General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Avrodh: The Siege Within 2

Avrodh: The Siege Within 2 (अवरोध) is the second season of the Indian Hindi-language war thriller web series Avrodh: The Siege Within, released on the streaming platform SonyLIV on 24 June 2022¹. Like the first season, it is adapted from a chapter of the India's Most Fearless book series by military journalists Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh, but it tells a different story: rather than dramatizing the 2016 Uri attack and the surgical strike that followed, the season follows an income tax officer with an army background who uncovers a plot to destabilize India through terrorism and counterfeit currency¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Platform and release	SonyLIV, 24 June 2022; 9 episodes of about 42 minutes each¹
Source material	Chapter nine, "Just tell me when to begin sir", from India's Most Fearless 2 by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh¹
Lead actor	Abir Chatterjee as Pradeep Bhattacharya, in his Hindi web series debut³
Relationship to season 1	A parallel story, not a direct sequel; the two seasons share some characters but no storyline⁴^•⁵
Setting	2016, with the demonetisation of Indian currency and a Pakistani plot built on counterfeit notes and terror attacks²
Production	Applause Entertainment in association with Juggernaut Productions; directed by Raj Acharya²
Series run	Two seasons, 18 episodes total, 31 July 2020 to 24 June 2022; IMDb rating 7.7/10 from about 4,800 votes⁶^•⁷

Spoilers

Story and characters

The season is set in 2016, when the South Block, the seat of India's defense and foreign ministries, confronts internal economic struggles. Its central figure is Pradeep Bhattacharya, an Additional Commissioner in the International Taxation Department in Mumbai who also serves as a Captain in the Territorial Army of India. Pradeep's alertness leads him to discover a three-stage plan against India devised by Ehsaan Waziri, and unraveling it requires both his intelligence work and his financial expertise¹. The season opens with Pradeep leading a mission in Assam to seize a consignment of counterfeit notes, and his investigations into counterfeiting draw him into a larger terror plot⁵.

Antagonists and officials. Across the border, the businessman Ehsaan Waziri (Sanjay Suri) and the army chief General Aziz (Rajesh Khattar) pursue a shared goal of bringing India to its knees, with Waziri speaking of reviving the glory of the Mughal era⁸^•⁹. Waziri's trusted aide Parveen is played by Aahana Kumra³. On the Indian side, Neeraj Kabi reprises his role as National Security Advisor Shailesh Malviya and Ananth Mahadevan returns as the key officer Satish Mahadevan, while the Prime Minister, played by Vikram Gokhale in the first season, is now portrayed by Mohan Agashe¹⁰.

Demonetisation as plot device. The season weaves the 2016 demonetisation, the overnight banning of high-value currency notes, into its narrative, portraying it as a response to Pakistan's attempt to vitiate the Indian economy with fake currency. Reviewers noted that the story at times reads as a justification for demonetisation, with the Digital India program discussed in high-level meetings with the prime minister³^•¹¹.

Production

The season was directed by Raj Acharya, who also directed the first, and written by Bijesh Jayrajan and Sudeep Nigam, with music by Nirmal Pandya. It was produced by Samar Khan, Aditya Pittie, Sameer Nair, and Deepak Segal for Applause Entertainment and Juggernaut Productions¹⁰^•¹². Abir Chatterjee, a established Bengali film actor known for playing the literary detectives Feluda and Byomkesh Bakshi, said he took the role because the character had many shades, combining physical military work with the intellectual demands of tax investigation, and that the makers were clear about why they had chosen him³.

Relationship to the first season

The first season of Avrodh: The Siege Within, which premiered on SonyLIV on 31 July 2020, was a fictionalized account of the 2016 Uri attack and the Indian Army's surgical strike that followed, based on the chapter "We Don't Really Know Fear" from the first India's Most Fearless book, with Amit Sadh playing Major Videep Singh¹³. The second season draws on the sequel book, India's Most Fearless 2, and has no direct storyline link to the first; reviewers noted the two seasons can be watched independently, joined only by recurring characters such as Shailesh Malviya and Satish Mahadevan and by the series' celebration of the Indian Army⁵^•¹⁰.

Reception

Critical response was mixed. The Times of India gave the season 3.0 out of 5, calling it an intense watch with thrilling action that works in parts⁵. The Hindustan Times was sharply critical, describing the season as lacking subtlety compared with the first and meandering between a counterinsurgency thriller and what the reviewer called a government public service announcement, while acknowledging that the operations and action were well choreographed². Spotboye rated it 4 out of 5, praising the plotting and Abir Chatterjee's understated Hindi debut¹¹. The Telegraph found Chatterjee believable in the lead but criticized the thin development of the characters' personal lives and a low thrill quotient, with the story gripping in some episodes and aimless in others³.

The season concluded the series: the final episode, "Stealth And Wisdom", aired on 24 June 2022, ending the show's run of two seasons and 18 episodes⁶^•¹⁴.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026