''Kaun Banegi Shikharwati'' is an Indian Hindi-language

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

original

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

streaming on

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Androi ...

. It is written and directed by Gauravv Chawla and Ananya Banerjee. The series has been produced by

Applause Entertainment Applause Entertainment, a venture of the Aditya Birla Group of Companies, headed by Sameer Nair Sameer Nair (born 1965) is an Indian media executive and business professional currently serving as CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited. He ...

Emmay Entertainment Emmay Entertainment and Motion Pictures LLP is an Indian content production company based in Mumbai, India. It was founded by Nikkhil Advani, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani in 2011. After its inception, it began with full-length feature film ...

. This ten-episode web series was released on 7 January 2022. It stars

Naseeruddin Shah Naseeruddin Shah (born 20 July 1950) is an Indian actor. He is notable in Indian parallel cinema. He has also starred in international productions. He has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare A ...

Raghubir Yadav Raghubir Yadav is an Indian actor, music composer, singer and set designer who works in Hindi films. He made his film debut with ''Massey Sahib'' (1985), in which he played the title role. He has won two International Awards as Best Actor for ...

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Kritika Kamra Kritika Kamra (; born 25 October 1988) is an Indian film and television actress. Kamra is known for playing Arohi in television shows ''Kitani Mohabbat Hai'', Dr. Nidhi in ''Kuch Toh Log Kahenge'', Ananya in ''Reporters (Indian TV series), Rep ...

and

Anya Singh Anya Singh (born 29 December 1992) is an Indian actress who made her debut in Bollywood film ''Qaidi Band'' (2017). After making her acting debut as a minor artist, Singh played her first leading role in Habib Faisal's musical drama film ''Qai ...

in the lead roles.

Plot

It is the story of Raja Mrityunjay Singh Shikharwat, who is broke and owes the Indian government a hefty amount of in unpaid property taxes. To come out of this scenario, he fakes sickness and summons his four estranged daughters, Devyani, Gayatri, Kamini, and Uma. He plans to hold a nine-rounds tournament amongst them, each with a job for the princesses to complete. At the end of this tournament, the winner will be crowned Queen.

Cast

as Raja Mrityunjay Singh Shikharwat *

as Mishraji *

as Devyani Shikharwat Goel *

as Gayatri Shikharwat *

as Kamini Shikharwat *

as Uma Shikharwat *

Cyrus Sahukar Cyrus Sahukar (born 6 August 1980) is an Indian VJ (media personality), VJ and Bollywood actor. He is known for his comic wit in shows like ''Semi Girebaal'' and other such satirical comedy shows, hosting, and spoofs. Early life and educati ...

as Harsh Goel * Varun Thakur as Roop Singh * Anurag Sinha as Veer Singh * Norshang Tamang as Dhanur * Alisha as Padma *

Dino Morea Dino Morea (born 9 December 1975) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Early life Dino Morea was born in Bangalore to an Italian father and an Indian mother. His mother hails from Kalamassery in Kochi. He is the second of three broth ...

* Sahil Salathia

Episode list

Release

ZEE5 announced the launch of a trailer on 23 December 2021 and the series was released on 7 January 2022.

Reception

Critical reviews

Archika Khurana of

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

has given 3.5/5 stars stating that the series is a fun, breezy take on a dysfunctional royal family. Due to its simple writing and weird characters, it is a fine blend of humour and drama. Do not be fooled by the tracksuit and games; the series is not as gory as ‘Squid Game’, but it is a light-hearted dramedy that will bring a smile to your face. Saibal Chatterjee of

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

has given 2.5/5 stars stating that the series is a patchy dramedy. It is a mildly diverting, inoffensive parody of the repercussions of power wielded without responsibility. It does not scale any peak, but it is entertaining enough not to sink into a low work that it cannot find its way out of with a little bit of help from the actors. Shubham Kulkarni of

Koimoi Koimoi is a Bollywood entertainment website providing Bollywood news, box-office reports and film reviews. In January 2021, its Alexa ranking in India was 2530. Origin On 23 November 2009, Contest2win.com and Komal Nahta's Faith Entertainment j ...

has given 2/5 stars stating that the series is a dramedy about a dysfunctional family that falls prey to repetitiveness and confused tonality. The actor Naseeruddin Shah is prolific, but the character becomes repetitive. All the other actors have made justice to their respective roles. The web series like this with more evolved humour deserved depth too. The bar for dramedies about families raised four decades ago by some prolific filmmakers will struggle to live up to them.

References

External links

*
Kaun Banegi Shikharwati
' at

* {{IMDb title, id=tt13062628 Hindi-language web series 2022 web series debuts ZEE5 original programming Indian comedy web series Indian drama web series Comedy-drama web series