Dil Bekaraar

Dil Bekaraar is an Indian romantic comedy television series directed by Habib Faisal based on the 2013 novel Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan. The series stars Akshay Oberoi, Sahher Bambba, Anjali Anand, Raj Babbar, Padmini Kolhapure, Sukhmani Sadana and Poonam Dhillon. The series premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 26 November 2021.

Plot

Set in the 80s, the 10-episode series Dil Bekaraar revolves around the day-to-day shenanigans of Justice LN Thakur, his wife Mamta and their alphabetically named five daughters Anjini, Binodini, Chandu, Debjani and Eshwari.

Cast

Akshay Oberoi as Dylan Shekhawat
Sahher Bambba as Debjani Thakur
Raj Babbar as LN Thakur
Poonam Dhillon as Mamata Thakur
Anjali Anand as Binodini Thakur
Sukhmani Sadana as Anjini Thakur
Medha Shankar as Eshwari Thakur
Sanya Thakur as Chandu Thakur
Chandrachur Singh as Hardik Motla
Aditya Kapadia as Gulgul Thakur: AN and Bhudevi's son
Pankaj Kalra as AN Thakur: LN's younger brother; Bhudevi's husband; Gulgul's father
Padmini Kolhapure as Bhudevi Thakur: AN's wife; Gulgul's mother
Apeksha Porwal as Mitali Pednekar: Dylan's ex–girlfriend
Suhel Seth
Tej Sapru as Sahas Shekhawat
Sonali Sachdev as Juliet Shekhawat
Aishwarya Aher as Natasha
Surabhi Tiwari as Aap Aur Hum Show Host
Kaisha Bhutani as Hardik Motla's daughter
Kisha Arora as Bonu's Kid
Aditya Jain as Jay Kakkar
Hitesh Arora as Vicky
Alekh Angal
Arjun Berry
Shataf Figar as Amitabh Bose
Krishna Kant Singh Bundela as Yoga Instructor
Sharat Sonu as Surendra Makhija
Shiva Kumar as
Prateek Kapoor as Basketball Coach
Surya Mittal as Viewstrack News Host
Sahil Takhi as CBI Inspector
Sajid Hussain as Cameraman
Ravindra Pal as Bartender
Gurpreet Kaur as Dolly Ahluwalia
Punesh Tripathi as Lineman
Pawan Utwani as Friend
Mahendra Vaswani as Advocate
Ajay Madhok as Home Minister
Shweta Padda as Sarala Narang
Siddhant Shukla

Production

In 2019, Star India had commissioned the series adaptation of Anuja Chauhan's 2013 novel Those Pricey Thakur Girls for its then streaming service Hotstar under the newly created label Hotstar Specials as the rights for the adaptation was rebound to Chauhan.

Casting

In early July 2021, Medha Shankar was reportedly cast in the series. By the end of July 2021, casting was completed for the lead roles.

Release

All episodes of the series were premiered on Disney+ Hotstar in India, on Hulu in the United States and on Hotstar globally on 26 November 2021.

Promotion

The series was unveiled by Disney+ Hotstar as part of the SpecialsX21 line-up along. The first teaser was released in early November 2021 followed by the trailer.

Reception

Archika Khurana of The Times Of India rated the series three out of five and overall praised the story ‘Dil Bekaraar,’ with its family drama and romance set in the era of telegrams, typewriters, Doordarshan, and Campa Cola, will definitely take you down the memory lane while recreating the 80s magic. It's enjoyable!. Biswadeep Ghosh of National Herald noted that Dil Bekaraar will make us yearn for those lost years from not-so-far-back in time and might end up binge-watching it on a weekday. Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in highly praised the performance of the cast and the story that recalls the 80s India. Shreemayee Das of Firstpost noted that the series did a great job of building the world of DD, Campa Cola, and imported perfume and with the help of the opening theme and credits the audience would be immediately placed in that world.