General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Kaafir

Kaafir (काफ़िर) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language web series released as a ZEE5 original, directed by Sonam Nair and written by Bhavani Iyer, starring Dia Mirza and Mohit Raina. Its story follows Kainaaz Akhtar, a young Pakistani woman who accidentally crosses the India–Pakistan border, is imprisoned in India for years as a suspected militant, and gives birth to a daughter in jail, until a lawyer-turned-journalist takes up her fight for justice.¹^•² The word kaafir is Arabic for infidel or disbeliever.³

Key fact	Detail
Format	ZEE5 original web series, 1 season of 8 episodes, roughly 42–45 minutes each¹^•⁴
Release	15 June 2019, in Hindi; dubbed in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada¹
Lead cast	Dia Mirza as Kainaaz Akhtar; Mohit Raina as Vedant Rathod; Dishita Jain as Seher⁵
Crew	Director Sonam Nair; writer Bhavani Iyer; producer Siddharth P. Malhotra; production Alchemy Films¹
Reception	IMDb rating 8.0/10 from about 1.9K votes⁶
Later release	Re-edited and re-released as a feature film on ZEE5 in April 2025⁷

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series is set against the border conflict between India and Pakistan. Kainaaz Akhtar, a 22-year-old Pakistani woman, is found near the Poonch river on the Indian side of the border; because her body is discovered next to two militants, she is presumed to be one of them and is imprisoned for seven years. During her imprisonment she gives birth to a daughter, Sehar.³^•² Scroll.in's review gives the figure as eight years behind bars, while The Quint states seven; the series itself is set in 2005.⁸^•³

Vedant Rathod, a lawyer-turned-journalist played by Mohit Raina, is asked by his editor for a human-interest story and discovers footage of Sehar growing up in a Kashmir prison. Through successive jail interviews he concludes that Kainaaz is a victim of mistaken identity rather than a militant. When no lawyer will take her controversial case, Vedant returns to law and argues it himself in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.³^•⁹

Production

Origins. Bhavani Iyer, co-writer of the 2018 film Raazi, wrote the story; according to the makers, she wrote it 13 years before the series aired, and it was originally intended as a feature film before producer Siddharth P. Malhotra decided to tell it as a web series.¹⁰^•¹¹ Director Sonam Nair said the web format freed the team from a two-hour limit, letting the series run as long as the story deserved.¹⁰

Basis and filming. The series is based on a true story. The OTTplay report identifies the real-life inspiration as Shehnaz Parveen, a Kashmiri woman living in Pakistani-administered territory who was detained in India for eight years after inadvertently crossing the Line of Control.⁷ Although the plot is set in Kashmir, the series was shot in Himachal Pradesh, around Manali, and in Mumbai, with cinematographer Pratik Shah making the locations stand in for the valley.⁹^•¹²

Themes and reception

Reviewers read the series as a deliberately personal treatment of the India–Pakistan divide. Scroll.in noted that at a time of frosty India–Pakistan ties, Kaafir tells the story of a Hindu taking up the cause of a Muslim from across the border, and challenges the anti-Pakistan sentiment voiced by several of its supporting characters.⁸ The Quint called it an emotional, engaging watch that gives a personal touch to geopolitics rather than focusing on the Indo-Pak situation in the abstract, and praised Dia Mirza's performance as one of the best of her career, along with Mohit Raina and child actor Dishita Jain.³ The Kashmir Observer wrote that the series attempts to depict the political conflict that has engulfed Kashmir, with the Border Security Forces mistakenly taking Kainaaz for a militant.¹³

On IMDb the series holds a rating of 8.0/10 from about 1.9K votes, with episode ratings ranging from 7.7 for the second episode to 8.6 for the finale, "The Last Goodbye".⁶^•¹⁴

Streaming and the 2025 film version

The series premiered on ZEE5 on 15 June 2019 as a single season of eight episodes, with the finale titled "The Last Goodbye".¹^•² In April 2025, ZEE5 re-released the eight-part story re-edited into a single feature film of about 2 hours 21 minutes, to make Kainaaz's story accessible to a larger audience.⁷^•¹⁵

Availability has shifted over time. JustWatch reported in 2025 that the film version was last available on Zee5 in India until May 2025 and was then unavailable to stream in India, while the series remained available on Zee5 in Egypt and eight other countries.¹⁵^•⁴ In Pakistan, the series streams on Zee5 with a subscription.¹⁶

Other works of the same name

A separate Pakistani Urdu-language television series also titled Kaafir (کافر) aired in 2011, first airing on 1 January 2011 and ending on 28 May 2011. It stars Humayun Saeed as Shahan Ali Khan and Ayesha Khan as Izzat, and its plot follows a revenge conflict between Izzat, an outspoken young woman, and Shahan, a powerful channel head. It streams on the Eros Now Amazon Channel.¹⁷^•¹⁸ It comprises 22 episodes according to Moviefone, or 26 episodes according to JustWatch, in its single season.¹⁷^•¹⁸

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

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

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