General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Baai Tujhyapayi

Baai Tujhyapayi (बाई तुझ्यापायी) is a 2025 Marathi-language web series directed by Nipun Dharmadhikari and streamed on ZEE5, in which a teenage girl in a 1990s Maharashtrian village conceals the onset of puberty to escape an early marriage and pursues her dream of becoming a doctor.¹^•² It is a period family drama adapted from the Tamil ZEE5 series Ayali, written by Muthukumar.²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	31 October 2025, exclusively on ZEE5, all seven episodes released the same day³
Setting	1990, the fictional village of Vesaicha Vadgaon, Maharashtra⁴
Premise	Ahilya hides her puberty to avoid child marriage and works toward becoming a doctor⁵
Format	7 episodes, 24 to 38 minutes each; Marathi audio with English subtitles³^•⁶
Director and writers	Nipun Dharmadhikari (director); Nikhil Khaire and Mukta Bam (writers)²
Production	Sixteen by Sixty-Four Productions; producers Keyur Godse and Niraj Biniwale; music by Sarang Kulkarni⁷
Source material	Adapted from the Tamil ZEE5 series Ayali (2023), written by Muthukumar²^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise and setting

The story takes place in 1990 in Vesaicha Vadgaon, a fictional village where girls are married off as soon as they reach puberty, a custom the Times of India summary describes as 500 years old and enforced through fear of the village deity.⁴^•⁹ The protagonist, Ahilya, wants to study medicine. When she attains puberty she conceals it, continuing her schooling while dodging the timetable the village sets for her.⁵

The series treats the conflict through everyday settings rather than dramatic set pieces: a classroom roll call, a temple step, a courtyard conversation, a morning well, a market errand.⁶ The menstrual taboo is central to the plot, and the actors Kshitee Jog and Sajiri Joshi discussed in a BBC News Marathi interview how the series addresses menstruation, its associated misconceptions, secondary treatment of women, and superstition.¹⁰

Cast and characters

Sajiri Joshi plays Ahilya, and Kshitee Jog plays her mother Laxmi, a character Jog described as standing on the border between faith and love, torn between the behavior she was taught and concern for her daughter's welfare.¹^•⁴ The supporting cast includes Siddhesh Dhuri as Aaba, Shivraj Waichal as Jaysingh, Vibhavari Deshpande as Mangal Bai, Anil More as Gopal Master (Ahilya's teacher), Anil Kamble as Tatya Saheb, and Gautami Kachi as Saraswati.¹

Episodes

All seven episodes were released on 31 October 2025, each named for a female character or figure.³

Vesai (31 minutes)
Saraswati (28 minutes)
Lakshmi (32 minutes)
Sharada (25 minutes)
Pujarin (24 minutes)
Mangal (38 minutes)
Ahilya (33 minutes)

Production and reception

The series was produced by Keyur Godse and Niraj Biniwale under Sixteen by Sixty-Four Productions, with music by Sarang Kulkarni and editing credited to Vaibhav Dabhade and Wasim Mulla.⁷^•¹¹ Producer Keyur Godse framed the show as a rooted story set in rural Maharashtra in the 1990s whose themes of equality, freedom, and education remain relevant.²

Reception. Gadgets360 lists a viewer rating of 9.3/10 and a 16+ certificate, while the ZEE5 listing marks it G and JioTV lists U/A 16+.⁷^•¹²^•⁵ Filmibeat reported the series being called a sleeper hit of 2025, with viewership extending beyond the Marathi market into Hindi-speaking regions.¹³ Maharashtra Times gave the series a rating of three and a half stars.¹¹

Promotion. ZEE5 installed a wall mural in central Mumbai celebrating the series and ran the #MiPanAhiya campaign, in which the actress Amruta Khanvilkar and more than a hundred regional influencers amplified Ahilya's message on social media.¹⁴^•¹⁵

References

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