''P.O.W. – Bandi Yuddh Ke'' is an Indian political

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

television series developed by

Nikkhil Advani Nikkhil Suresh Advani (born 28 April 1971) is an Indian director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He along with his sister, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani, co-founded the entertainment company Emmay Entertainment. Early ...

, and is loosely based on the Israeli drama ''

Prisoners of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

''. The series premiered 7 November 2016 on

Star Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of family dramas, romantic comedies, youth-oriented reali ...

. The show was featured at MAMI film fest followed by a talk with

Gideon Raff Gideon "Gidi" Raff (; born 10 September 1972) is an Israeli film and television director, screenwriter, and writer. He is best known for his creation of the Channel 2 thriller drama series ''Prisoners of War'', from which he later co-developed ...

, who developed ''Hatufim'' for Keshet and served as a consultant for this series. It went off-air after four months of its launch due to low viewership. The show streams on the Indian OTT platform

MX Player Amazon MX Player, formerly known as MX Player is an Indian video on demand and Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service, owned by Amazon (company), Amazon India. The platform currently operates on an Online a ...

Plot summary

After seventeen years in captivity, two soldiers, who seem to share a dark secret, return to their families. The two families try to pick up where they left off, while a government agent tries to expose their dark secret. Meanwhile, the POWs try to acclimatise to the environment that they left 17 years ago. The government agent tries several methods to expose these POWs but ends up in trouble.

Cast

Amrita Puri Amrita Puri (born 20 August 1983) is an Indian actress who mainly works in Hindi films and web shows. She made her acting debut with the romantic comedy-drama ''Aisha'' (2010), which earned her the Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance ...

as Harleen Kaur *

Sandhya Mridul Sandhya Mridul is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films and television. She is most known for her roles in films like '' Saathiya'' (2002) and ''Page 3'' (2005) and was first runner up on the reality dance show '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (Seas ...

as Nazneen Khan * Anurag Sinha as Lt. Siddhant Thakur/Sadiq *

Purab Kohli Purab Kohli is an Indian actor, model and former video jockey. Career Television Kohli started his career as an actor with the 1998 television show '' Hip Hip Hurray'' on Zee TV and earned recognition through video jockeying on Channel V. H ...

Naib Subedar Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kings of Saxony to the Ge ...

Sartaaj Singh *

Satyadeep Mishra Satyadeep Misra (born 27 November 1972) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema, television and web series. He made his Bollywood debut with the 2011 film ''No One Killed Jessica''. He is known for P.O.W. Bandi Yuddh Ke (2016), Tandav (2 ...

Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr or S/L) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Squadron leader is immediatel ...

Imaan Khan *

Manish Choudhary Manish Prakash Chaudhari is an Indian actor who is best known for his character of Sunil Puri in '' Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year''. He made his film debut in the 2003 Indian film '' Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula''. He was also seen in ...

as Major Vikram Singh *

Rasika Dugal Rasika Dugal (born 17 January 1985) is an Indian actress known for her roles in several Indian movies and television productions. She made her screen debut with a small role, in the film '' Anwar'' (2007) and went on to star in many criticall ...

as Shobha Thakur *

Sujata Kumar ''24'' is an Indian Hindi-language action thriller television series which aired on Colors TV, based on the American series of the same name. It aired from 4 October 2013 through 21 December 2013. It was written by Rensil D'Silva and Bhavani ...

as Squadron Leader Iman Khan's Mother (Mrs khan) *

Arun Bali Arun Bali (23 December 1942 – 7 October 2022) was an Indian actor who has worked in numerous films and television series. He played the part of Maharaj Porus in the 1991 period drama '' Chanakya'', Kunwar Singh in the Doordarshan soap oper ...

as Harpal Singh * Parul Gulati as Afreen * Suhaas Ahuja as Salim Khan * Ghazal Thakur as Shaira Khan * Krishh Pathak as Ayaan Khan * Shivani Singh as Naina * Ravinder Bakshi as Satpal Singh * Ragini Sharma as Veera * Anindita Nayar as Dr. Nandini Kapoor * Vrushabh Naik as Arjan *

Denzil Smith Denzil Leonard Smith (born 6 November 1960) is an Indian film and stage actor and producer. Born to Anglo-Indian parents in Mumbai, he is known for his stage and screen roles as a character actor. Smith has acted in over 50 plays and 60 films. ...

