# Begusarai (TV series)

Begusarai is a soap opera that aired on &TV. The show aired from 2 March 2015 to 24 June 2016. It starred Shivangi Joshi, Vishal Aditya Singh, Shweta Tiwari, and Sartaj Gill in lead roles. The show is set in Begusarai, Bihar. The show was produced by Swastik Pictures (Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd.).

## Plot

The intelligent Poonam Kumari dreams of higher studies. Her childhood best friend Priyom is the son of Begusarai's Bahubali Phulan Thakur, whose nephew Lakhan has loved Poonam since childhood. Phulan gets married toqq Lakhan who starts torturing Poonam. Breaking the alliance, Phulan plans a fixed wedding for Poonam and Priyom and they fall in love. Lakhan wreaks havoc on the Begusarai and Thakur families. Poonam decides to marry him, so he will leave Thakur's family alone.
Bindiya, a dancer enters Begusarai to make money by dancing in events. She wants to ruin the Thakurs as her father was the former king of Begusarai whom Phulan killed, bringing Bindiya and her mother on road, and thus becoming the king himself. Once Lakhan and Poonam marry, he again tortures her. Poonam learns about Lakhan's love for her and how he never hurt anyone when trying to woo her; she starts to like and turns him into a soft person, and they get close.
Priyom constantly gets mad at Bindiya's antics and tries to change her. Guddi is pregnant with the child of Poonam's brother, who dies in an accident. For this, Poonam blames Lakhan, and they get separated. Bindiya and Priyom fall in love; he becomes the Bahubali of Begusarai. Priyom tries to stop Mithilesh from killing a cheater business partner, but ends up being collateral and dies by his hands. Bindiya swears vengeance on Mithilesh. The entire family opposes her, except for Poonam and Lakhan. When she decides to file a case against Mithilesh but loses when Badi Amma (Sulbha Arya) locks Poonam in the supply closet. Datta Ji gets out of jail and comes back into the Thakur Haveli. He strips Bindiya in front of the entire Begusarai and drowns her alive. Lakhan and Poonam try to save her but are not able to. He also tries to kill Guddi and her child, but Poonam and Lakhan save her.
Poonam and Lakhan finally reveal their feelings for each other and start a new relationship. Bindiya is revealed to be alive and comes back to get revenge against the entire Thakur family for not coming to save her. She gives mercy to Lakhan and Poonam but tortures the rest of the family members and even kills Datta Ji. Choti Amma's granddaughter, Komal, comes to visit her while Bindiya becomes the Bahubali of Begusarai. Komal starts to fall in love with Lakhan and starts to help Bindiya financially by bringing her a Sarkar business partner. Sarkar demands a lot from Bindiya, which causes Guddi to lose her child and Lakhan and Poonam almost to get a divorce. The Thakur family goes against Bindiya and Komal and try to figure out who Sarkar is. Sarkar is revealed to be Choti Amma (Madhvi Gokhte), who wants revenge on the Thakur family and brought Komal to Thakur Family. In a chase between Komal and Choti Amma and Lakhan and Mithilesh, Komal's car falls off a cliff, and Choti Amma and Komal die. Bindiya is revealed to be pregnant with Priyom's child.
A couple of months later, Poonam and Mithilesh's wife, Maya, have also become pregnant. When all three daughters-in-law celebrate their baby shower and do puja by the river, Guddi is pulled into the water. Everyone looks for her, but not in time, and they find her dead body. It is revealed that Komal is alive and killed Guddi. Komal then kidnaps Mithilesh and Poonam's father in demand that Poonam leaves Lakhan. Mithilesh and Poonam's father tries to run away, but Poonam's father dies in the ensuing chase. Poonam decides to surrender herself for the safety of the Thakur family. Lakhan finds Poonam and Komal and shoots Komal in the chest. Poonam falls unconscious, and Lakhan takes her to the hospital. At the hospital, some goons kidnap Poonam, and it is revealed that Komal was saved after she got shot. Komal shoots Mithilesh and Lakhan, and Poonam dies during childbirth. Bindiya takes the baby and decides to raise him as her own.

