Few Hindi web series have managed to combine romance, crime, and suspense as consistently as Twisted. Created by veteran filmmaker Vikram Bhatt, the show first premiered in 2017 and went on to release three seasons over the following years, becoming one of the more recognizable original titles associated with MX Player (now largely folded into JioCinema). With a rotating cast, evolving mysteries, and a format built around psychological cat-and-mouse tension, Twisted has remained a frequently searched title among fans of Indian web thrillers. Here’s a complete breakdown of its cast, seasons, and episodes.
What Is Twisted?
Twisted is a Hindi-language romantic-thriller web series created, written, and produced by Vikram Bhatt, a filmmaker known for his long history in Bollywood’s suspense and horror genres. The show blends romance with crime drama, typically centering each season on a central mystery — often a murder or disappearance — that unravels through a tangled web of relationships, suspicion, and betrayal.
The series first released in 2017 and has since expanded to three seasons, with each installment functioning as a largely self-contained story featuring its own central mystery, though several seasons share connective threads and returning characters, most notably actress Nia Sharma. The show built its identity around suspenseful plotting combined with romantic tension between its leads, a combination that helped it stand out in the early wave of Indian web-original content.
Season 1: The Beginning of the Mystery
Twisted’s first season, which premiered in 2017, introduced the show’s signature blend of crime and romance. The story centers on the death of a character’s wife under mysterious circumstances, with the investigation drawing in a woman named Aliya as the prime suspect. As the plot unfolds, it’s revealed that Aliya had been involved in an affair with the deceased woman’s husband, complicating the case further. From there, the season builds around a tense dynamic between Aliya and Aryan, the investigating officer assigned to the case, as attraction and suspicion become difficult to separate.
Season 1 starred Nia Sharma as Aliya Mukherji, alongside Namit Khanna, Tia Bajpai, and Rahul Raj as Aryan Mathur, with direction by Anupam Santosh Saroj. The season ran for 11 episodes, establishing the format the franchise would continue to build on in later installments: short episodes, cliffhanger-driven pacing, and a central mystery threaded through a romantic entanglement.
Season 2: Raising the Stakes
Twisted returned for a second season in 2018, continuing to build on the franchise’s central formula while introducing new characters and complications. Nia Sharma returned in a lead role, joined by Ankush Bhaskar (playing a character named Vinod), Rrahul Sudhir, and Dilnaz Irani, who took on the role of a police officer investigating the season’s central mystery.
Season 2 continued the show’s pattern of blending crime-thriller elements with romantic tension, with Sharma’s character once again finding herself at the center of both suspicion and desire. The season maintained a similar episode count and structure to the first, running for 13 episodes and continuing to draw viewers with its mix of suspense and melodrama.
Season 3: A New Chapter
The third season of Twisted arrived in November 2020, marking a shift in both cast and creative direction. Directed by Krishna Bhatt (Vikram Bhatt’s daughter) alongside Abhishek Mamgain, and produced under the Loneranger Productions banner, Season 3 introduced an almost entirely new ensemble while retaining the franchise’s core themes of deception, seduction, and mystery.
The season’s promotional material centered on a character named Jay Shah, portrayed as someone who uses charm and wealth to seduce women as part of a larger web of lies, planning, and manipulation between characters trying to outmaneuver one another. Season 3 starred Shyamraj Patil as Brijesh Pandey, Krishna Kotian as Punit Mishra, Vishal Dave as Advocate Dayanand Shetty, along with Jay Soni, Garima Jain, and Shaleen Malhotra in key roles.
This season consisted of 10 episodes, each running approximately 18 to 20 minutes, continuing the franchise’s tradition of short, tightly-paced installments designed for binge viewing. Season 3 is available to stream on JioCinema, which absorbed much of MX Player’s original content library following corporate restructuring in the Indian streaming space.
