General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Dharavi Bank

Dharavi Bank is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language crime drama streaming series directed by Samit Kakkad and released on MX Player on 19 November 2022. It stars Suniel Shetty as Thalaivan, a gangster who runs a crime syndicate worth more than 300 billion rupees (30,000 crore rupees) from the slum colony of Dharavi in Mumbai, and Vivek Anand Oberoi as Joint Commissioner of Police Jayant Gavaskar, who is tasked with bringing him down.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Hindi-language scripted crime thriller, 10 episodes, average runtime about 45 minutes²
Release	Premiered 19 November 2022 on MX Player; all ten episodes released together³
Premise	Thalaivan, a gangster controlling a 30,000-crore crime nexus in Dharavi, is targeted by Chief Minister Janvi Surve and JCP Jayant Gavaskar¹
Lead cast	Suniel Shetty (Thalaivan), Vivek Oberoi (JCP Jayant Gavaskar), Sonali Kulkarni (CM Janvi Surve)⁴
Director and writer	Directed by Samit Kakkad; written by Sarthak Dasgupta, with dialogue by Seneca Mendonsa⁴
Production companies	MX Player, Shasvat Films, and Zee Studios⁵
Reception	IMDb rating 7.5/10 from about 5,100 votes; critic ratings ranged from 2 stars (NDTV) to 3.0 (Times of India)⁵^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows Thalaivan, a gangster from Dharavi, described in reviews as one of Asia's largest slums, located in Mumbai. His business is worth more than 300 billion (30,000 crores), and his wealth and power give him a firm grip on the area and the people who live there. His popularity and influence pose a threat to the government, and in particular to the political career of Chief Minister Janvi Surve, who together with Joint Commissioner of Police Jayant Gavaskar devises a plan to overthrow him. The confrontation leads to a war between the Mumbai police and Thalaivan's gang.¹^•³

Gavaskar is written as more than a duty-bound officer. TVmaze's synopsis notes that apart from his professional obligation, he appears to have a personal motive for moving against Thalaivan.² Oberoi described the character in promotional interviews as a man who "journeys from being the ideal cop to being manipulative," adding that the lines were deliberately blurred.⁷ Shetty, in the same round of statements, described Thalaivan as powerful and ruthless but "the most giving to those he considers his family, the people of Dharavi."

Episodes

The ten episodes of season one, with runtimes as listed on JioTV, are:³

"Dharavi Main Bulaya Hai" (50 minutes)
"Thok Doonga Saale Ko" (38 minutes)
"Veenu" (44 minutes)
"War Room" (49 minutes)
"Bhool Bhulaiya" (42 minutes)
"Family" (40 minutes)
"Make Him Suffer" (36 minutes)
"Withdrawal" (44 minutes)
"Secrets" (40 minutes)
"Koi Bhi Nahi Bachega" (59 minutes)

Cast and production

The ensemble includes, alongside the three leads, Luke Kenny, Freddy Daruwala, Shanthi Priya, Santosh Juvekar, Nagesh Bhosle, Siddharth Menon, Hitesh Bhojraj, Rohit Pathak, Chinmay Mandlekar, Bhavvana Rao, and Samikssha Batnagar.⁸ Shetty's role was his OTT acting debut.⁹

Filming in Dharavi. The production shot extensively on location in Dharavi rather than on sets. Director Samit Kakkad paid special attention to set design and production values to depict the neighborhood's bylanes, and later said that "Dharavi is my second home."¹⁰^•¹¹ Shetty said of the experience, "When I shot in Dharavi, I was flabbergasted."⁹ Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer at MX Player, called the show a "unique revenge crime drama" when the first look was announced in July 2022.¹²

For Kakkad, the series was his second web show with MX Player, after Indori Ishq.¹³

Reception

Critical response. Reviews were mixed. Archika Khurana of The Times of India gave the season a rating of 3.0 and wrote that Shetty and Oberoi "stand out in this mediocre crime drama."¹ Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave it 2 stars out of 5, calling it a ten-part series "built with creaky components that reek of staleness" and criticizing the Tamil accent Shetty was saddled with as "affected" and "disorienting."⁶ Abhimanyu Mathur of Hindustan Times wrote that the show was "all style, no substance and lots of gore," while crediting its background score and its gray characterization, in which no character is entirely good or entirely bad.¹⁴ An aggregate of multiple review platforms put the average rating at 2.5 out of 5.¹⁵

Audience response. On IMDb the series holds a rating of 7.5/10 from about 5,100 user votes, and the show received 2 wins and 3 nominations in total.⁵ Kakkad said in a December 2022 interview that the series was still being watched and loved in its fourth week, attributing the success to the team, the timing, and MX Player's promotion.¹¹

Availability

The series was an MX Player original and is listed by TVmaze as ended after its single 2022 season.² Amazon MX Player has since been folded into Prime Video as a unified streaming destination, with MX Originals content continuing to be available there.¹⁶ Kakkad said in late 2022 that a second season was hoped for but not yet in development.¹¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Indian and South Asian web series › Premiered 2021 to 2025

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

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