General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Duranga

Duranga is an Indian Hindi-language crime thriller web series streaming on ZEE5, and the official remake of the South Korean series Flower of Evil (2020). The title means insincere or two-faced, and the story follows a man living under a false identity whose wife, a police officer, investigates a case connected to his hidden past¹^•². It was developed and produced by Goldie Behl through Rose Audio Visuals, written by Charudutt Acharya, and became the first Korean drama series to be remade in India when Studio Dragon licensed the rights to ZEE5²^•³.

Key fact	Detail
Original network	ZEE5; season 1 premiered 19 August 2022⁴
Source material	Official remake of the Korean series Flower of Evil (2020, tvN), the first K-drama remade in India²^•³
Season 1	9 episodes, all released 19 August 2022; directed by Pradeep Sarkar (first two episodes) and Aijaz Khan⁵^•²
Season 2	8 episodes, all released 24 October 2023; directed by Rohan Sippy⁶^•⁷
Lead cast	Gulshan Devaiah (Sammit Patel / Abhishek Banne), Drashti Dhami (Ira Jaykar Patel), Amit Sadh (Sammit Patel, season 2)⁸
Age rating	U/A 16+⁶

Spoilers

Premise

Season 1 centers on Sammit Patel (Gulshan Devaiah), a devoted husband and father in Mumbai whose life comes under threat when his wife Ira Jaykar Patel (Drashti Dhami), a Mumbai crime branch officer, investigates a copycat murder resembling a 17-year-old serial killing case⁴. The man living as Sammit is actually Abhishek Banne, son of the accused serial killer Bala Banne (Zakir Hussain), and the season follows his effort to stay ahead of the police, a crime journalist, and his own family history⁹. The nine-episode season ends on a cliffhanger¹⁰.

Season 2 picks up from that point: Sammit Patel, now played by Amit Sadh, wakes from a coma and moves to reclaim his identity from Abhishek, who has been living under his name, while Abhishek searches for his father's accomplice¹¹. The season's episodes, each roughly 30 to 37 minutes, trace the hunt for the accomplice, a police trap that fails, an uneasy cooperation between Abhishek and the police against a human trafficker, and a final confrontation among Abhishek, Ira, and Sammit⁶.

Production and adaptation

Producer Goldie Behl acquired the adaptation rights to Flower of Evil (2020) from its original creators, Studio Dragon, the drama arm of Seoul-based CJ ENM; the Korean series was directed by Kim Cheol-kyu and written by Yoo Jung-hee for the channel tvN¹². Behl said the remake was deliberately close to the original in season 1, calling it a matter of not spoiling what worked, and noted that the Indian version condensed the Korean show's 16 episodes into 9, with shorter, tighter episodes aimed at binge viewing¹²^•¹³. Season 1 was directed by Pradeep Sarkar and Aijaz Khan; Rohan Sippy directed season 2²^•⁷. Filming took place in Mumbai⁴.

ZEE5 announced the renewal with Amit Sadh joining Gulshan Devaiah and Drashti Dhami in September 2023, and the season premiered on 24 October 2023¹⁴.

Cast

Gulshan Devaiah as Sammit Patel / Abhishek Banne⁸
Drashti Dhami as Ira Jaykar Patel⁸
Amit Sadh as Sammit Patel (season 2)⁸
Rajesh Khattar as Dr. Manohar Patel; Divya Seth as Anupriya Patel⁸
Zakir Hussain as Bala Banne; Barkha Bisht as Prachi Banne⁸
Abhijeet Khandkekar as the crime journalist Vikas Sarode; Hera Mishra as Anya Patel⁸

Reception

Season 1 drew divided reviews. NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee gave it 3 stars out of 5, praising Gulshan Devaiah's "magnificently modulated" performance and describing the series as a controlled, slow-burning take on the serial-killer genre². The Indian Express called it a bland adaptation that lacked the emotional volatility of the original, and India Today and Moneycontrol both singled out the missing chemistry between the two leads as the main shortfall against Flower of Evil¹⁵^•¹⁶^•¹⁰. Hindustan Times, by contrast, called Devaiah's work a career-best performance in a faithful adaptation¹⁷.

Season 2 was received more warmly by Hindi-language reviewers. Amar Ujala rated it 3 out of 5 and praised Amit Sadh's performance and Rohan Sippy's direction, and Navbharat Times gave it 3.5 out of 5, calling the season a gripping continuation¹⁸^•¹⁹. On IMDb the second season holds a 7.4 rating from about 3,400 user votes⁸.

Availability

Season 2 streams on ZEE5 and VI movies and tv, with free ad-supported access on both; JustWatch listed it at number 3777 on its daily streaming charts in India as of its last check⁸.

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 › Hindi serials and Indian Hindi-language dramas › Crime and thriller serials

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

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