made his debut with the short film, ''Sainma''. He became popular with his role in the 2017 Telugu film, ''Arjun Reddy''. Early life Rahul Ramakrishna was b ...

as Red, K.D.'s brother-in-law * RJ Hemanth as Vicky, Ajay's friend * Radio Mirchi Kiran as Director of the film * Ranam Venu as an ad film director *

Raja Ravindra Raja Ravindra is an Indian actor predominantly appears in Telugu films and TV serials. Apart from Telugu films, he has acted in several Tamil films and a few Kannada and Malayalam movies. He started his career with TV serials and entered into fi ...

as Ajay's father *

Dhanraj Dhanaraj may refer to: People *Dhanraj (actor), Telugu actor and comedian *Dhanraj Bhagat (1917–1988), Indian sculptor *Dhanraj Giri (1811–1901), Indian abbot of Kailash Ashram * Dhanraj Pillay (born 1968), Indian field hockey player * Dhanr ...

as a choreographer * Ananth as a producer * Rallapalli as astrologer * Sanjay Reddy as a doctor *

Uttej Uttej is an Indian actor and screenwriter who works in Telugu films. He won the Nandi Award for Best Male Comedian for the film ''Chandamama'' (2007). Personal life Uttej was born and brought up in Nalgonda district. He is the nephew of note ...

as Gopal, ward boy in the hospital who has taken debt from K.D. *

Annapurna Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the difficu ...

as Keerthi's grandmother *

Aishwarya Aishwarya (Devanagari : ''ऐश्वर्य'') is a Hindu Indian or Nepalese male or feminine given name, which means "prosperity" and "wealth". Notable people named Aishwarya * Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran (born 1971), Indian actress * Aishwar ...

as Priyamwada, Keerthi's mother *

Sri Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

as Keerthi's aunt *

Hari Teja Hari Teja is an Indian actress and television presenter, who works in Telugu-language films and television. She is also a professional Kuchipudi dancer. She contested on the reality TV show ''Bigg Boss 1'', and stood in third place. Early an ...

as Girija, K.D.'s wife * Mounima as Jahnavi / Jaanu, a journalist * Gayatri Gutta

Reception

Haricharan Pudupeddi of the ''

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...

'' called the series a "wasted opportunity". He added that "Despite having so much talent at its disposal, the show fails to rise above a very predictable story of action and comedy." Hemanth Kumar CR writing for ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, And ...

'' stated that "''Gangstars'' feels like a missed opportunity to create something unique and charming. It has its moments when it takes a sly dig at the film industry, but when it focuses on its own story, it becomes too self-aware of what it wants to do and it never finds its groove."

References

{{Amazon Video original series 2018 Indian television series debuts Amazon Prime Video original programming Indian thriller television series Television series about filmmaking Indian crime drama television series Telugu-language web series