The Honours: Five Best Series of 2025
The Honours by The Hollywood Reporter India celebrates these five shows that pushed the boundaries of long-format storytelling and put Indian streaming on the global map again
The Hollywood Reporter India honoured the five best Indian streaming series of 2025 at the inaugural edition of The Honours, held on February 18 in Mumbai.
The Honours is an RPSG Lifestyle Media property powered by The Hollywood Reporter India, a celebration of excellence in storytelling, across films and series, languages and geographies. The awards were curated by the editorial team of The Hollywood Reporter India, who spent over six months watching, mulling and arguing. With great passion and diligence, we’ve arrived at our best list.
Black Warrant (Netflix)
Black Warrant is a slow-burning masterpiece set in 1980s Tihar Jail that resists easy labels. An episodic, diary-like narrative following the newest jailer and the nation's most notorious prison, this crafty adaptation features a lead performance by Zahan Kapoor that subverts the relationship between masculinity and power. Packed with excellent casting, unhurried period details, and character-driven storytelling, it proves that formula only lies in the eyes of the beholder. The series stood out for its intelligence and restraint.
Black White & Gray — Love Kills (Sony LIV)
Black White & Gray — Love Kills is one of the most inventive uses of the series medium this decade. Pushkar Sunil Mahabal's true-crime mockumentary is made with such conviction that viewers couldn't tell it wasn't real until a few episodes in. Beyond the trickery lies a hard-hitting take on the blurred lines between fiction and post-truth reality. It critiques true-crime filmmaking while telling a story of an India often reduced to sensationalism. It's a rare feat of accessible, meaningful innovation.
Khauf (Amazon Prime Video)
In a crowded streaming landscape, Khauf shines as a rare, complex genre vehicle that raises the bar for social horror. This series cleverly conflates the natural fear of being a woman in India with the supernatural fear of ghosts, creating something wholly original. Set in a working women's hostel, it is superbly performed, sharply plotted, and ambitiously staged. This is storytelling that defies the algorithm and pushes envelopes too often sealed by convention. The series is a standout for its bold imperfection and brilliant execution.
Paatal Lok Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video)
The second season of Paatal Lok is a sequel that expands the language of its world-class first season with precision, scale, and purpose. Political, personal, and morally alive, it continues the journey of Inspector Hathiram Chaudhary played by Jaideep Ahlawat, arguably the most iconic protagonist in Indian streaming. Technically top-notch with a terrific ensemble cast, it does something extinct in today's landscape — it respects the intelligence of the viewer. With no spoon-feeding or dumbing down, this is storytelling for the sake of storytelling, and art for the sake of expression. This is essential television.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood (Netflix)
Turning irreverence into an art form, debutant director Aryan Khan's The Ba***ds of Bollywood is a blistering, cheeky celebration of India's flashiest film industry. The best example of access filmmaking in years, it's spoofy, unserious, and unabashedly lived-in, yet also an affectionate ode to the world it lampoons. Young and fearless, it makes joking about yourself cool again while bringing back self-reverential humour in a culture averse to punchlines. The series impresses with its wit and warmth.