Full Cast Overview
Because Twisted evolved significantly between seasons, its cast changed considerably from one installment to the next. Here’s a season-by-season look at the key names associated with the franchise:
Season 1 (2017):
- Nia Sharma as Aliya Mukherji
- Namit Khanna
- Tia Bajpai
- Rahul Raj as Aryan Mathur
Season 2 (2018):
- Nia Sharma (returning in a lead role)
- Ankush Bhaskar as Vinod
- Rrahul Sudhir
- Dilnaz Irani as a police officer
Season 3 (2020):
- Shyamraj Patil as Brijesh Pandey
- Krishna Kotian as Punit Mishra
- Vishal Dave as Advocate Dayanand Shetty
- Jay Soni
- Garima Jain
- Shaleen Malhotra
Across the franchise, Nia Sharma stands out as the actress most closely associated with Twisted’s early success, appearing as the lead in both of the show’s first two seasons before the series pivoted to a new cast for its third installment. Her presence in the first two seasons is frequently credited with helping establish the show’s popularity, given her existing recognition from Indian television before she moved into web-original content.
Episode Breakdown by Season
- Season 1: 11 episodes, released in 2017, centered on a murder investigation entangled with a romantic betrayal.
- Season 2: 13 episodes, released in 2018, continuing the mystery-romance format with an expanded cast and new central conflict.
- Season 3: 10 episodes, released in November 2020, following an entirely new set of characters caught in a web of manipulation, seduction, and deceit.
In total, the franchise spans 34 episodes across its three seasons, making it a substantial binge for viewers who want to follow the show from its 2017 debut through to its most recent installment.
Story Themes Across the Franchise
While each season of Twisted tells a different story, a few consistent themes run throughout the franchise:
Mystery layered with romance. Every season centers on a crime or deception, but the emotional core of the show typically comes from a romantic or sexually charged relationship between two central characters — often one who is a suspect or manipulator, and another who is investigating or being drawn in.
Shifting loyalties. Characters across all three seasons frequently aren’t who they initially appear to be, with reveals and twists forming the backbone of each season’s pacing.
Short, serialized episodes. With episode runtimes generally falling between 15 and 20 minutes, the show is structured for quick, serialized viewing, with each episode typically ending on a cliffhanger designed to pull viewers into the next.
A recurring creative team. Vikram Bhatt’s continued involvement as creator and writer (with his daughter Krishna Bhatt stepping into a directing role for Season 3) has kept a consistent creative voice behind the franchise even as its cast has changed dramatically between seasons.
Where to Watch Twisted
Twisted was originally released on MX Player, one of India’s early prominent streaming platforms for original web content. Following changes in India’s streaming landscape, much of MX Player’s original library — including Twisted — has become available through JioCinema, which absorbed a significant portion of MX Player’s catalog. Viewers looking to watch any season of the show should check JioCinema first, as it currently hosts the series’ episodes online.
Why Twisted Has Remained Popular
A few factors help explain the franchise’s continued relevance years after its 2017 debut:
- A well-known creative name: Vikram Bhatt’s reputation in Bollywood’s thriller and horror space gave the series credibility from the outset, helping it stand out during the early growth phase of Indian web originals.
- Nia Sharma’s crossover appeal: Her established fanbase from television helped draw an audience to the show’s first two seasons, contributing significantly to its early popularity.
- A flexible, evolving format: By treating each season as a largely standalone mystery with a new set of characters, the franchise avoided being tied down to a single storyline, allowing it to reinvent itself with Season 3’s new cast and setting.
- Bite-sized episodes: Short runtimes made the show easy to binge, a format choice that suited the mobile-first viewing habits common among MX Player’s original audience.
Final Thoughts
Twisted’s three seasons offer a clear look at how a Hindi web thriller evolved over its run — starting with Nia Sharma’s star power driving its first two installments, then shifting to an entirely new ensemble for its 2020 return. With 34 episodes total across its run, viewers looking to explore the franchise can start wherever they like, since each season largely stands on its own mystery, even as the show’s core mix of suspense and romantic tension remains consistent throughout. For the most current streaming details, checking JioCinema directly is the best way to confirm availability, since platform changes have shifted where the series can be found since its original MX Player release.