General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Dayaa

Dayaa is a 2023 Indian Telugu-language crime thriller web series directed by Pavan Sadineni, starring J. D. Chakravarthy, Remya Nambeesan, Eesha Rebba, and Keshav Deepak. It premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 4 August 2023 as a Hotstar Specials title and is an adaptation of the Bangladeshi series Taqdeer (2020).¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	4 August 2023 on Disney+ Hotstar (Hotstar Specials)¹
Format	Season 1 of 8 episodes, each about 27 to 30 minutes; age rating A³
Source material	Adaptation of the Bangladeshi series Taqdeer (2020), originally about an ambulance driver; the Telugu version rebuilt the world around a freezer van driver²
Lead role	J. D. Chakravarthy as Dayaa (Dayakar), a partially deaf freezer van driver in Kakinada, in his OTT debut⁴^•⁵
Key crew	Music Shravan Bharadwaj; cinematography Vivek Kalepu; editing Viplav Nyshadam; producers Shrikant Mohta and Mahendra Soni (SVF Entertainment)⁶
Reception	IMDb 6.2/10 from 414 votes; Times of India 3.5/5; India Today 3/5⁷^•⁵^•⁸
Streaming (India)	JioHotstar (subscription and free with ads) and VI movies and tv³

Spoilers

Premise

Dayaa (J. D. Chakravarthy) is a timid, partially deaf freezer van driver in the port town of Kakinada, ferrying fish across the Godavari coast to support his heavily pregnant wife Alivelu (Eesha Rebba). After accepting an extra consignment for money and out of obligation to his friend Prabha (Josh Ravi), he discovers a dead body with a bullet wound in his van. The body belongs to Kavitha (Remya Nambeesan), a prominent television journalist, and Dayaa and his friends try to dispose of it before learning her identity.⁴^•⁹

The series alternates between Dayaa's attempts to escape suspicion and Kavitha's backstory. Her reporting, done with colleague Shabana (Vishnu Priya Bhimeneni), investigates the rape of a nurse and exposes a politician, Pritam (Babloo Prithiveeraj), whose mute enforcer Kabir (Nanda Gopal) is sent after her. Kavitha's husband Kaushik (Kamal Kamaraju) searches for her in Hyderabad without knowing she is dead. How Kavitha was killed is revealed in pieces until the final episode, and the season ends on a cliffhanger that leaves the biggest mystery, tied to Alivelu, for a second season.⁸^•⁹^•⁴

Sequel plans and availability

Sadineni said the first season is only a glimpse of how the incident affects Dayaa and Alivelu, that a small portion of season two had already been shot pending confirmation of the first season's reception, and that the second season would have a bigger canvas.² In India the series streams on JioHotstar, with a subscription or free with ads, and on VI movies and tv; it is also available on Hulu in the United States as Dayaa (Telugu).³^•¹² It has been dubbed into multiple languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi.¹³

Production and adaptation

Disney+ Hotstar approached director Pavan Sadineni with Taqdeer, a Bangladeshi show whose protagonist is an ambulance driver. Sadineni said he did not relate to that backdrop and recreated the world entirely for the Telugu version, which was later dubbed into Bengali. The shoot was completed in 47 days, with about 50 days spent on sound design.²

The series is set in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh, with aerial footage of the fishing country captured by Sadineni and cinematographer Vivek Kalepu.⁹ Chakravarthy was not Sadineni's first choice; the suggestion came from Hotstar. The actor accepted the role after hearing only a narration of the plot points and went on to give more than 90 media interviews to promote the show.² The season marks Chakravarthy's OTT debut; reviewers repeatedly compared his character arc, a quiet man possessed by a violent streak, to his role in Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998).⁵^•⁹

The eight episodes are titled The Blood Man, The Grave, Middle of Nowhere, Who Are You?, The Twist, The Evidence, The Sorry, and The Saga.¹⁰

Reception

Critical response was mixed to positive. The Times of India rated the season 3.5/5, praising Chakravarthy's performance, Shravan Bharadwaj's background score, and the sound design, while noting that the initial episodes suffer from slow pacing and that the twist-filled climax may leave viewers wanting more.⁵ India Today gave 3/5, calling it a neatly done thriller stretched in parts, with strong character arcs and a terrifying mute turn by Nandagopal.⁸ The Week found the characterization excellent and said the show hit the right note with viewers, though acting and dialogues were not its strong points.⁹ A negative review in The New Indian Express' Cinema Express called it a flaky, plot-driven crime drama that splinters into four competing stories and defers its biggest mystery to the next season.⁴ Scroll.in praised its surprises and sketched characters but found its handling of time and distance implausible and its eight-episode run stretched.¹¹

On IMDb the series holds a 6.2/10 rating from 414 votes, with per-episode user ratings ranging from 6.3 to 7.1 across the season.⁷ Sadineni said the response was the best feedback he had received for any project, with many viewers watching on premiere night.²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › South and Southeast Asian serials › South Asian web serials › Premiered 2013 to 2024

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

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