After ‘Mirzapur’, 10 Indian Web Series That Deserve Big-Screen Adaptations

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Aug 30, 2026 15:29 IST ⓘ

10 Indian web series that deserve the big-screen treatment.

There was a time when cinema and streaming behaved like neighbours who borrowed sugar but refused to acknowledge each other at parties. Films supplied OTT platforms with stars, while web series offered those stars the freedom to swear, brood and chase villains across eight leisurely episodes. That wall is now being demolished – preferably with the sort of gunfire that announces Kaleen Bhaiya’s arrival. ‘Mirzapur’, which began streaming on Prime Video in November 2018, built a pop-culture empire out of the Tripathi family’s criminal kingdom, Guddu Pandit’s rage and Munna Bhaiya’s complete inability to make a calm decision.

The franchise is now preparing to make the reverse journey from laptop screens to cinema halls. Directed by Gurmmeet Singh and written by Puneet Krishna, the prequel ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ is scheduled to release theatrically on September 4, 2026. Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Rasika Dugal and Shweta Tripathi return, while Jitendra Kumar takes over as Bablu Pandit and Ravi Kishan enters the lawless universe.

That does not mean every successful show now requires surround sound and an interval. A great series can take detours, spend an entire episode on a supporting character and end a season with several questions still open. A film has to arrive with a sharper engine: one mission, one case or one crisis that can welcome newcomers and still make loyal viewers feel rewarded. Simply stapling three episodes together and adding a louder background score will not do.

If ‘Mirzapur’ succeeds in cinemas, however, producers will inevitably begin opening their OTT catalogues with renewed interest. From an overworked spy who cannot escape family group chats to a village where a broken road can trigger a political emergency, these Indian web-series worlds already possess characters audiences would happily buy a ticket to meet again.

Here are some Indian OTT shows we’d love to see on the big screen:

1. The Family Man

Created and originally directed by Raj & DK, ‘The Family Man’ premiered on Prime Video on September 20, 2019. Manoj Bajpayee leads the series as Srikant Tiwari, a government intelligence officer who tackles national-security threats while pretending to have a far less exciting – and poorly paid – desk job. Priyamani plays his wife Suchitra, Sharib Hashmi is his indispensable colleague JK Talpade, and the principal cast has included Neeraj Madhav, Sharad Kelkar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Jaideep Ahlawat and Nimrat Kaur across three seasons. Its magic lies in refusing to choose between spy thriller and domestic comedy: Srikant may be tracking terrorists in one scene and losing an argument to his children in the next.

The big-screen version practically writes its own leave application. Give Srikant and JK one urgent, 24-hour mission, keep Suchi and the children emotionally central, and let the operation move across cities without losing the series’ dry humour. Manoj’s exhausted face is already more expressive than most action sequences, while the show’s supporting characters have become pop-culture fixtures – Chellam Sir’s brief second-season appearance generated a nationwide meme festival of its own. A theatrical chapter could deliver chases and explosions, but its biggest cheer would probably still come when Srikant answers a call from home at the worst possible moment.

2. Paatal Lok

Sudip Sharma created ‘Paatal Lok’, whose first season arrived on Prime Video on May 15, 2020. Directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy, it starred Jaideep Ahlawat as Delhi policeman Hathi Ram Chaudhary alongside Ishwak Singh, Neeraj Kabi, Gul Panag, Swastika Mukherjee and Abhishek Banerjee. What appears to be a high-profile assassination case gradually exposes interconnected worlds of privilege, political influence, caste violence and manufactured narratives. Its second season, released on January 17, 2025 and directed by Avinash Arun, sent Hathi Ram into a murder investigation in Nagaland; it later won the Filmfare OTT Critics’ award for Best Series, while Jaideep won Best Actor in a Drama Series.

Hathi Ram is ideal film material because he does not enter a room like a superstar – he shuffles in looking defeated, notices what everyone else ignored and refuses to leave the case alone. A feature could give him a completely new investigation spanning Delhi and another visually distinctive part of India, with Ansari returning as the partner who still has faith in the system. The series’ power comes from the social machinery behind the crime, so the movie should resist polishing Hathi Ram into a conventional action hero. Let him remain tired, stubborn and frequently underestimated; just give his lonely pursuit the scale of a wide screen.

3. Sacred Games

Before Indian streaming had a template, ‘Sacred Games’ arrived and behaved as though it had already torn up one. Netflix’s first Indian original series premiered on July 6, 2018 and was adapted from Vikram Chandra’s novel. Created by Vikramaditya Motwane, the first season divided its parallel timelines between directors Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap; Neeraj Ghaywan joined Kashyap as a director in the second. Saif Ali Khan played troubled policeman Sartaj Singh, Nawazuddin Siddiqui became gangster Ganesh Gaitonde, and Radhika Apte, Pankaj Tripathi, Jitendra Joshi, Kubbra Sait, Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey populated its enormous, morally corroded Mumbai.

