Director Deepak Kumar Mishra Sets Sights on 'Panchayat 4' with Plans for Season Five

Director Deepak Kumar Mishra is hopeful that the much-loved comedy-drama series "Panchayat" gets at least two more seasons, with the fourth season already in the making. The comments by Mishra come just ahead of the streaming of the show's third season on Prime Video, with a star cast including Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, and Sanvikaa.

Since its release in 2020, "Panchayat" has been a major hit with the audience, and the second season had received a similar enthusiastic response when it dropped in 2022.

"We have already started working on the storyline for season four. Generally, there is no gap for us between seasons. Season three has ended, and we have already written three to four episodes of the fourth season," Mishra told PTI.

"We have already planned to take the show till season five. We have a clear blueprint for season four, and a rough structure for season five,\" he added.

"Panchayat" follows the life of Abhishek Tripathi (played by Kumar), an engineering graduate who takes up the job of a secretary in a panchayat office located in Phulera, a fictional rural village in Uttar Pradesh due to lack of better job opportunities.

As he approached the development of \"Panchayat\" season three, Mishra said they were more focused on keeping the show's essence intact without getting carried away by its past success.

"We were careful not to get influenced by the success of the previous seasons. We understood we had to maintain the show's realism and soul while moving the tale forward organically. "However, we wanted to make the new season more entertaining and emotionally rewarding," he explained.

Looking back on his initial reservations about the show's reception when it premiered in 2020, Mishra admitted he was concerned about the show's target audience.

"There was a certain amount of uncertainty about the reception of the show, given its unique narrative style. We put tremendous work into the script; we made sure it was rich in creative ideas. We knew that if viewers took to the series, they would love it. But that lingering thought—that they might not—is always there. It's a nagging doubt. And of course, since I'm a fan of such stories myself, I also felt that audiences would like the show," he said in retrospect.

"Panchayat" season three, produced by The Viral Fever, is releasing in Hindi with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada dubs.