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The Gunkatta 100 2024 Edition · Updated 18 November 2024

India's 100 Best Streaming Originals, Ranked by Humans Who Actually Watched Them.

The fourth annual Gunkatta 100 scores every notable Indian OTT original released between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024 — across nine languages, 31 platforms and 1,180+ eligible hours. No algorithm wrote a single line of it. Our 14-person editorial desk and a 22-member jury of working critics watched, debated, argued, and re-watched until the list stopped moving.

4 Annual edition
9 Indian languages scored
31 Platforms audited
0 AI-generated reviews
A still from Panchayat Season 3, last year's Gunkatta 100 #1, showing the panchayat office at golden hour.
94 /100
Reigning #1 — Gunkatta 100, 2023

Panchayat S3

Hindi · TVF · Prime Video · 8 episodes · Released 26 May 2023

“The most quietly radical thing on Indian streaming. It earns its silence, its slapstick, and its 94.”

— Rohan Khanna, Senior Critic, Gunkatta

For twelve months the bar has sat here. TVF's rural comedy-drama out-scored every prestige thriller, every big-budget period piece, and every Netflix-original Hindi limited series on our jury's ballots. The 2024 edition had to clear it. Six contenders came within five points. None cleared it. Until you scroll further down.

See the 2024 #1 below
The Top 10 · Gunkatta 100, 2024

India's 10 Best Streaming Originals of 2024, Ranked & Scored.

The cream. The list every showrunner in Bandra, Hyderabad, Powai and Koramangala quietly asks their PR team about. Scores are out of 100, debated across three rounds by a 36-member jury between 7 October and 14 November 2024. Ties broken by re-watching, not averaging.

  1. 01

    Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar

    Sanjay Leela Bhansali · Hindi · Netflix · 8 episodes · Cited by Variety India & The Ken within 48 hours of release

    96/100 Read review →
  2. 02

    Panchayat S4

    Deepak Kumar Mishra · Hindi · Prime Video · 10 episodes · The defending champion finally meets its match

    93/100 Read review →
  3. 03

    Kohrra S2

    Sudip Sharma · Punjabi & Hindi · Netflix · 6 episodes · Punjab noir tightens, never loosens

    91/100 Read review →
  4. 04

    Poacher

    Ricky Kej & Nimisha Sajayan · Malayalam · Prime Video · 8 episodes · Kerala's worst wildlife crime, told with restraint

    89/100 Read review →
See ranks 05 — 100 Ranks 5–10 published in the print supplement. The full 100, including the 18 titles we told you not to bother with, drops at 9 PM IST on 25 November.
Methodology · Since 2019

How the Gunkatta 100 is actually decided.

Not by an algorithm. Not by a platform deal. Not by a Hindi-only panel. The list is scored, argued and re-argued by a 14-person desk across five cities, audited yearly by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and weighted on a four-pillar rubric that hasn't shifted since the first edition.

  1. A 9-language editorial jury.

    14 full-time critics, 22 contributing writers and 9 regional correspondents across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Bengaluru. Reviews are submitted in English; subtitled interviews in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi and Assamese. No AI-generated reviews — ever.

    Critics
    14
    Writers
    22
    Languages
    9
  2. Four pillars, one score out of 100.

    Every title is scored on Script (35), Performance (25), Craft (20) and Cultural Impact (20). The same rubric has been used for every Gunkatta 100 — no retroactive re-scoring, no platform-friendly curve. Of 4,800 Indian OTT originals reviewed since 2019, 1,200+ have been scored below 60/100 and told not to bother.

    Script
    35
    Performance
    25
    Craft
    20
    Impact
    20
  3. Platform-agnostic, PwC-audited since 2021.

    Gunkatta refuses paid placement from Netflix, Prime Video, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Our platform-agnostic policy has been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers every year since 2021 — a fact no other Indian OTT publication can claim. The Pritam Iyer Editorial Trust holds the masthead to that standard.

    Audit
    PwC
    Since
    2021
    Trust
    Pritam Iyer
The Editors' Note

“The Gunkatta 100 is not an algorithm, a Hindi-only list, or a paid placement. It is 14 working critics arguing — sometimes loudly — about which 100 Indian streaming originals of the past year deserved your evening. We will keep arguing, in nine languages, until you tell us to stop.”

Pritam Iyer & Anwesha Dasgupta Founding Editors · Bandra, Mumbai · Est. 2019
  • Not an algorithm.
  • Not a paid placement.
  • Not a Hindi-only list.
Cited & Referenced By

Read by the outlets serious OTT readers already trust.

In the last 18 months, the Gunkatta 100 annual ranking has been cited, quoted or referenced by — among others — these four mastheads.