The show did not merely become popular; it helped teach Indian audiences what home-grown prestige streaming could look and sound like. A film should not attempt to squeeze all 16 episodes into a rushed recap. The exciting option would be a new Sartaj-led conspiracy thriller – or a carefully designed continuation that finally resolves the second season’s famously ambiguous last moments. Mumbai, organised crime, political history, apocalyptic stakes and that thunderous ensemble already belong on a giant canvas. And if Gaitonde has to return through a previously unseen chapter, few viewers are likely to complain about narrative technicalities.

4. Asur

Created by Gaurav Shukla and directed for its first two seasons by Oni Sen, ‘Asur’ began on Voot Select on March 2, 2020. Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti play forensic experts Dhananjay Rajpoot and Nikhil Nair, who are pulled into a serial-killer case built around mythology, psychology and the conflict between faith and reason. Anupriya Goenka, Ridhi Dogra, Sharib Hashmi, Amey Wagh and Vishesh Bansal were among the key cast members. The second season moved to JioCinema on June 1, 2023; a third is now preparing to shoot in September 2026, with Gaurav Shukla taking over as director and Arshad and Barun returning.

On paper, forensic science plus ancient philosophy could have felt like a crime laboratory hosting a very intense theology lecture. Instead, ‘Asur’ turned that combination into its signature. A movie could concentrate the formula into a single elaborate ritual, a trail of symbolic murders and a deadline that forces DJ and Nikhil to repair their fractured partnership. The imagery associated with masks, fire, sacred sites and technological manipulation would gain enormously from theatrical sound and scale. Most importantly, a two-and-a-half-hour runtime could make the cat-and-mouse game even tighter: fewer philosophical pauses, more breathless dread.

5. Farzi

Shahid Kapoor entered streaming with fake currency and produced very real numbers. Created, written and directed by Raj & DK, ‘Farzi’ premiered on Prime Video on February 10, 2023. Shahid plays Sunny, an artist who uses his gift for imitation to manufacture near-perfect counterfeit notes; Vijay Sethupathi is Michael, the dogged officer hunting the network, Kay Kay Menon plays kingpin Mansoor Dalal, and Raashii Khanna, Bhuvan Arora and Amol Palekar complete the principal ensemble. Prime Video included a second season, with Shahid and Vijay returning, in its 2026 slate.

There is a pleasing circularity here: ‘Farzi’ was initially conceived as a feature film before Raj & DK expanded it for streaming. A cinema chapter could take Sunny, Firoz, Michael and Mansoor into one audacious counterfeiting operation, letting the visual style luxuriate in printing plates, fluorescent security strips and money raining through the frame. Better still, ‘Farzi’ shares continuity with ‘The Family Man’. A theatrical crossover that puts Srikant Tiwari, Michael and Sunny in the same crisis would turn Raj & DK’s connected universe into an event without needing a cape, a portal or the destruction of Mumbai for the fourteenth time.

6. Kohrra

Netflix’s Punjabi-language noir ‘Kohrra’ premiered on July 15, 2023. Created by Gunjit Chopra, Diggi Sisodia and Sudip Sharma and directed in its first season by Randeep Jha, it followed Punjab policemen Balbir Singh and Amarpal Garundi as an NRI groom’s murder forced buried family secrets into the light. Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti led a cast that included Harleen Sethi, Rachel Shelley, Manish Chaudhari and Varun Badola. Suvinder’s wounded, quietly devastating performance became the show’s emotional centre. A standalone second case arrived on February 11, 2026, with Barun returning and Mona Singh joining as officer Dhanwant Kaur; Sudip Sharma and Faisal Rahman directed the season.

Unlike an obvious action franchise, ‘Kohrra’ would not need to become louder to become cinematic. Its foggy fields, half-empty police stations and homes thick with unspoken resentment are already composed for the big screen. A feature-length murder mystery could pair Garundi with either Balbir or Dhanwant, build around one family and allow the investigation to reach a firm conclusion before the credits. The pleasure would be in watching guilt move silently around a theatre – not in counting bodies. Think less “bigger blast” and more “the entire audience realising the alibi is false at exactly the same moment”.

7. Special Ops

Neeraj Pandey created ‘Special Ops’ and directed it with Shivam Nair. The espionage thriller premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on March 17, 2020, with Kay Kay Menon as Himmat Singh, a R&AW officer convinced that one mastermind connected several major terror attacks. Karan Tacker, Vinay Pathak, Divya Dutta, Saiyami Kher, Muzammil Ibrahim, Meher Vij and Vipul Gupta were part of the main cast. The franchise later expanded with the 2021 prequel ‘Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story’ and ‘Special Ops 2’, which arrived in July 2025. Kay Kay’s controlled performance made Himmat – a spy who can terrify a room without raising his voice – the show’s instantly recognisable centre.

