General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Mastram (2020 TV series)

Mastram (मस्तराम) is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language erotic drama web series that streamed on MX Player, based on the pseudonymous 1980s pulp-erotica writer of the same name. It stars Anshuman Jha as Rajaram, a small-town writer who adopts the pen name Mastram to publish erotic fiction that becomes a bestseller.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	मस्तराम³
Platform and premiere	MX Player, April 30, 2020; all 10 episodes released the same day¹^•⁴
Format	Hindi-language scripted web series, comedy, drama, fantasy, and romance; status ended¹
Lead cast	Anshuman Jha as Rajaram, Tara-Alisha Berry as Madhu, Jagat Rawat as Mama, Aakash Dabhade as Gopal¹
Direction	Credited to Harish Vyas by several sources, though IndiaForums named Akhilesh Jaiswal²^•⁵
Production	Created by Almighty Motion Picture; producer Prabhleen Kaur Sandhu; writer Aryan Sunil⁵^•²^•⁶
IMDb rating	6.8/10 from about 2.9K user ratings; unweighted mean 7.9⁷

Spoilers

Premise

The series is set in the Hindi heartland of 1980s India. Rajaram is an aspiring writer whose serious work is dismissed as boring by publishers, who tell him he will never find readers. On his best friend's advice he decides to write about the sexual fantasies of ordinary people, and his first hit story under the pseudonym Mastram makes him a successful author, with all credit going to the pen name rather than to him.¹^•⁵ JustWatch summarizes the setup as an aspiring author who discovers that sex sells when adding erotic content to his book finally results in sales.³

The ten episodes pair stories of passion with turbulent day-to-day events from Rajaram's life, including his romance and engagement with Madhu.⁶ Episode titles include "Khali Bus Ka Suhana Safar", "Master Ji Ka Danda", "Mallu Aunty Ka Malmal", "Baniye Ka Lollypop", "Bua Ke 56 Aasan", "Vaibhav Ki Didi", "Abhineteri Ka Nirman", "Madhu Ki Do Saheliyan", "Sonu Ka Joban", and the finale "Mastram Se Rajaram".⁸

Production and release

The series was created by the production house Almighty Motion Picture and produced by Prabhleen Kaur Sandhu, with Aryan Sunil credited as writer.⁵^•⁶ Direction is credited to Harish Vyas by Daijiworld, StarsUnfolded, and the Times of India cast listing, while IndiaForums' trailer report named Akhilesh Jaiswal as director.²^•⁹^•⁵

MX Player released the official trailer on April 27, 2020, and the full season premiered on April 30, 2020, during India's COVID-19 lockdown.⁵ The trailer and series were rated 18+.⁴ Episode runtimes range from 20 to 33 minutes, averaging 29 minutes.¹^•⁴

Intimacy direction. Because the show is erotic, Anshuman Jha asked the makers to bring in a trained intimacy specialist, comparing the role to choreographers for dance and action. The production hired intimacy coordinator Amanda Cutting, whose credits include work on projects such as a Game of Thrones prequel, The Good Doctor, and The Magicians; Jha said the process made the actors feel secure.²^•¹⁰ Mid-Day reported that the show was the first in India to hire international intimacy directors.¹¹

Jha said he had never read Mastram novels nor seen the 2014 film before preparing for the role, and that the research phase helped him understand why the character's literature became an underbelly cult in India.¹⁰

Reception

On IMDb the series holds a weighted rating of 6.8/10 from about 2.9K users, with an unweighted mean of 7.9; per-episode ratings on the site range from 5.9 for episode 3 to 7.7 for episode 9.⁷ The Times of India gave the season a critic's rating of 3.0 out of 5, calling the narrative fresh and engaging while noting that in 2020, with many platforms available, the series "only manages to impart the basic lessons on sex"; the review also praised Faroukh Mistry's cinematography for capturing both scenic beauty and the racy sequences.¹²

Planned second season

In May 2020, Mid-Day reported that the makers were developing a second season and, anticipating that shooting intimate scenes would be difficult in a post-COVID world of social distancing, had decided at the writing stage to curtail intimate sequences and focus instead on the protagonist's psyche and how he arrived at his books. Writer Aryan Sunil said the degree of intimacy depicted would be decided by the intimacy directors under the guidelines then being put in place.¹¹ As of the most recent listings, only one season has been released and the series is marked ended.¹

Background

The title refers to a pseudonymous author of cheap Hindi pulp erotica whose booklets circulated widely in North India in the 1970s and 1980s; no one knew who the author or authors were, and the popularity of the books made the Mastram name an urban legend, according to a contemporary Indian Express review of the 2014 film adaptation.¹³ The 2020 series is a separate, longer treatment of the same figure, following the writer Rajaram rather than retelling the film's story.¹

References

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