‘Showtime’ (2024) Hotstar Series Review - The War Within

The latest web series addition to Hotstar starring Emraan Hashmi, Mahima Makwana, Mouni Roy, and others, is perfect for those looking for some Bollywood drama and masala. The series encompasses the rivalry between an outsider, played by Mahima, and an insider (a nep kid), played by Emraan Hashmi.

Who can forget the epic chat shared by Kangana Ranaut and Karan Johar on Koffee With Karan on the topic of nepotism? Though the producer has talked about how the allegations affected him deeply, this time he thought of making some money out of it. It was an unspoken topic of Bollywood until recently, and now we have a whole series made on it.

Coming from a simple background, Mahika is a film critic. After being bribed to give good reviews about Raghu Khanna’s poor film, she exposed the tricks used by big production houses. Giving gifts in exchange for good reviews is brought to the public eye. However, this doesn’t end well for Mahika as she’s fired from her job eventually.

Her boyfriend Prithvi works at Victory Studios and talks to her about the same. The girl holds a high self-respect and hence won’t settle for such things. Raghu and his dad didn’t have any bonding hence, when the dad passed away he surprised everyone by giving the managing controls of the studio to Mahika.

Once eyeing the industry from the outskirts, Mahika became the hot topic of the tinsel town. While Raghu was well versed in the industry, having seen it from his childhood, it is now time to see if Mahika can survive in this tricky place. Hence begins the war between the studios with Raghu opening up his own.

Apart from this rivalry, other topics like how mediocrity is preferred in Bollywood, south films performing great, involvement of goons, and dark reality are also shown. Yasmin’s character played by Mouni Roy initially had no charm to it. She’s shown to be just another hot Bollywood actress who does item songs.

Being in a relationship with Raghu, she wasn’t paid much attention. After being promised a film, Raghu snatched that too. Their relationship is shown with time and there comes a time where you feel pity for her character. Mouni Roy brought those emotions to the screen and proved her mettle.

Emraan Hashmi as a great actor has shown the rage one feels after being betrayed by his father. Though his character is not content-oriented he is capable of understanding the requirements of the audience. Every scene he walks in captures your attention. Mahima Makwana surprised us with her acting, but I think that a bit more effort and expressions could have been used.

In all, this four-part 45-minute series is a good watch for the weekend. With things getting tense, it will be exciting to watch who wins in the battle of films at the end. Saajan’s character hasn’t been fully revealed yet and I think he will add a lot of action.

Final Score – [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
Follow @_riyasinghhh_ on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times