''MasterChef'' ''India – Hindi'' (or colloquially ''MasterChef Hindi''; formerly ''MasterChef India'') is an Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language competitive cooking reality television series based on ''

MasterChef Australia ''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and ch ...

'' and is part of ''

MasterChef India ''MasterChef India'' is an Indian competitive cooking game show franchise based on the Australian show ''MasterChef Australia'', which itself is based on the original British television show ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. ''Mast ...

.'' The series features amateur and home chefs competing to win the title of 'MasterChef'. The current line-up of judges consists of Vikas Khanna,

Pooja Dhingra Pooja Dhingra (born 1986) is an Indian pastry chef and businesswoman. She opened India's first macaron store and is the owner of bakery chain Le15 Patisserie that specialises in macarons and a host of French desserts. Biography Dhingra was born ...

, and

Ranveer Brar Ranveer Singh Brar (born 8 February 1978) is an Indian celebrity chef, television personality, author, restaurateur and actor. He is known as the host of several television food shows, and as a judge in ''MasterChef India'', alongside fellow c ...

Format

''MasterChef'' is based on the Australian series ''

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with MasterChef (British TV series), the British version in July 1990. The show aims to discover the culinary talent of chefs of varying sk ...

''. The competition takes place in the ''MasterChef'' soundstage located in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India which includes a large kitchen area with several cooking stations which is overlooked by a balcony, a well-stocked pantry, a freezer/fridge area and a fine-dining restaurant/seating dining area room used for certain challenges. While the particular format of the season has slightly varied over the years, the following challenges have all been regularly featured: * Skills Test: Cooks are challenged to perform a list of common cooking techniques or styles, or to replicate a particular cooking method of a dish (i.e. steaks done to an exact wellness). This type of test is also sometimes used as an Elimination Test. * Mystery Box: Cooks are given a box with the same ingredients and they must use only those ingredients to create a dish within a fixed amount of time. The judges will select three dishes based on visual appearance, its taste and how well the contestants have used the given ingredient. The person who fulfils these three criteria will gain an advantage. * Elimination Test: After the challenge is explained, judges evaluate all dishes based on taste and visual appeal. The judges give feedback of every dish and nominate the least pleasant dish for elimination. * Team Challenge: The cooks are split into teams by either team captains or the judges. These challenges take place in a restaurant or pop-up restaurant taking the place of the staff of a particular restaurant. Guests taste both meals and vote for their favorite. The winning team advances, while the losing team will participate in the Pressure Test or face elimination based on the teams' performance. * Pressure Test: Another form of the Elimination Test, in which losing team members compete against each other to make a standard dish within a very limited amount of time that requires a great degree of cooking finesse. Each dish is judged on taste, visual appeal and technique, and the losing chef is eliminated. Once the competition is reduced the finalists will compete against each other in a three-course cook-off. All courses of the meal are judged and an overall winner is crowned. The winner of seventh season won ₹ 25,00,000, a ''MasterChef'' trophy, and the title of ''MasterChef''. Some seasons have also added other prizes such as a cookbook deal.

Judges and host

Series overview

''MasterChef'' ''Junior MasterChef'' ''Celebrity MasterChef''

Season 1 (2010)

MasterChef India 1 aired from 16 October 2010 to 25 December 2010 on

StarPlus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of family dramas, romantic comedies, youth-oriented realit ...

. Hosted by

Akshay Kumar Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career span ...

Kunal Kapur Kunal Kapur (born 18 September 1979) is an Indian celebrity chef and restaurateur known for hosting and judging ''MasterChef India''. Early life Kapur was born in New Delhi to a Punjabi family. He studied at St. Francis de Sales School a ...

and Ajay Chopra, it was won by Pankaj Bhadouria.

Season 2 (2011)

MasterChef India 2 aired from 22 October 2011 to 1 January 2012 on

. Hosted by Vikas Khanna,

and Ajay Chopra, it was won by Shipra Khanna.

Nita Mehta Nita Mehta is an Indian chef, author, restaurateur and media personality, known for her cookbooks, cooking classes and as a judge on cooking based television shows. Career Author Mehta has authored more than 400 cookbooks of which 6 million c ...

and

Bijou Thaangjam Bijou Thaangjam (born Thangjam Biju Singh) is an Indian actor, lyricist, art director, chef and entrepreneur. He is of Meitei descent originally from Imphal, Manipur. He was one of the contestants on the reality cooking competition MasterChef ...

also participated in the program.

Season 3 (2013)

MasterChef India 3 aired from 11 March 2013 to 9 June 2013 on

.'Nach Baliye contestants on MasterChef'
/ref> While the previous seasons were on weekends, this season aired during weekdays. Hosted by Vikas Khanna,

and

Sanjeev Kapoor {{Infobox chef , name = Sanjeev Kapoor , image = Sanjeev kapoor at the Launch of new restaurant 'Arola' at J W Marriott.jpg , image_size = , caption = Kapoor in 2016 , birth_date = {{Birth date and age, df= ...