Among the shows on this list, ‘Special Ops’ requires the least convincing. International locations, sleeper agents, surveillance, betrayals and a mission controlled from an unglamorous government office are already Neeraj Pandey’s cinematic home territory. A film could reunite Himmat’s field team for one operation unfolding simultaneously in Delhi and two overseas cities, with the clock supplying the urgency that a long season occasionally loses. Give Kay Kay one interrogation, Vinay Pathak several suspiciously useful contacts and Karan Tacker a chase through an airport, and the interval point will take care of itself.

8. Panchayat

The most unusual candidate may also be the most enjoyable. Created by TVF, written by Chandan Kumar and originally directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra, ‘Panchayat’ premiered on Prime Video on April 3, 2020. Jitendra Kumar plays Abhishek Tripathi, an engineering graduate reluctantly posted as the secretary of the village council in fictional Phulera. Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa, Durgesh Kumar and Sunita Rajwar turned the village into one of streaming’s warmest ensembles. Four seasons had arrived by June 2025, and a fifth was placed on Prime Video’s 2026 slate. The second season also won the inaugural Best Web Series award at the International Film Festival of India in 2023.

No, the movie does not need Bhushan to acquire a helicopter or Pradhanji to defuse a bomb. ‘Panchayat’ could build a wonderful theatrical comedy around a wedding, a village fair, an election recount or a visiting minister whose arrival sends every resident into competitive panic. The larger screen would not enlarge the stakes; it would enlarge the pleasure of laughing with a crowd at Banrakas’s complaints, Vikas’s expressions and Manju Devi’s perfectly timed authority. A Phulera film could prove that cinematic is not another word for expensive – it can simply mean a beloved community gathering in one story, watched by another community sitting together in a hall.

9. Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story

Hansal Mehta and co-director Jai Mehta transformed financial paperwork into pulse-raising drama with ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’. Based on Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu’s book ‘The Scam’, the ten-part series premiered on SonyLIV on October 9, 2020. Pratik Gandhi played stockbroker Harshad Mehta, Shreya Dhanwanthary portrayed journalist Sucheta Dalal, and Hemant Kher, Anjali Barot, Satish Kaushik and Rajat Kapoor appeared in principal roles. Its accessible explanation of a complicated securities scandal, Achint Thakkar’s swaggering theme and Pratik’s magnetic performance made market terminology sound like mass-dialogue material.

Compressing Harshad’s entire rise and fall into one film would sacrifice the detail that made the series special. The smarter big-screen move would be a theatrical chapter within the ‘Scam’ anthology: one sharply defined financial crime, one investigator or journalist following the paper trail and one market day on which fortunes can disappear before lunch. ‘Scam 1992’ proved that audiences will cheer a business deal if the writing makes them understand what is being won and lost. On a cinema sound system, that famous theme alone could make a stock exchange opening bell feel like a superhero entry.

10. Delhi Crime

Created, written and directed in its first season by Richie Mehta, ‘Delhi Crime’ premiered on Netflix on March 22, 2019. Shefali Shah led the ensemble as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, with Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang and Adil Hussain among the principal cast. The first season followed the police investigation after the 2012 Delhi gang rape, deliberately concentrating on procedural labour rather than depicting the assault. Subsequent seasons introduced different cases; the third, directed by Tanuj Chopra and featuring Huma Qureshi, arrived in November 2025. In 2020, Delhi Crime won the International Emmy for Drama Series – the first Emmy awarded to a programme from India.

Any theatrical version would require the same restraint that made the show respected. The answer is not to sensationalise a real tragedy, but to place Vartika and her team inside a fictional, time-sensitive investigation that can stand alone. Shefali’s authority, Rasika’s watchfulness and Rajesh Tailang’s grounded presence can hold a cinema screen without artificial heroics. Interestingly, Richie Mehta initially considered a feature before concluding that the research behind the first case required a series. A new, deliberately film-sized case could complete that circle – provided it treats the victims as people, not plot devices, and understands that seriousness does not require spectacle.

Honourable Mentions

The queue outside the imaginary casting office is already long. ‘Rocket Boys’ could turn one chapter from India’s scientific history into a sweeping period film; Tamil thriller ‘Suzhal: The Vortex’ has the setting, ritual and mystery for a striking theatrical case; ‘Dahaad’ could send Sonakshi Sinha’s Anjali Bhaati after a new predator; and ‘Jubilee’ already possesses enough old-Bombay glamour to fill the widest screen available. Even ‘Gullak’ could work as a warm family film built around one Mishra household crisis. Not every adaptation needs to continue the original plot – sometimes the characters and the world are the real franchise.

‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ will be the immediate test of whether affection built through private binge-watching can be converted into the shared electricity of a cinema hall. If it works, the lesson should not be that every hit web series needs a movie. It should be that certain characters become bigger than the device on which audiences first met them. The best theatrical spin-off will offer a complete new story, preserve the tone that created the fandom and remain welcoming to somebody who has never watched a single episode. Do that, and Indian OTT may not merely feed cinema its stars – it may give theatres their next generation of franchises.