Panchayat is an Indian Hindi-language streaming television series created by The Viral Fever for Amazon Prime Video. The series scripted by Chandan Kumar, was directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, which features Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Sanvikaa, Chandan Roy, Durgesh Kumar, Ashok Pathak, Faisal Malik and Sunita Rajwar. It chronicles the life of an engineering graduate who joins as a Panchayat secretary in a remote fictional village of Phulera of Uttar Pradesh due to lack of better job options.
The series was shot in a real panchayat office located in village Mahodiya of district Sehore Madhya Pradesh. Sehore is about 40 kilometres from Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. Mahodiya is about 10 kilometres from Sehore district headquarters. The soundtrack and score of the series are composed by Anurag Saikia, whilst cinematography and editing were performed by Amitabh Singh and Amit Kulkarni respectively. This series is Mishra's full-fledged attempt at direction after directing the respective second seasons of Permanent Roommates and Humorously Yours!.
Panchayat was premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 3 April 2020. The series received mostly positive response from critics, with the performances of the leading actors, scripting, direction and major technical aspects were praised, critics also appreciated TVF, its producers to come up with a rural village setting as compared to the previous projects, which is mostly based on the urban atmosphere. At the inaugural ceremony of Filmfare OTT Awards, the series won all the nominations under the Comedy Series category, except for Best Actress. The series was also nominated for Best Original Story, Screenplay, and Dialogues for Chandan Kumar, although it did not receive a win.
The second season of the series was scheduled to be released on 20 May 2022. However, all the episodes were released two days before the actual release date. In this season, Abhishek is seen taking more interest in village politics and developments alongside preparing for CAT exam.
The series has been renewed for a third season.
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
Main
Jitendra Kumar as Abhishek Tripathi, Panchayat Secretary
Neena Gupta as Manju Devi Dubey, Pradhan Rinky's mother, Brij’s wife
Raghubir Yadav as Brij Bhushan Dubey, Manju Devi's Husband, Pradhan-Pati Rinky’s father Faisal Malik as Prahladchand "Prahlad" Pandey, Upa-Pradhan Chandan Roy as Vikas, Office Assistant Sanvikaa as Rinki, daughter of Pradhan
Recurring
Biswapati Sarkar as Prateek, Abhishek's friend (season 1) Satish Ray as Siddharth Gupta aka Siddhu, Abhishek's Friend (season 2) Sunita Rajwar as Kranti Devi, Bhushan’s wife and Manju Devi’s rival (season 2) Subendhu Chakraborty as Mangal Shrikant Verma as Parmeshwar Ashok Pathak as Vinod (season 2) Pankaj Jha as MLA Chandra Kishore Singh (season 2) Diwakar Dhyani as Sudhir Jaiswal BDO ( Season 2) Sushil Tondon as Bhindeshwar Mubarak Khan as Ward Member 1 Kamal Rai as Ward Member 2 Govind Lobhani as Ward Member 3 Bal Mukund Rai as Ward Member 4 Salim Ansari as Ward Member 5 Mohd. Shakir as Ward Member 6 Dinesh Tiwari as Ward Member 7 Kailash Karoshiya as Ward Member 8 Durgesh Kumar as Bhushan aka Banrakas, Kranti’s husband and Brij and Abhishek’s rival Aanchal Tiwari as Raveena, Parmeshwar's daughter, Rinki's bestfriend Deepesh Sumitra Jagdish as Photographer Sandeep Shikhar as Deenbandhu Jyoti Dubey as Sushma Rajesh Jais as Virendra Gupta (BDO) Aasif Khan as Ganesh, Bride Groom (season 1) Prateek Pachauri as Babloo Dipesh Binyani as BDO's Assistant Ebaabdullah Khan as Dabloo Ankit Motghare as Theka Shopkeeper Usha Nagar as Deenbandhu's Mother Aditya Sharma as Groom's Father/Ganesh's Father Shashie Verma as Master Ji Vishwanath Chatterjee as Sub Inspector Kusum Shastri as District Magistrate Shubham as Goon 1 Prayag Sahu as Goon 2 Arvind Bhagwat as DM's Assistant
