General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Faadu

Faadu: A Love Story (फाडू) is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama web series directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, written by Saumya Joshi, and streamed on SonyLIV from 9 December 2022¹. Its eleven episodes follow Abhay (Pavail Gulati), an angry poet from a chawl (Mumbai tenement building with shared spaces; central to protagonist's background) in the Mumbai suburb of Kanjurmarg who chases a rags-to-riches dream during the year of the Indian economic meltdown, and his love for Manjiri (Saiyami Kher), a poetess from Konkan with a starkly different view on life². The series carries an A (adults-only) certificate¹.

Key fact	Detail
Title / platform	Faadu: A Love Story, a SonyLIV original; also listed in Tamil and Telugu versions on the platform¹^•²
Release	9 December 2022 (TheTVDB lists first air 8 December 2022)¹^•³
Format	11 episodes, runtimes from 34 minutes to 1 hour 3 minutes; drama and romance; A certificate⁴^•¹
Lead cast	Pavail Gulati as Abhay, Saiyami Kher as Manjiri, Abhilash Thapliyal as Roxy⁵^•⁶
Key crew	Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari; writer Saumya Joshi; music Santhosh Narayanan; cinematography Navagat Prakash; producer Indranil Chakraborty (Studio Next)¹
Filming	Real slums of Mumbai, plus line production in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia, by Clockwork Film Production⁷^•⁵
Reception	Scroll.in called it a slow-burn clutter-breaker; The Times of India gave 3.0/5 and Gadgets360 3.4/5⁶^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story is set in the year of the Indian economic meltdown. Abhay, described on SonyLIV as an angry poet and dreamer from the dusty chawl of Kanjurmarg, aspires to a rags-to-riches story for himself, and in that ambitious journey falls in love with Manjiri, a poetess with a starkly different view on life². The first episode, "Diamond In The Rough", opens with Abhay from a cramped ghetto in Mumbai meeting Manjiri from Konkan in college, where an unknown poetic love story begins⁹.

The two leads hold opposing philosophies. In a Scroll.in review, Abhay sums up the contrast by saying, "I am America and she is Bhutan"⁶. Abhay shares a congested Mumbai ghetto home with his auto-rickshaw-driving father (Daya Shankar Pandey), his terminally ill mother, and his alcoholic brother Roxy (Abhilash Thapliyal)⁶. Manjiri, as Saiyami Kher described the character, is Maharashtrian, from a small town in Konkan, old school, and devoted to poetry and old music; she sees poetry in everything and falls in love at first sight with Abhay because she is floored by his honesty⁷. Kher called Manjiri the anchor to Abhay in his life⁷.

Although it begins as a story of two characters, the series gradually focuses on Abhay's journey, his machinations, and their impact on an adoring Manjiri, who records her observations in inland letters to her father and, in the review's phrase, is happier in squalor than in a skyscraper⁶.

Production

Development and shoot. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, known for the feature films Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and Panga, was approached to direct the series in January 2020 with a one-line idea, and the project was announced in March 2021 as her digital debut, produced by Studio Next for SonyLIV¹⁰^•¹¹. Pavail Gulati and Saiyami Kher were cast in November 2021, when the series went on floors; Tiwari described it as her debut web series and her tenth long-format story including three shorts¹². Shooting wrapped on 31 March 2022, which Tiwari said followed eight months of prep and shoot¹³.

Kher said the crew shot in the real slums, or basti, of Mumbai, where the team met residents daily and she found the experience formative as a person and an actor⁷. Parts of the series were also filmed in Serbia: Clockwork Film Production line-produced the show earlier in 2022 on major locations in Belgrade and Novi Sad⁵.

Music and crew. The music and background score are by the Tamil composer Santhosh Narayanan, and Faadu marked his Hindi debut¹²^•¹⁴. The screenplay is by Saumya Joshi, a poet, theater writer, and director; Navagat Prakash handled cinematography, Chandrashekhar Prajapati edited, and Indranil Chakraborty produced for Studio Next¹²^•¹^•¹⁴.

Direction and intent

Tiwari framed the series as an exploration of a new dimension of love between a man and a woman, making the ideologies and thought processes of the lead characters the vehicle that drives the narrative¹⁵. She said she was drawn to a contemporary love story in which the younger generation holds different points of view about love, work, and dreams, and that something of this kind had not been explored before in the Indian web series space¹⁰. In Pavail's character she described a slum dweller and hustler who cuts corners, while Saiyami's character comes across as more grounded¹⁵.

Reception

Scroll.in's review called the show a clutter-breaker at a time when web series rhythm demands episode hooks and binge-watching, praising Joshi's lyrical script, Prakash's visual landscape, and the performances of Gulati as the constantly simmering, hustling Abhay and Thapliyal as a grieving addict; it also suggested the series could have ditched some exposition, given Manjiri more unconventionality, and crunched the episode count⁶. The Times of India gave the season 3.0 out of 5, with the critic writing that the screenplay moves at a glacial pace and tests viewers' patience while Gulati and Kher steal the show; the site's average user rating stood at 3.7 from 13 votes⁸. Gadgets360 lists a 3.4 rating for the series¹.

In May 2024, Pavail Gulati said he was grateful for the love the 2022 series received but could not confirm anything regarding a sequel, adding that he was excited about the prospect of working again with Saiyami Kher and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari¹⁶.

Availability

The series streams on SonyLIV, which lists it in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu versions with UHD, Dolby 5.1, and Dolby Vision options²^•¹⁷. It is also carried on Airtel Xstream Play through Sony LIV rights¹⁸.

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 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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