MUMBAI: The onset of the pandemic left us adapting to the new normal – a year filled with curfews, self-quarantine and social distancing.  But while you were locked down at home, the super app of entertainment, MX Player made sure you weren’t alone.

At a time when the entire world was craving entertainment, MX Player launched a plethora of shows ranging across genres like drama, comedy, thrillers, crime and a musical reality series that catered to a wide palette and helped make 2020 a lot more bearable!

In case your OTT watch list is in need of reinforcements, or if you’re in a mood to re-stream some of your favourite shows, the platform has put together the MX Playback 2020 watchlist.

Watch the promo here https://youtu.be/p_cGRiRkTs8 and tune in to see this list of award-winning shows that set a new benchmark of viewership this year, exclusively on MX Player. 

Aashram – Touted to be the biggest OTT entertainment series for this year - Aashram, directed by Prakash Jha stars Bobby Deol as Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala, a sinister godman who is convinced of his own divinity and is revered by his followers and devotees. His immoral intentions, his insatiable need for power, lust and greed makes him a complicated character who portrays shades darker than what anyone could have envisioned. Aashram Part 1 released in August, and the second chapter premiered on MX Player in November. Aaditi Pohankar, Darshan Kumar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Adhyayan Suman, Anupriya Goenka and Tushar Pandey also play key roles in the show.

Times of Music – Having recently won the Filmfare OTT Award for the Best Unscripted (non-fiction) Original (series/special) category, this show can definitely be watched over and over again! A one-of-its-kind music reality/chat show, Times of Music brings together 20 legendary composers who rewrite history and reinvent each other’s most celebrated tunes. The music on the show left us loving the recreations as much as we did the originals. Each episode sees two composers of different eras soak in the philosophy behind the other’s celebrated song, and presenting it in his own way to create a fabulous new rendition. The show sees incredible names including Vishal & Shekhar – Bappi Lahiri, Salim – Sulaiman & Pyarelalji, Sachin - Jigar & Euphoria, Shantanu Moitra – Amaal Mallik, Amit Trivedi – Agnee, Viju Shah – Mithoon, Rajesh Roshan – Himesh Reshammiya, Anand - Milind; Sajid - Wajid, Ajay - Atul & Kalyanji - Anandji, and Indian Ocean – Sneha Khanwalkar.

High – Another show that gave us respite during the peak lockdown, High traces the life of Shiv Mathur who is an addict struggling to get a grip on life and eventually finds himself in a rehab facility that is run by Doctor Roy and two other junior doctors who are working on a mysterious compound. The existence and sampling of this pill creates disorder in the illegal drugs market and pharmaceutical industry. The 9 episodic series is directed by acclaimed ad film maker Nikhil Rao and also stars powerful performers like Ranvir Shorey, Shweta Basu Prasad, Nakul Bhalla, Prakash Belawadi, Mrinmayee Godbole, Kunal Naik, Mantra and Madhur Mittal in key roles.

Raktanchal - A high octane, action packed crime drama inspired by real events from the 80s of Purvanchal, Uttar Pradesh - the show takes us through a surreal journey of the brutality set in the Hindi heartland of India. Set in a time when the state development work was distributed through tenders, this 9-episodic series introduces audiences to the never explored world of thekedari. The series is directed by Ritam Shrivastav, and additionally stars Vikram Kochhar, Pramod Pathak, Chitranjan Tripathi, Soundarya Sharma, Ronjini Chakraborty, Basu Soni and Krishna Bisht in pivotal roles.

Ek Thi Begum - A revenge drama directed by Sachin Darekar which sees Anuja Sathe play the role of Ashraf aka Sapna. Based on true incidents, the series is set in the 1980s in Mumbai, a time when organized crime was at its peak. ‘Ek thi Begum’ chronicles the life of a beautiful, gutsy woman whose life changed when the city’s biggest don Maqsood (Ajay Gehi) turned responsible for the death of her husband Zaheer (Ankit Mohan).

Pawan & Pooja - This relationship drama explores the lives of 3 couples – all coincidentally named Pawan and Pooja, who, at different stages of their lives discover that their love is indeed conditional, breakable and questionable. Bound by trust and now in their 60’s - Pawan and Pooja Kalra (Deepti Naval and Mahesh Manjrekar) decide to make a Regret List and mark off all that they couldn’t in their young age. Battling a stagnant marriage in their 40’s, Pawan (Sharman Joshi) and Pooja Mehra (Gul Panag) have loved none other but each other, however – that love is no longer the same. In their 20s’s, Pawan Srivastav (Taaruk Raina) and Pooja Maheshwari (Natasha Bharadwaj) love their online friends and the virtual world above themselves but for how long? These complex relationships and their even more complex emotions are all brought alive in this 10-episodic series examines the complexities of the one emotion that connects us all: LOVE.

Samantar – A breakthrough in the world of Marathi web series, Samantar traces the journey of Kumar Mahajan, whose life changes when he hears that a man called Sudarshan Chakrapani’s past will be his future. Kumar is a common man at a juncture where absolutely nothing is going right. He can’t meet his family’s needs, he is fired from his job and even the smallest things seem to be going astray and only one man can now help him know his future – Sudarshan Chakrapani. Samantar is a 9 episodic series starring Swwapnil Joshi and is directed by the much-admired director Satish Rajwade.

Bhaukaal - Inspired by the life of IPS Officer Navniet Sekera, Bhaukaal is set in Muzaffarnagar in 2003. The series tells the tale of how one courageous officer goes on a clean-up drive to punish criminals, battles local influential personalities and re-establishes the faith of the common man in the law. It is directed by Jatin Wagle and stars Mohit Raina, Abhimanyu Singh, Siddhanth Kapoor, Bidita Bag, Sunny Hinduja, Rashmi Rajput, Pradeep Nagar and Gulki Joshi in pivotal roles.

Dangerous – One kidnapping, multiple suspects, and motives galore – a quest begins to solve the most dangerous mystery of the season when rich entrepreneur Aditya Dhanraj (Karan Singh Grover) finds himself face to face with ex-lover Neha Singh (Bipasha Basu) again in the case of Dia Dhanraj, Aditya Dhanraj’s missing wife. Directed by Bhushan Patel and produced by Mika Singh & Vikram Bhatt, this MX Exclusive is a slick thriller full of betrayal, love, affairs, passion, deception, and rivalry.

And that’s not all, you can watch on this and more on MX Player for free!