General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20263 min read

Cartel (2021 TV series)

Cartel is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller web series created by Ekta Kapoor and produced by Balaji Telefilms, released on 20 August 2021 on the streaming platforms ALTBalaji and MX Player.¹^•² Its single season of 14 episodes follows the Angre family, the leading power in Mumbai's underworld, after an attack on its matriarch upsets the balance among the city's crime lords.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original release	20 August 2021, simultaneously on ALTBalaji and MX Player¹^•²
Format	1 season, 14 episodes, about 40 minutes each, roughly 9 hours 20 minutes total⁴^•⁵
Genre and language	Hindi-language crime thriller, certified 16+¹
Lead cast	Supriya Pathak as Rani Mai, with Tanuj Virwani, Jitendra Joshi, and Rithvik Dhanjani; the makers described the show as featuring 137 actors²
Reception	IMDb rating 8.0/10 from about 4,400 votes; Times of India critic rating 3.5/5⁶^•³
Streaming status	Last available on MX Player until October 2024; not currently streaming in India⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The series is set in present-day Mumbai, where five crime-lords operating in different areas of the city, along with a Bollywood movie producer, dominate a low-profile underworld. All of them are governed by one figure, Rani Mai (Supriya Pathak), the matriarch of the Angre family and head of its gang. The gangs have kept the peace under a treaty Rani Mai put forth years earlier, and political, judicial, and corporate bodies are shown as closely intertwined with the underworld.²^•¹

The triggering event is an attack on Rani Mai herself: she is shot in her own warehouse (godown) and left in a coma. With the authority that held the gangs in check suddenly absent, her three sons, Madhukar (Jitendra Joshi), Abhay (Rithvik Dhanjani), and Arjun (Tanuj Virwani), must seek revenge while keeping the family's business intact against the other crime lords waiting to usurp the throne.³^•⁷ Reviewers noted the resemblance of this setup to Mario Puzo's The Godfather, with a wounded patriarch and heirs who must consolidate power.⁷

Production and cast

Cartel was created by Ekta Kapoor and produced by Balaji Telefilms, and it marked Supriya Pathak's debut in an original web series.¹^•² The season was written by Sambit Mishra and Monish K Talpade.³ The makers described the show as featuring 137 actors in its cast; the credited ensemble beyond the leads includes Divya Agarwal, Girija Oak, Monica Dogra, Pranati Rai Prakash, Amey Wagh, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Mayur More, Kannan Arunachalam, and Anil George, among others.²^•¹

Reception and availability

The Times of India's review called the season a gripping gang-war saga with outstanding performances, giving it 3.5 out of 5, and noted its fast pace: practically every episode begins with a murder whose backstory unfolds afterward.³ On IMDb the series holds a weighted rating of 8.0/10 from about 4,400 users, with an unweighted mean of 8.9; per-episode ratings across season 1 range from 7.5 to 8.4.⁶

The series streamed on ALTBalaji and MX Player from its August 2021 release. According to JustWatch, it remained available on MX Player until October 2024 and is currently unavailable to stream in India.⁵ It should not be confused with Dabba Cartel, a separate 2025 Netflix Indian crime series about five women who form their own drug cartel.⁸

References

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