Hotstar has emerged as a powerhouse in the realm of streaming platforms, offering an array of gripping suspense thriller web series. These shows delve deep into political dramas, crime mysteries, and intense narratives that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Here’s an in-depth exploration of the top five suspense thriller web series available on Hotstar.
Top 5 Suspense Thriller Web Series To Watch On Hotstar
1. City of Dreams
City of Dreams is a Best Web Series To Watch On Hotstar Released on May 3, 2019, Hotstar will provide the Indian political drama television series City of Dreams under the new Hotstar Specials banner. With Atul Kulkarni, Priya Bapat, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, Siddharth Chandekar, and Adinath Kothare in leading roles, it is directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. Tapas Relia is the composer of the music. Reviews were mixed, with some praising Kulkarni’s performance and others criticizing the screenplay and direction.
Concept: Rohit Banawlikar, a member of Kukunoor’s crew, came up with the idea for the show. An anthology that Banawlikar and Kukunoor co-wrote was meant to be made into a feature film. As digital platforms gained popularity in India, Kukunoor thought there might be a chance for a series.
Storyline: Following an attempt on the life of Mumbai’s most divisive political figure, several lives come together. When a single stone is tossed into an otherwise calm lake, it causes a cascade of effects that harm many people. The story of the Gaikwad family rivalry, which starts after a divisive political figure is targeted for assassination, is told in City of Dreams. This captivating story revolves around a power struggle where morality and immorality are blurred.
On April 5, 2019, Criminal Justice was made available Web Series To Watch On Hotstar. Critics gave the movie favorable reviews, highlighting the performances of Shroff, Massey, and Tripathi, the three main protagonists. The second season of Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors was announced in February 2020 by the creators, and it debuted on Disney+ Hotstar on December 24, 2020.On August 26, 2022, the third season of Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach debuted on Disney+Hotstar. It centers on the assassination of a youthful celebrity.
Starcast: Vikrant Massey as Aditya Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi as Madhav Mishra, Jackie Shroff as Mustafa, Anupriya Goenka as Nikhat Hussain, Mita Vashisht as Mandira Mathur, Rucha Inamdar as Avni Parashar, Gaurang Dwivedi as Gautam Parashar, Annapurna Vitthal Bhairi as Sujata Sharma, Ninad Kamat as Sunil Bhandarkar, Rituraj Singh as Dr. Naresh Lakhani, Tuhinaa Vohra as Kanika Lakhani, Madhurima Roy as Sanaya Rath, Sanjay Gurbaxani as Rustom Barucha , Gayatri Gauri as Ronjana, Pankaj Saraswat as ACP Raghu Salian, Dibyendu, Bhattacharya as Layak Talukder, Raaj Gopal Iyer as Constable Namdeo Jadhav, Komal Chhabriya as Rukhsana Hussain, Dhiraj , Totlani as Jimmy D’souza, Rukhsana Behruzi as Justice Smita Thakur.
2. November Story
Indhra Subramanian is the director of the crime thriller television series November Story Web Series To Watch On Hotstar, which airs in Tamil on Hotstar Specials. Tamannaah Bhatia plays the main part in the Vikatan Televistas-produced series, which also stars Pasupathy, G. M. Kumar, and Myna Nandhini. The show is a traditional murder mystery in which several unspoken facts come to light during the investigation into the incident. On May 20, 2021, it was made available on Disney+ Hotstar.
Star Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia as Anuradha Ganesan, Ganesan’s elder daughter, an ethical hacker by profession G. M. Kumar as Ganesan, Anuradha and Mathis father, a crime novel writer Pasupathy as Kuzhandhai Yesu, Mathis foster father, Johnny as vicenarian Kuzhandhai Yesu, Ashwanth as young Kuzhandhai Yesu Namita Krishnamurthy as Mathi, Ganesan’s biological younger daughter and Anuradha’s younger sister
Kuzhandhai Yesu’s adopted daughter Vivek Prasanna as Malarmannan, Anuradha’s best friend, Myna Nandhini as Chithra, Ganesan’s caretaker Aruldoss as Inspector Sudalai, Kimu Gopal as Kuzhandhai Yesu’s assistant, Janaki Suresh as Savitri, Mathi’s caretaker, Pujitha Devaraju as Neeta Ramchandhani, Tharani Suresh Kumar as Sudar Ganesan, Ganesan’s wife Arshath Feras as Binu, K. Pooranesh as Ahmed, Nishanth Naidu as Sandeep Supergood Subramani
3. Aarya
Aarya is an Indian crime-thriller drama Web Series To Watch On Hotstar. Vinod Rawat is the co-director, and Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi co-created the show. Based on the Dutch drama series Penoza, it is produced by Madhvani under the Ram Madhvani Films label in collaboration with Endemol Shine Group. The film stars Sushmita Sen in the lead role. The protagonist of the show is Aarya, a self-reliant lady who joins a mafia organization to exact revenge on those who killed her husband while trying to save her family. The programme has received a nomination for Best Drama series at the International Emmy Awards.
