''Scam 2003: The Telgi Story'' is a 2023 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

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

financial thriller Financial thrillers are a subgenre of thriller fiction in which the financial system and economy play a major role. History The novel '' The Financier'' (1912) by Theodore Dreiser displays elements of a financial thriller and is an early examp ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television series, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable t ...

series 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 ...

directed by Tushar Hiranandani, with Hansal Mehta serving as the co-director. Based on a true story of stamped paper

counterfeiting A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

s committed by

Abdul Karim Telgi Abdul Karim Telgi (29 July 1961 – 23 October 2017) was an Indian counterfeiter. He earned money by printing counterfeit stamp paper in India, with the size of the scam estimated to be around . Early life Abdul Karim's mother was Shariefabe ...

in early 2000s, the series is inspired from Sanjay Singh's book ''Telgi Scam: Reporter's ki Diary''. It is the second installment in Scam franchise following '' Scam 1992''. It stars Gagan Dev Riar as the protagonist Abdul Karim Telgi with

Mukesh Tiwari Mukesh Tiwari is an Indian actor, who has worked predominantly in Bollywood and few Tamil, Punjabi, Kannada and Telugu films. He is known for playing negative and comic side roles. He graduated from National School of Drama National Scho ...

, Sana Amin Sheikh,

Bharat Jadhav Bharat Jadhav (born 12 December 1973) is an Indian actor and producer in Marathi movies, theatre, and TV shows in India. He is the first actor of Marathi cinema to own a vanity van. He play Sahi re Sahi is the blockbuster the play has completed ...

and Shaad Randhawa in pivotal roles. The first 5 episodes of the series released on 1 September 2023 via

and the remaining 5 released on 5 November 2023.

Premise

It follows the real-life story of Abdul Karim Telgi who was involved in the 2003 stamp paper counterfeiting scandal worth of INR 30,000 crores.

Cast

* Gagan Dev Riar as

* Aniruddh Roy as Inspector Balekundri * Hemang Vyas as Kaushal Jhaveri *

as Suryapratap Gehlot * Talat Aziz as Shaukat * Sana Amin Sheikh as Nafisa *

as Durgesh Bharade * Shaad Randhawa as Sheikh * Shashank Ketkar as Jayant Karmarkar aka JK * Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Advocate Ganesh Kamble * Dinesh Lal Yadav as Pramod Jaisingh *

Sameer Dharmadhikari Sameer Dharmadhikari is an Indian film and television actor and model known for playing the role of Samrat Bindusara Maurya in ''Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat''. He played the male lead in the Marathi film '' Nirop'' that won the National Award f ...

as Tukaram * Salim Siddiqui as Vitthal * Bharat Dabholkar as Jadhav * Aniruddh Roy as Inspector Balekundri *

Bhavana Balsavar Bhavana Balsavar (born 21 October 1967) is an Indian film, stage and television actress. She is the part of silent comedy series, '' Gutur Gu'' (2010). Personal life Bhavana is the daughter of Hindi cinema actress Shubha Khote and her husb ...

as Garima Talpade * Mohd Yusuf Khan as Suleiman *

Nandu Madhav Nandu Madhav is an Indian actor known for his works in Marathi cinema and theatre. He is known for his title role in Paresh Mokashi's ''Harishchandrachi Factory'' which won the Best Feature Film in Marathi award in the 56th National Film Awar ...

as Inspector Madhukar Dombe * Kirandeep Kaur Sran as bar dancer Parveen *

Aman Verma Aman Verma may refer to: * Aman Verma (actor) (born 1961), Indian television anchor and actor * Aman Verma (footballer) (born 1987), English footballer * Aman Verma, fictional character portrayed by Akshay Kumar in the 1999 Indian film ''Sanghar ...

as Commissioner of Police Jagdish Suri (based on R S Sharma) *

Iravati Harshe Iravati Harshe Mayadev is an Indian actress and dubbing artist. She has worked in many television serials and is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. Filmography Television Dubbing * French version of ''Dil To Pagal Hai'', voice of Madhuri D ...

as DCP Malti Halani

Episodes

Production

Development

The series was first officially announced on 24 March 2022, by SonyLIV and Applause Entertainment.

Filming

The series officially started filming from April 2022.

Marketing

On 25 May 2022, SonyLIV first announced the series officially in their YouTube channel. The teaser with a release date was announced on 4 August 2023.

Litigation

In December 2022, Mumbai Court refused to halt the publication of the web series plead by Sana Irfan Talikoti, Telgi's daughter who filed a lawsuit to get a restraining order against the web series' release. Sana has requested an injunction to prevent its distribution, arguing that the project's makers did not have the family's approval before moving forward. Applause Entertainment Pvt Ltd, its director Hansal Mehta, general manager Prasoon Garg, and Sony Liv were all named defendants in the lawsuit. Sana claims in her lawsuit that the series is based on a book that contained factual errors. She asserted that the web series infringed the family's rights to secrecy, decency, and respect.

Release

The first part with 5 episodes was released on 1 September 2023 via SonyLIV. The second part with the remaining 5 episodes was released on 3 November 2023.

Reception

The series received generally positive reviews. Review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

assigned 67% "fresh" rating based on 6 reviews.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt28804856
''Watch Scam 2003''
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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 ...

2023 Indian television series debuts Indian crime television series Television series based on actual events Hindi-language television shows Television series by Sony Pictures Television