### 20 years later

Twenty years later, Bindiya has become Ma Thakurain and takes care of Mithilesh and Maya's children, Soni, Adarsh, Amar, and Samar, her and Priyom's son, Garv, and Poonam and Lakhan's son, Shakti, who looks like Lakhan. Bindiya hates women because of what Komal did to the family. The entire family is scared of her and never do anything she does not like. All the boys are like goons and do everything for Bindiya. Everyone calls her mom, and Maya gets jealous that her kids do not consider her their real mother. The show then brings in Ananya Mishra, the daughter of Ramakant Mishra, a constable who is transferred to Begusarai. Ananya has an older good-for-nothing brother named Mayank (Mithil Jain), who is chatting with Soni online.
Ananya and Shakti first meet when Shakthi saves Ramakant from some goons. He asks for money, but since she has none, he takes her late mother's necklace. She gets it back but also learns he is petrified of his mom. They have funny interactions going on. Mayank and Soni meet secretly, but someone sees them and tells Ma Thakurain (Bindiya). She plans to get Soni married within three days. When Mayank hears of this, he tries to commit suicide. When Ananya finds out the reason behind the suicide, she decides to let Soni and Mayank meet for one last time. But Mayank cheats Ananya and runs away with Soni. When the five brothers find out Ananya helped Soni getting out, they kidnap her and torture them to find out where Soni and Mayank went.
When Ananya gets free, through the help of the police, the police arrest Ma Thakurain and the brothers decide to get revenge. Ma Thakurain gets out of jail, and Soni and Mayank return to Badi Haveli. Ma Thakurain decides to allow Soni and Mayank's marriage, but they live in their house on Mayank's condition. She asks Shakti to make Ananya fall in love with him, and then she will marry all of her sons. Ananya falls in love with Shakti, and Bindiya manages to get her married to all of the sons without interference. When Ananya learns the truth of her sham marriage, she decides to take revenge on the Thakur family and change them for the better. She does not let herself have any relations with the brothers and learns the oldest, Adarsh, is secretly married and is about to have his child.
She gets Adarsh's wife her rights in the house, and Shakthi falls in love with Ananya. Bindiya changes back into her former self when Badi Amma tells her she acted precisely like Datta Ji. Ananya talks to Bindiya and then asks her if she can leave. Shakthi asks her to stay, but she says her trust was broken, and she cannot stay. A few months later, Ananya is shown to be a teacher at a school, and Shakti shows up. He asks her to forgive him and marry him for real, and she finally forgives him. The show ends on a happy note, with Ananya forgiving Shakti.

## Cast
### Main

* Vishal Aditya Singh as
** Laakhan Bhushan Thakur: Bhushan and Rekha's son; Poonam's husband; Shakti's father (2015–2016)
** Shakti Laakhan Thakur: Poonam and Laakhan's son; Ananya's husband (2016)
* Shivangi Joshi as Poonam Jadhav Thakur: Lakhan's wife; Shakti's mother; Priyom's ex-fiancée (2015–2016)
* Shweta Tiwari as Bindiya “Maa Thakurain” Thakur: Priyom's wife; Garv's mother; mother-figure to Shakti, Pintu, Amar, Samar and Soni (2015–2016)
* Sarrtaj Gill as Priyom Phulan Thakur : Phulan's second son; Bindiya's husband; Garv's father; Poonam's ex-fiancé (2015)
* Veebha Anand as Ananya Mishra Thakur: Shakti's wife (2016)