, it was won by Ripudaman Handa.

Season 4 (2015)

MasterChef India 4 aired from 26 January 2015 to 12 April 2015 on

. For the first time in the history of MasterChef, a pure vegetarian format was introduced. Hosted by

, Vikas Khanna and

, Written by Gunjan Joshi, it was won by Nikita Gandhi.

Season 5 (2016)

MasterChef India 5 aired from 1 October 2016 to 25 December 2016 on

. Hosted by Vikas Khanna,

and Zorawar Kalra. Kirti Bhoutika won the competition, with Ashima Arora finishing in the second place.

Season 6 (2019)

''MasterChef India 6'' aired from 7 December 2019 to 1 March 2020 on

. Hosted by Vikas Khanna,

and

Vineet Bhatia Vineet Bhatia (born 9 December 1967) is an Indian chef, restaurateur, author, and media personality. He was the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star. He opened two Rasoi restaurants, the first in Chelsea, London in 2004, and the sec ...

, Written by Gunjan Joshi. The winner was Abinas Nayak, with Oindrila Bala as the runner-up.

Season 7 (2023)

The seventh season of the Hindi version of ''MasterChef India'' was announced on 5 August 5, 2022, hosted by the judges Vikas Khanna,

and

Garima Arora Garima Arora is an Indian Master Chef, Judge Hotelier, Restaurateur and a Business woman. In November 2018, she became the first Indian woman to win a Michelin star. Early life and career Arora grew up in Mumbai, and is of Punjabi Arora f ...

. It aired from 2 January 2023 to 31 March 2023 on

SET Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

and was also streamed on

SonyLIV Sony LIV is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Culver Max Entertainment. Sony LIV was introduced in 2013 as the first OTT service in India. As a streaming service, it provides live sports, origina ...

. The winner was Nayanjyoti Saikia, who got prize money of ₹25,00,000 and the first runner-up was Santa Sarmah and second runner-up was Suvarna Bagul. They both got prize money of ₹5,00,000. After the finale of season 7, it was revealed that a spinoff would premier, titled "''MasterChef India - MasterClass''". The show will feature the same judges and contestants as the 7th season of MasterChef, but instead the judges will cook for the contestants, teaching them skills and recipes.

Season 8 (2023)

The eighth season of the Hindi version of ''MasterChef India'' was announced on 7 July 2023, hosted by the judges

, Vikas Khanna and

. It premiered exclusively on

on 16 October 2023. The winner of this season was Mohammed Ashiq from Mangalore.

Season 9 (2025)

The ninth season of the Hindi version of MasterChef India was announced on 10 April 2025, hosted by the judges Pooja Dhingra, Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar. It has started to premiere exclusively on SonyLIV & Sony Entertainment Television on 21 April 2025

Spin-off editions

''Junior MasterChef India''

''Junior MasterChef India'' premiered on 17 August 2013 on

. This was the first and the only season of the junior spin-off. The season was won by Sarthak Bhardwaj in the finale held on 2 November 2013.

''Celebrity MasterChef''

''Celebrity MasterChef'' premiered on Sony Entertainment Television on 27th January 2025.

Farah Khan Farah Khan Kunder (; born 9 January 1965) is an Indian film director, writer, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, winning th ...

, for the first time, joined as the host of the show. Vikas Khanna and

reprised their role as judges from the original series. The season was won by

Gaurav Khanna Gaurav Khanna (born 11 December 1981) is an Indian television actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Anuj Kapadia in Star Plus's ''Anupamaa'', for which he won the Indian Telly Award for Best Actor (Editorial). In 2025, he won the first s ...

on April 11, 2025.

Production

In 2010,

Star India Disney Star (also known as JioStar), registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture owned with a share of 16.34% by Reliance Industries, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney India. On 14 Nove ...

licensed the rights for producing ''MasterChef India'' in Hindi. From 2023, the show will air on

Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...

Reception

Season 1 opened with an average ratings of 2.6 TVR. The following week, it garnered 2.5 TVR. Overall it ranged around over 2 and 3 TVR. The finale garnered the highest viewership rating of 4.2 TVR. Season 2 premiered with 2.01 TVR and ended with 2.6 TVR. Season 3 opened with 2.2 TVR while the following weeks garnered a decent ratings between 2 and 2.3 TVR the finale became the most watched reality show of the week with 3.7 TVR. Season 6 garnered low ratings ranging 0.8 and 1.1 TRP.

References

External links

Official website of MasterChef India Season 2

Official website of MasterChef India Season 3
{{MasterChef Indian game shows 2010 Indian television series debuts StarPlus original programming Hindi-language Disney+ Hotstar original programming Sony Entertainment Television original programming SonyLIV original programming Indian television series based on British television series Indian cooking television series Television series by Endemol Television series by Banijay