Top 10 Indian Serials in Pakistan That People Actually Watch (2026)

Pakistani cable operators have been blocking Indian channels on and off for fifteen years. PEMRA issues notices. Politicians give speeches. None of it works. Millions of Pakistani viewers find a way every single time, YouTube, VPNs, shared streaming accounts, WhatsApp forwards of yesterday’s episode. The appetite for Indian serials in Pakistan is not a trend. It has been a constant since the mid-1990s, and in 2026 it is bigger than ever.

This list is not based on what looks popular from the outside. It is based on what Pakistani audiences are genuinely searching for, talking about, and sitting through 800 episodes of. There is a difference.

Why Indian serials travel so well across the border

Hindi and Urdu are close enough that Pakistani viewers do not need subtitles. That matters, but it is not the whole story.

The joint family, the demanding saas, the daughter-inlaw caught between her husband and his mother, the son who cannot stand up to his parents, the class difference that complicates every romance these are not Indian stories. They are South Asian stories. Pakistani viewers recognise the furniture of these dramas because it is their own furniture.

Where Indian serials lose Pakistani viewers is length. A Pakistani drama runs 25 to 40 episodes, tells a complete story, and ends. The best ones Humsafar, Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Mann Mayal at its peak are closer to a long novel than a soap opera. Indian serials run 500, 800, 1000 episodes, and Pakistani audiences who grew up with tight storytelling find the pacing maddening.

And yet. The same Pakistani viewers who complain about Indian serials never ending are often 400 episodes deep into one.

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The top 10 Indian serials in Pakistan right now

1۔ Anupamaa — Star Plus

Anupamaa has been the most-watched Hindi serial in India for most of the past three years, and its Pakistani following is equally serious. The show follows a woman in her forties who spent two decades as a devoted housewife, gets divorced, and has to figure out who she is outside of her family. That premise alone explains the cross-border pull.

Pakistani women in particular have responded to the show’s refusal to make Anupamaa into either a martyr or a superhero. She is slow to change. She makes bad decisions. She goes back to people who have hurt her. Rupali Ganguly’s performance is the reason people stay she plays this woman’s confusion and gradual courage without ever tipping into melodrama.

Anupamaa topped India’s BARC TRP charts consistently through 2025 and into 2026. In Pakistan, episodes circulate through WhatsApp groups and fan pages within hours of airing.

Watch on: JioHotstar, Star Plus YouTube channel

2۔ Naagin 7 — Colors TV

Naagin is not sophisticated television. It knows exactly what it is: a shapeshifting snake woman, love and revenge, enormous production sets, and an audience that asks no questions as long as the drama keeps moving. That is its whole selling point, and it delivers.

Pakistani audiences have been watching Naagin since Season 1, and the proof is right there in Geo TV’s own programming decisions Pakistan aired its own Naagin adaptation in 2017, which tells you everything about how deep the original penetrated the market.

Season 7, starring Priyanka Chahar Choudhary and Namik Paul, debuted in the top three of India’s weekly TRP rankings in early 2026. The Pakistani audience for this one skews younger than Anupamaa teens and early twenties who want fantasy, glamour, and a female lead who does not spend thirty episodes crying.

Watch on: JioHotstar, Colors TV YouTube

3۔ Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2 — Star Plus

When the original Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ended in 2008, it had run for eight years and producedover 1,800 episodes. Pakistani audiences of a certain age watched it through bootleg DVDs, cable broadcasts, and whatever else was available. Tulsi Virani became a household name on both sides of the border.

Season 2 launched in July 2025 and hit number one in India’s TRP charts within weeks, beating both Anupamaa and Naagin 7. The Pakistani response has been nostalgia-driven but genuine parents who watched the original are now watching Season 2 with their children, which is a strange and real thing.

Whether it can hold that position over a long run is a fair question. The original had eight years to build its mythology. Season 2 is starting from scratch with most of the same cast and the weight of comparison on every episode. Early reviews from Pakistani viewers are cautiously positive, mostly because the alternative being disappointed is too sad to entertain yet.

Watch on: Star Plus, JioHotstar

4۔ Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai — Star Plus

Seventeen years on air. Over 4,000 episodes. Three complete generational handoffs of the central story. Still in the top ten TRP every week.

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai is the longest-running Hindi TV serial in history, and the reason it has survived while most of its contemporaries have ended is that it keeps replacing itself. When one couple’s story winds down, the show moves to the next generation rather than dragging the original couple through increasingly implausible plots. Current leads Samridhii Shukla and Rohit Purohit have brought a fresh audience, including Pakistani viewers who never watched the original Akshara-Naitik era.

