General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Jeet Ki Zid

Jeet Ki Zid (जीत की ज़िद; also known as Zidd) is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language action drama web series streamed on ZEE5, based on the true story of former Indian Army Major Deependra Singh Sengar, a Kargil war veteran who was left paralyzed from the waist down and fought his way back onto his feet.¹^•² The seven-episode series stars Amit Sadh as a fictionalized version of Sengar, with Amrita Puri and Sushant Singh in pivotal roles.³

Key fact	Detail
Platform and release	ZEE5 Original, all seven episodes released 22 January 2021, in Hindi⁴
Basis	True story of Major Deependra Singh Sengar, hit five times in the Kargil War and deemed medically unfit to walk again¹^•⁵
Lead cast	Amit Sadh as Major Deep Singh, Amrita Puri as Jaya Singh, Sushant Singh as Col. Ranjeet Chaudhary⁴
Director and producers	Directed by Vishal Mangalorkar; produced by Boney Kapoor, Arunava Joy Sengupta and Akash Chawla⁶
Format	Seven episodes of roughly 31 to 45 minutes each; genres drama, action, war⁴^•²
Critical reception	Times of India rated it 3.5/5; PeepingMoon gave it 3 Moons⁷^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows Major Deep Singh, a Special Forces officer left paralyzed below the waist after being wounded in the Kargil War of 1999. His army training and refusal to give up help him return to life and, eventually, to his feet despite the odds.² ZEE5's synopsis frames the question as whether Deep, having lost his ability to walk, will also lose his spirit or rise again.⁴

The protagonist's life mantra, as the character states it, is "Guroor nahi, meri zid hai" (not pride, but my stubbornness).⁶ The story also reaches back before the war: as a child Deep was deemed weak and unfit for sports such as high-jump and running, and his elder brother Rajat, his biggest supporter, was killed in a militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir, giving Deep the motive of avenging his brother's death.⁶

Cast and characters

Amit Sadh plays Major Deep Singh, the character based on Sengar. Amrita Puri plays his wife Jaya Singh, and Sushant Singh plays Col. Ranjeet Chaudhary, Deep's commanding officer and training officer.⁴^•¹ The supporting cast includes Aly Goni as Surya Sethi, Deep's friend from the Indian Military Academy, along with Mrinal Kulkarni and Paritosh Sand as Deep's parents.⁶

Sadh underwent rigorous physical training to portray the war hero, which reviewers noted shows on screen.³ At the series' virtual press conference, Sadh said the story was not only the major's but one of people helping each other in trying times, adding that with mental health of paramount importance he felt the story needed to be told.³

Structure and production

The narrative is non-linear, opening in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999 and moving back to Bhopal in 1987, then forward through 1996, 1999 and 2000.¹ Screenwriter Siddharth Mishra added dramatic elements, including a supportive friend, Deep's anguished parents, and a hostage situation.¹

The seven episodes, each released on 22 January 2021, are titled "A Personal Reason" (31 minutes), "Thirty Seconds" (37 minutes), "Balidaan" (45 minutes), "Kargil" (40 minutes), "Suicide" (42 minutes), "Bloody Loser!" (41 minutes), and "The Army Behind the Army" (44 minutes).⁴ The final episode shows Col. Ranjeet returning to help Deep walk again through unconventional training.²

A distinctive device connects the drama to its real subject: each episode ends with the real-life Sengars delivering a direct address to the camera, linking the fiction to their actual experiences.¹ As Sengar himself says, his story is about the "army behind the Army" that helped him rebuild his life.¹

Reception

The Times of India gave the first season a critic's rating of 3.5 out of 5, calling it a war drama that salutes soldiers, their determination, and the families who support them unconditionally.⁷ PeepingMoon, reviewing the first four episodes, gave 3 Moons and praised the cast, production design by Tanvi Leena Patil, and cinematography by Akhilesh Shrivastava, while noting that a tighter and faster pace would have been a bonus.⁶

Reviewers credited the makers with not painting Deep simply as a hero but also showing his darker moments of self-pity, frustration and conceit, and noted that the makers paid close attention to Army protocols, training methods, codes and operations, though the civilian-dominated scenes were less finely detailed.¹ The Indian Express found the drama somewhat loud, with many dialogues about never giving up, but acknowledged Sadh's performance.³ A Daily Pioneer report in late January 2021 described the series as a hit on ZEE5.⁸

References

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