Foreigners’ Reaction to Panchayat TV Series

It did not take Panchayat a very long time to win people’s hearts – be it in its home country, or abroad. It is no shocking news that Amazon Prime’s Panchayat has amassed thousands of fans in India ever since its release. The word of its fame spread like wildfire, and has now crossed borders, reaching every TV lover’s screen and “to-watch list” in the exotic foreign land.

Season 2 of the Panchayat web series is testimony to this. With more than 30 million viewers, the show has an impressive IMDB rating of 8.9 out of 10—higher than that of Stranger Things Season 4 or even House of the Dragon.

So, the main question is, what is it that people love about Panchayat so much? The answer is straightforward – the storyline is pretty simple. You see, contrary to other popular shows, the foreign audience here is presented with the raw, realistic side of rural India that is otherwise fabricated in the fancy veil of modernism as depicted by most other shows. The story of the young bureaucrat, his day-to-day antics with his simple colleagues, told with a lot of humour and affection, feels almost like real life, and appears to have struck a chord with the audience.

In a country like India, where there is a stark rural-urban divide, the Panchayat TV Series offers a glimpse into village life to its viewers who mostly live in cities and know very little about rural India. Foreigners find this portal to rural India rather fascinating, almost like an alien world. They are introduced to our peculiar customs and rituals, the humorous idiosyncrasies and languages of the characters of the show, and the interesting lifestyle of Indian village people.

With the show offering English subtitles, it has become much more easily accessible to audiences globally, which has further increased its viewer count.

The foreign audience seems to have developed a soft corner of our hero of the show – Abhishek Tripathi (lovingly known as Sachiv Ji) and seems to relate to his everyday struggles. The slow-burn romance between Abhishek and Rinki is making the audience root for them. They seem to enjoy the hilarious conversations between other major characters such as Manju Devi, Pradhan-Pati, Vikas, and many more.

All in all, you’re seriously missing out on the most talked-about show of the year if you’re not going to watch Panchayat online.