General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Pawan & Pooja

Pawan & Pooja is a 2020 Hindi-language romantic drama web series produced for the Indian streaming platform MX Player, in which three couples at different stages of life, each coincidentally named Pawan and Pooja, discover that their love is conditional, breakable, and questionable.¹ It premiered on February 14, 2020, Valentine's Day, as an MX Originals title.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	One season of 10 episodes, average runtime about 42 minutes³
Premiere	February 14, 2020, on MX Player; trailer released February 5, 2020¹^•²
Premise	Three couples in their 20s, 40s, and 60s, all named Pawan and Pooja, face complications, fights, and compromises in their relationships⁴
Lead cast	Mahesh Manjrekar, Deepti Naval, Sharman Joshi, Gul Panag, Taaruk Raina, and Natasha Bharadwaj⁵
Creators and directors	Created by Siddharth P Malhotra and Shaad Ali; directed by Shaad Ali and Ajay Bhuyan⁶
Reception	IMDb rating 6.6/10 from about 210 user ratings⁷
Availability	Streaming free with ads on Amazon MX Player³

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The series is built as an anthology in which the three storylines collide from time to time. In its opening episode, the series presents its three main pairs: Pawan Kalra and Pooja Kalra, an affectionate middle-class pair aged in their 60s; Pawan Mehra and Pooja Mehra, a couple in their 40s with ties to Bollywood; and Pawan Srivastav and Pooja Maheshwari, who are in their 20s and come together owing to Pooja Maheshwari's fame as a fashionista on social media.⁴

Each storyline tests a different stage of a relationship. The older couple, retired and looking for things to do after many years of marriage and raising children, still love each other, but Pooja holds secrets that affect what follows.⁸ The middle couple, married for 18 years with a young son and absorbed in work, has not been intimate in four months and decides to open their marriage to save it.⁹ The youngest pair start as social media rivals, fall for each other on a reality show set in a house full of cameras, and their arc comments on the perks and perils of social validation in relationships.⁸^•⁹

Cast and characters

The six parallel leads play the three couples:⁵

Mahesh Manjrekar as Pawan Kalra, Pooja Kalra's husband
Deepti Naval as Pooja Kalra, Pawan Kalra's wife
Sharman Joshi as Pawan Mehra, Pooja Mehra's husband
Gul Panag as Pooja Mehra, Pawan Mehra's wife
Taaruk Raina as Pawan Srivastav, Pooja Maheshwari's boyfriend
Natasha Bharadwaj as Pooja Maheshwari, Pawan Srivastav's girlfriend

Supporting cast includes Neha Vyas as Shweta, Mrinal Dutt as Raj, Mariette Valsan as Janet, Ayaz Khan as Vishal Saxena, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as Mehak, and Angela Krislinzki as Kamini.⁵

Production

The series was created by Siddharth P Malhotra and Shaad Ali and directed by Shaad Ali and Ajay Bhuyan.⁶ Malhotra, a writer-producer and grandson of the actors Prem Nath and Bina Rai, said the older couple was inspired by his own parents: the Kalras are in their sixties and want to live life on their own terms.¹⁰ For the middle couple, who work in the film industry and face monotony in their marriage, he drew on a married friend and her husband.¹⁰ Production companies credited are Alchemy Films and MX Player.¹

Reception

Reviews were mixed. A Koimoi review in February 2020 gave the series two stars, calling it a good idea with an obvious execution, praising Deepti Naval, Mahesh Manjrekar, and Geetika Ohlyan in particular, but criticizing unrealistic plot points, including a storyline in which a character claims Kylie Jenner approached him to improve her social media presence, and a 10-episode length the reviewer found jarring at an average of about 40 minutes per episode.⁸ A Hindustan Times review highlighted the chemistry of Deepti Naval and Mahesh Manjrekar as the couple that livened up the series of urban love stories.¹¹ iDiva's review was strongly positive, calling the show a realistic treatment of the struggles, arguments, and insecurities behind lasting love.⁹ On IMDb the series holds a 6.6/10 rating from about 210 users, with India, the United States, and the United Kingdom among the countries with the most ratings.⁷

The Indian Express listed Pawan & Pooja among the best series on MX Player, describing it as tracing three namesake couples in three separate age groups facing the challenge of keeping the romance alive.¹²

Availability

The series streams free with advertisements on Amazon MX Player, which also distributes it through services such as Airtel Xstream Play.³^•¹³

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 2003 to 2020

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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