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| Aspect | Details | |--------|---------| | | Scam 2003: The Telgi Story | | Release Year | 2023 (Premiered Sept 2, 2023) | | Platform | Sony LIV | | Director | Tushar Hiranandani (ep. 1-4), Hansal Mehta (ep. 5-8, also showrunner) | | Producer | Applause Entertainment in association with StudioNEXT | | Lead Actor | Gagan Dev Riar (as Abdul Karim Telgi) | | Episodes | 10 (approx. 40–50 mins each) | | Language | Hindi (with regional accents: Marathi, Kannada, Urdu) |
The 2023 web series chronicles the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of Abdul Karim Telgi, the mastermind behind India's infamous 2003 stamp paper counterfeiting scandal. Spanning multiple decades and states, the narrative uncovers how a fruit seller from Karnataka exploited systemic loopholes to orchestrate a fraud valued at an astronomical ₹30,000 crore. The Plot: From Fruit Seller to Fraud Mastermind
is a 2023 Hindi-language biographical financial thriller series on SonyLIV. It serves as the second installment in Hansal Mehta’s acclaimed Scam franchise, following the massive success of Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story .
Visually, Scam 2003 adopts a distinctly different tone from Scam 1992 . The color palette is muted, dusty, and sepia-toned, reflecting the grime of the stamp paper trade and the sweat-soaked streets of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The production design deserves high praise for authentically recreating the late 1990s and early 2000s, an era that lacked digital surveillance and relied heavily on physical documentation. The background score by Achint Thakkar is understated but effective, using rhythmic, tension-building cues that echo the mechanical printing presses at the center of the story.
The release of Scam 2003: The Telgi Story in 2023 solidified the "Scam" franchise as a benchmark for investigative biographical dramas in India.
The series consists of 10 episodes in total. You can watch it exclusively on the OTT platform.
While Scam 1992 carried a sense of cinematic glamour due to the flashy nature of the stock market, Scam 2003 is intentionally darker and more methodical. It exchanges the adrenaline of the trading floor for the slow-burning tension of political betrayal and criminal investigations. Conclusion