The show, about a crime-free (formerly) village, had captured the audience’s attention when the first season was released last year. The second season of Dupahiya , the much-loved Prime Video series, dropped on the platform last weekend. The second season yet again topped the charts. A few weeks ago, Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya not only achieved record viewership but also exploded in pop culture. And then there is the sustaining excellence of Gullak over five seasons. The signs are there. The slice-of-life comedy, set in a small town, is the new heartbeat of Indian streaming. Most big streaming platforms have shows in this milieu, and many have multiple titles. And it all seems to work.
They were stories largely set in small towns, such as Kota Factory, even if they weren’t heartwarming comedies. The scale went up as shows like Sacred Games and Mirzapur gained success. But it took the success of a Panchayat to introduce a new sub-genre of comedies in this space – the small town, slice-of-life stories. What initially began as aping the success of one or two hit shows (Panchayat and Gullak were the earliest hits) soon transformed into an organic push. Now, families watch shows together on TV. So, platforms are creating shows for families. Dupahiya S2 had mixed-to-positive reviews, as did Gullak S5. Yet the lukewarm critical reception did nothing to diminish their popularity with audiences. These comedies began as niche, but over the years, they have grown large enough to go head-to-head with mainstream titles.
Dupahiya S2 was immediately number 1 on Prime Video in the week of its release. SonyLIV reported that Gullak Season 5 recorded 7 million unique viewers on the platform within its first 5 days of release, one of the highest ever on the service. In the first week after its release, Adarsh Bal Vidyalaya had 4.5 million views on streaming, more than those of Lock Upp and India’s Got Latent, two of the most talked-about shows in India at the time, according to Ormax Media. In fact, data from Ormax shows that the biggest opening (week one viewership figures) for any Indian web series in 2026 belongs to MX Player’s Waiting Hai, a small-town comedy crime drama. With 5.8 million views, it beat much bigger titles.
Streaming in India began before the advent of Netflix and Prime Originals, with YouTube, particularly TVF, churning out the first content. At FICCI Frames earlier this month, Gajraj Rao, who stars in Dupahiya, attributed this change to a shift in viewing patterns. “Earlier, OTT was watched alone on a phone.