as Lala / Rashid Jamal *

Sahil Salathia Sahil Salathia is an Indian actor. Early life and education Sahil hails from a Dogra family in Jammu city. He studied at Punjab University, Chandigarh and worked as a software engineer. Modeling Sahil represented India at Mr. Asia 2012 in Hon ...

as Yusuf *

Sameksha Samiksha Singh (born 8 October 1985), known mononoymously as Sameksha, is an Indian film and television actress. She has played a range of characters in various series and films, in multiple languages including Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Hindi an ...

as Indira Jaisingh * Pramod Pathak * Abhishek Gupta as Santosh * Kanisha Malhotra as Ananya * Abhijeet Sooryvanshe

Production

Development

Star Plus approached Nikkhil Advani after watching his latest film ''

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

'', to direct a show based on the similar plotline on their channel.

had him watch both ''

'' and its American counterpart ''

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

''. Advani sought to make a show like ''Hatufim'' since he thought a show like ''Homeland'' would not suite Indian's sensibilities. The budget of the series was ₹35 crores, and was shot in 90 locations along with about 150 crew members and with a budget of ₹27 Lakh per episode. The series was planned as a finite one for 126 episodes. However, due to very less viewership, it ended with 110 episodes.

Casting

Advani decided to rope in

, Satyadeep Misra,

Manish Chaudhary Manish Prakash Chaudhari is an Indian actor who is best known for his character of Sunil Puri in ''Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year''. He made his film debut in the 2003 Indian film ''Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula''. He was also seen in th ...

and

– the former debuting on the small screen and the latter returning on the small screen after a hiatus of two years. Anurag Sinha makes a major entry post Episode 60 along with Parul Gulati and

in the series as the further story unveils. Theater actor Abhishek Gupta plays RAW officer Santosh and Lala (Rashid Jamaal) is played by

in the series.

Music

Arjuna Harjai Arjuna Harjai is an Indian composer, singer and musician working in Bollywood who is also known for composing advertising music. His association with director Nikkhil Advani, composing music and songs for film '' Guddu Engineer'' and television ...

made his television

debut Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to: * Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society * Debut novel, an author's first published novel Film and television * ''The Debu ...

with this show. He composed all the music tracks, background score, soundtrack, and also sung some songs except the title track. The music received critical acclaim and won both Abby Gold and Bronze awards in the Best Original Score & Soundtrack category for the StarPlus network.

Critical reception

Gursimran Kaur Bangal of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' said "The show has managed to hold us all through the three episodes aired so far. The narrative is gripping and stirs you emotionally. It keeps you glued to what will happen next. This one is not to be missed!" Anvita Singh of ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' praised the show's unique plot, strong female characters, actors and the good cliffhanger. ''

Mid-Day ''Mid-Day'' (stylised as mid-day) is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages including Gujarati and English have been published out of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune so far. In 2011, the Delhi and Bangalore ...

'' has compared the show with its American counterpart and considered that while it aids in etching the underlying theme of the series, the treatment given to the two adaptations are significantly distanced from one another. ''

The Quint ''The Quint'' is an English and Hindi language Indian general news and opinion website founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur after their exit from Network18. The publication's journalists have won three Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism ...

'' stated that the reunion scene of two prisoners could have been shown separately instead of showing both simultaneously in a single frame. It reviewed, "The new mega show of Star Plus, ''P.O.W.- Bandi Yuddh Ke'' lies somewhere between the ambition of cinema to be restrained and the dimness of television to be understood. It chugs along well with occasional attempts of expansive frames, overhead shots, and an enlightened understanding of relationships till the key scene - which quite honestly, disappoints." The show also won several awards including Jury award for best Asian show at Seoul International drama awards and for its promotion and music at the Abby. It also had 12 nominations at the ITA awards, winning in categories such as: Best Drama-Jury, Best Actor-Jury (Purab Kohli), Best Actor in a Negative Role (Denzil Smith).

References

External links

* {{Homeland Indian crime television series Detective television series 2010s Indian television miniseries StarPlus original programming 2016 Indian television series debuts 2017 Indian television series endings Serial drama television series Indian political television series Television shows set in Delhi Television shows set in Punjab, India Television shows set in Jammu and Kashmir Indian Armed Forces in fiction Research and Analysis Wing in fiction Kashmir conflict in fiction Indian espionage television series Television episodes about prisoners of war Indian military television series Secret histories