Early in 2011, Madhvani purchased the remake rights to the series with the intention of turning it into a feature picture in 2014. Nevertheless, problems with the cast and the finances ultimately led to the film’s cancellation. Later on, he made the decision to direct it as a web series for Hotstar Specials, the streaming service’s original content label. The first season of the show was filmed in Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur, and Palgadh between December 2019 and March 2020. Harshvir Oberoi is in charge of the cinematography, and Khushboo Raj and Abhimanyu Chaudhary handled the editing. Vishal Khurana wrote the music for the background.
Aarya Sareen, a devoted wife and mother, is the focal point of the Aarya tale. But she is incredibly innocent and doesn’t know about her husband’s illicit ventures. After Tej Sareen, a pharmaceutical mogul, and Aarya’s spouse, is inexplicably assassinated, things go wrong for their family. The criminal organizations and drug traffickers aim to murder his whole family. Aarya joins the gangs in retaliation. The show follows her ascent to the position of mafia queen, determined to exact revenge on those responsible for her husband’s death. She looks after her three children as well while doing this.
Star Cast: Sushmita Sen as Aarya Sareen (Main Character), Udayveer and Rajesh wari’s daughter, Tej’s widow, Sangram, and Saundarya’s half-sister and Veer, Arundhati and Aditya’s mother, Chandrachur Singh as Tej Sareen, Aarya’s husband and Veer, Arundhati and Aditya’s father (Season 1, cameo in Season 2), Viren Vazirani as Veer Sareen, Aarya & Tej’s 1st child, Virti Vaghani as Arundhati “Aru” Sareen (Seasons 1, 2), Aarushi Bajaj as Arundhati “Aru” Sareen (Season 3), Aarya & Tej’s 2nd child Pratyaksh Panwar as Aditya “Adi” Sareen, Aarya & Tej’s 3rd child, Jayant Kripalani as Zorawar Singh Rathore, Rajesh wari’s husband, Aarya’s stepfather, Sangram, and Saundarya’s father
Sohaila Kapur as Rajeshwari Singh Rathore, Aarya, Sangram and Saundarya’s mother
Flora Saini as Radhika “Rads”, Zorawar’s girlfriend (Season 1), Ankur Bhatia as Sangram Singh Rathore, Aarya’s half-brother, Hina’s love interest, Tej’s business partner and Jeet’s father, Sugandha Garg as Hina Khan, Aarya and Maya’s best friend, Sangram’s love interest, Jeet’s mother Priyasha Bhardwaj as Saundarya Singh Rathore – Wilson, Aarya’s half-sister and Bob’s wife (Season 1)
4. Hostages
Hostages is an official remake of the Israeli series of the same name, a crime thriller Web Series To Watch On Hotstar in Hindi for Hotstar Specials. Directed by Sudhir Mishra, the series was written by Nisarg Mehta, Shiva Bajpai, and Mayukh Ghosh. Starring Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra, Parvin Dabas, Aashim Gulati, Mohan Kapoor, and Dalip Tahil; in supporting roles are Anangsha Biswas, Sharad Joshi, Aashim Gulati, Surya Sharma, and Malhaar Rathod. In the series, a famous surgeon who is going to perform a standard surgery on the chief minister is given the order to kill him in order to keep his family from becoming enthralled.
The adaptation’s rights were acquired by Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment in April 2018, and the main production began in May 2018 and ended in March 2019. The series, which was billed as Sudhir Mishra’s digital debut, eventually debuted on Disney+Hotstar on May 31, 2019. Critics had mixed feelings about the series, however, they did laud Ronit Roy and Tisca Chopra’s performances despite their criticism of the writing. For their efforts, the performers finally took home two Gold Awards from the television-based content awards presentation. In April 2020, the series debuted on Star Plus as well.