Pakistani fans of the show tend to be extremely invested not casually watching, but tracking episode counts and running fan accounts. It occupies a specific place in the ecosystem: the show you started years ago and cannot stop now because stopping would mean those 400 hours meant nothing.

Watch on: Star Plus, JioHotstar, fan-uploaded YouTube content

5۔ Kundali Bhagya — Zee TV

Kundali Bhagya is a spin-off of Kumkum Bhagya, focused on the younger sister’s love story with a wealthy heir. The Karan-Preeta pairing built one of the more devoted fanbases in recent Indian television the kind that writes petitions when the storyline goes somewhere they do not like.

In Pakistan, it is probably the most reliably watched Zee TV show. Part of that is the love story structure enemies who fall for each other, separated by circumstances, reunion stretched across hundreds of episodes which maps perfectly onto what Pakistani drama fans already love. The difference is that Kundali Bhagya will stay in that loop for eight seasons while a Pakistani drama would wrap it up in episode 30.

Watch on: Zee TV, ZEE5

6۔ Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin — Star Plus

At its peak, Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin generated the kind of arguments on Pakistani social media that only happen when people are genuinely emotionally involved. The Virat-Sai-Pakhi triangle had Pakistani viewers firmly divided into camps, defending their position with the energy of a cricket rivalry.

The show tackles arranged marriage, duty, and desire with slightly more honesty than the genre average. Virat is not heroic. He is a man who honours his obligation to one woman while being in love with another, and the show does not entirely excuse him for it. That moral greyness is what kept Pakistani audiences watching even through the story’s longer stretches.

Watch on: Star Plus, JioHotstar

7۔ Kumkum Bhagya — Zee TV

Kumkum Bhagya is now on its third generation of characters, and the Pragya-Abhi love story that started the whole thing has long since concluded. The show has survived by doing what Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai does moving the story forward through generations rather than manufacturing reasons to keep the original couple apart forever.

Pakistani viewers who followed Pragya and Abhi through the early seasons are the core audience. The newer storylines have a harder time holding that group, but the show’s TRP remains stable enough that it has clearly found enough new viewers to replace the ones who have drifted.

Watch on: Zee TV, ZEE5

8۔ Udne Ki Aasha — Star Plus

This one is different from most shows on this list. Udne Ki Aasha premiered in March 2024 with no major stars attached, a relatively low-key marketing campaign, and a story about a woman who refuses to give up her ambitions despite a difficult marriage. It won Best Drama at the Indian Telly Awards 2025.

Pakistani viewers found it through social media clips specific scenes, usually the ones where the female lead holds her ground and worked backwards into the full series. It is quieter and more character-driven than anything else in this list. Less spectacle, more interiority. Pakistani audiences who find the saasbahu genre exhausting but still want Indian television have landed here.

Watch on: Star Plus, JioHotstar

9۔ Mangal Lakshmi — Colors TV

Mangal Lakshmi won Deepika Singh the Best Actress award at the 2025 Indian Telly Awards, and the award is deserved. The show follows two sisters one who sacrifices constantly, one who is more self-focused and the complicated love between them. It is less about men than most Indian serials, which is part of why it has a specific following among Pakistani women who are tired of shows where the female lead’s entire existence revolves around who she is married to.

It has not crossed into mainstream Pakistani viewership the way Anupamaa or Naagin have. The audience is smaller and more specific. But that audience is loyal.

Watch on: Colors TV, JioHotstar

10۔ Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah — SAB TV

Every other show on this list is a drama. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah is a comedy, and it has been making Pakistani families laugh since 2008. It is the only Indian serial that cuts across every demographic grandparents, teenagers, small children because it is not about romance or family conflict or supernatural revenge. It is about neighbours being ridiculous, Jethalal getting into trouble, and Daya Ben being oblivious to it all.

Past 4,000 episodes and still in the top ten TRP. In Pakistan, it is the show that plays in the background during dinner. Nobody is deeply invested in where the plot goes because there essentially is no plot just a reliable half-hour of people who feel familiar.

Watch on: SAB TV, YouTube (official SAB TV channel)

Honourable mentions

Yeh Hai Chahatein — the Yeh Hai Mohabbatein spinoff, steady Pakistani following among younger viewers.

Vasudha (Zee TV, 2026) — newer show that performed well in early 2026 TRP charts, still building its Pakistani audience.

Mahadev and Sons (Star Plus, January 2026) — the newest entry on Indian television, gaining attention with its traditional-family-meets-modern-challenges premise.

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