### Recurring

* Rati Pandey as Komal Thakur: Chhoti Amma's relative; Poonam's enemy (Antagonist) (2015–2016)
* Ankit Gupta as Garv Priyom Thakur: Priyom and Bindiya's son (2016)
* Sulbha Arya as Nandita “Badi Amma” Devi: The eldest member of the Thakur family; Phulan and Bhushan's mother; Chhoti Amma's elder sister; Mithlesh, Laakhan, Priyom, Guddi and Rajkumar's grandmother (2015–2016)
* Madhavi Gogate as Chhoti Amma / Sarkar: Badi Amma's younger sister; Komal's relative (Antagonist) (2015–2016)
* Narendra Jha as Phulan Thakur: Patriarch of the Thakur family; Mithlesh, Priyom, Guddi and Rajkumar's father (2015–2016)
* Sudesh Berry as Manohar Rajacharan Thakur / Datta Ji: Phulan's cousin (Antagonist) (2015)
* Harshh Sethi as Bhushan Thakur: Phulan's younger brother; Rekha's husband; Laakhan's father (2015–2016)
* Malini Sengupta as Rekha Bhushan Thakur: Bhushan's wife; Laakhan's mother (2015–2016)
* Darshan Dave as Mithilesh Phulan Thakur: Elder son of Phulan Thakur; Maya's husband; Soni, Pintu, Amar and Samar's father (2015–2016)
* Vaishnavi Dhanraj/Kanishka Soni as Maya Mithilesh Thakur: Mithilesh's wife; Soni, Pintu, Amar and Samar's mother (2015–2016)
** Kanishka Soni replaced Vaishnavi Dhanraj as Maya Mithilesh Thakur (2016)
* Riya Deepsi as Soni Mithilesh Thakur: Mithilesh and Maya's daughter; Pintu, Amar and Samar's sister (2016)
* Manish Naggdev as Adarsh "Pintu" Mithilesh Thakur: Mithilesh and Maya's eldest son; Soni, Amar and Samar's brother (2016)
* Parichay Sharma as Amar Mithilesh Thakur: Mithilesh and Maya's second son; Samar's twin brother; Soni and Pintu's younger brother (2016)
* Mukul Raj Singh as Samar Mithilesh Thakur: Mithilesh and Maya's third son; Amar's twin brother; Soni and Pintu's younger brother(2016)
* Aru Krishansh Verma as Rajkumar Phulan Thakur: Phulan's youngest son (2015)
* Richa Mukherjee as Gauri "Guddi" Phulan Thakur: Phulan's daughter: Mithilesh, Priyom and Rajkumar's sister; Dolt's lover (2015–2016)
* Nikhil Mehta as Dalbir "Dolt" Kumar Mahendra Jadhav: Poonam's brother; Guddi's lover (2015)
* Abhimanyyu Raj Singh as Ramakant Mishra: Ananya's father (2016)
* Mithil Jain as Mayank Ramakant Mishra: Ananya's brother
* Aalisha Panwar as Najma Akhtar Khan (2015)
* Saptrishi Ghosh as SP K N Rai
* Ankit Mohan as SP Avinash Srivastav (2015)
* Dheeraj Miglani as Ghungroo
* Vineet Raina as Bhanu (2015)
* Nandini Singh as Shravani

## Background and production
### Development and writing

After the launch of &pictures in November 2014, ZEE network launched its second channel under the "&" network brand, "&tv", to be launched in March 2015. The channel's original content line-up was announced in early 2015 with "Begusarai" included, announced as a thriller serial . All promos were featured on ZEE.

### Casting

Vishal Aditya Singh as Lakhan Thakur and Shivangi Joshi as Poonam Thakur were cast as the lead. Talking about their characters, "Singh portrays a angry young man and Joshi portrays the simple girl in the show. Shweta Tiwari was cast to portray the negative lead in the show. And talking about her character, she said:
   I play a nachaniya called Bindiya from Begusarai, a small town in Bihar where the Thakur family is based. She is ameethi churi. All the bahubalis in are enamoured by her beauty. She uses this to her advantage as a way to escape her poverty and make way into the powerful Thakur family.
Sartaj Gill was roped to play another important character in the series. But later he quit the show and said:
   “I quit the show because I did not like the way the story was progressing. My character was a Casanova and bindass, but it soon became a homely one and that was the moment when the character lost its importance. That was one of the many reasons, which supported my decision of quitting the show. It started becoming boring for me and the audiences too.”

### Filming

The series is set in Begusarai and the fictional town of Bihar. Filming began in December 2014 and the sets are based in Film City as well as Umargam, Gujarat.

## Awards and nomination

| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
| 2015 | Indian Telly Awards | Best Actress in a Negative Role | Shweta Tiwari | Won |
| 2015 | Indian Telly Awards | Fresh New Face - Female | Shivangi Joshi | Nominated |
| 2015 | Indian Telly Awards | Fresh New Face - Male | Sartaj Gill | Nominated |
| 2015 | Indian Telly Awards | Best Onscreen Couple | Vishal Aditya Singh and Shivangi Joshi | Nominated |
| 2015 | Indian Television Academy Awards | Best Actress in a Negative Role | Shweta Tiwari | Won |
| 2015 | Gold Awards | Popular thriller show | Begusarai | Won |
| 2015 | Gold Awards | Best Actress in Supporting Role | Rati Pandey | Nominated |