Star Cast: Ronit Roy as Superintendent of Police Prithvi Singh, Tisca Chopra as Dr. Mira Anand (Season 1), Parvin Dabas as Sanjay Anand (Season 1), Aashim Gulati as Aman
Mohan Kapur as Subramanian, Dalip Tahil as CM Khushwant Lal Handa, Anangsha Biswas as Hyma, Shri Swara Dubey as Saba Singh, Prithvi’s wife, Meenal Kapoor as Sneha (Head Nurse), Amit Sial as Peter George (Morgue Incharge), Faezeh Jalali as Sarah George, Sharad Joshi as Shovan Anand (Season 1),
Malhaar Rathod as Shaina Anand (Season 1) Anuranjan Awasthi as Aditya Sinha (Season 1), Md Azimul Islam Sheblu as Rony hossain (season 1), Prince Kanwaljit Singh as Karnail Singh, head of ATS (Season 2),
Divya Dutta as Ayesha Khan (Season 2), Sachin Khurana as DSP Ashwini Dutt, Dino Morea as Ranbir (Season 2), Shibani Dandekar as Isha Andrews (Season 2), Asif Basra as Asghar Nabi (Season 2), Shweta Basu Prasad as Shikha Pandey (Season 2), Rahul Bagga as Navin, Danish Sood as Rohan, Shikha’s friend and colleague (Season 2), Shilpa Shukla as Shanaya Sahni (Season 2), Danish Husain as Arjun Bhasin / Owais (Season 2), Himanshi Choudhry as Kanika Arora, Journalist (season 2)
5. Special OPS
Neeraj Pandey is the creator and director of the Hindi-language action-suspense thriller Web Series To Watch On Hotstar. Shivam Nair is credited with co-directing the series. In addition, Pandey created the series through Friday Storytellers, a branch of his production company that creates material for the internet. In the film, Kay Kay Menon plays Research and Analysis Wing member Himmat Singh, who assembles a group of five operatives to find the person responsible for the terror strikes that occurred in India.
The script was eventually conceptualised by Neeraj Pandey in late 2010, and Star Plus was supposed to telecast the series at some point, however that plan fell through. In August 2019, he brought the project back to life. The series was filmed in India, with other locations included in Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan. Advait Nemlekar composed the background score, while Sudheer Palsane, Arvind Singh, and Praveen Kathikuloth handled the cinematography and editing. At the first-ever Filmfare OTT Awards, it was nominated eight times and won three of them. With the release of Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story, the second installment of the game, on November 12, 2021, Pandey has turned it into a franchise.
First premise
The show centers on Himmat Singh (Menon) of the Research and Analysis Wing, who believes that a single individual is responsible for all terrorist attacks after noticing parallels in the incidents. His five-person task force team, dispersed across the globe, is tasked with apprehending the mastermind. Special OPS was made available on Hotstar on March 17, 2020. Critics responded favorably to the series.
Star Cast: Kay Kay Menon as Himmat Singh, Karan Tacker as Farooq Ali/Amjad Sharif/Rashid Malik, Vinay Pathak as Abbas Sheikh, Vipul Gupta as Balakrishna “Bala” , Reddy Sajjad Delafrooz as Hafiz Ali/Ikhlaq Khan, Muzamil Ibrahim as Avinash, Saiyami Kher as Juhi Kashyap, Meher Vij as Ruhani Khan Gautami Kapoor as Saroj, Rajat Kaul as Ismail Hassan, Sana Khan as Sonia, Mir Sarwar as Hamid (cameo appearance),
S. M. Zaheer as Noor Baksh, K. C. Shankar as Wasim Karachiwala/Firdaus Sheikh/Jalaal Mansoor, Parmeet Sethi as Naresh Chadda, Rohit Tannan as Moderator for Indo-Pak Meet, Kali Prasad Mukherjee as Mr. D.K. Bannerjee, Divya Dutta as Sadia Qureshi, Sharad Kelkar as IB officer Surya Kumar (extended cameo appearance in episode 8 and some parts of episode 7),
Vaansh Goswami as Mohammad, Pawan Chopra as Chintan, Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as G.P. Mathur, Rajendra Chawla as llliyaas Hassan, Alok Pandey as Pappu Haramzada, Devas Dixit as Lallan and many more. For more updates stay tuned to Punjabi Crowd.
Conclusion
Suspense thriller web series available on Hotstar has redefined the digital entertainment landscape, offering gripping narratives, stellar performances, and compelling storytelling. These shows not only entertain but also challenge viewers’ perceptions, leaving a lasting impact. With their success, they have set a benchmark for quality content in the digital space and continue to captivate audiences, making Hotstar a go-to destination for those seeking thrilling and immersive experiences.
In conclusion, the top 5 suspense thriller web series on Hotstar have left an indelible mark on the digital entertainment landscape, catering to the diverse tastes of audiences and setting new standards for storytelling and performance in the streaming industry.
