2018 · Series
Sacred Games
India's first Netflix original series, a Hindi crime thriller in which a Mumbai police inspector gets a warning call from a long-missing gangster.
Reviewed by Movie Mandala, Sun, 18 Oct, 2026
Where to watch
IndiaAs of 18 October 2026, Sacred Games is streaming in India on Netflix with a subscription.
The story
Sartaj Singh is a Mumbai police inspector who craves respect from a force he sees as corrupt. One day he receives a phone call from Ganesh Gaitonde, a notorious crime lord who vanished 16 years ago. Gaitonde tells Sartaj he has 25 days to save the city. As Sartaj chases clues with help from RAW officer Anjali Mathur, flashbacks trace Gaitonde's rise from a poor young man to the ruler of Mumbai's underworld, and hint at a link between the gangster and Sartaj's own father.
Spoiler-free: only the set-up.
Who it suits
Meant for adults who like dense, slow-unfolding crime stories with two parallel timelines. Netflix rates it A; expect violence, sexual content, strong language and religious and political themes.
Curation to help you choose, not a review.
Background
Sacred Games is based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 novel of the same name, adapted by Varun Grover, Smita Singh and Vasant Nath. Netflix approached Phantom Films in 2014, and Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap split the direction: Motwane shot Sartaj Singh's track and Kashyap shot Ganesh Gaitonde's.
It is India's first Netflix original series. The eight-episode first season was released on 6 July 2018 in 191 countries, and the second season, with Neeraj Ghaywan replacing Motwane as co-director, premiered on 15 August 2019 to a more mixed response. The first season is the only Indian series on The New York Times list of "The 30 Best International TV Shows of the Decade". It won Best Drama at the News18 iReel Awards, and at the inaugural Asian Academy Creative Awards Kashyap won Best Direction (Fiction) and Aarti Bajaj won Best Editing. Wikipedia also records an International Emmy nomination for Best Drama Series in 2019. The show has two seasons; Netflix's India page lists Hindi and English audio.
The facts
- Language
- Hindi
- Hindi
- Hindi original
- Genre
- Neo-noir crime thriller, Gangster drama
- Director
- Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap
- Cast
- Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Jitendra Joshi, Neeraj Kabi
Questions people ask
- Where can I watch Sacred Games in India?
- As of 18 October 2026, Sacred Games is streaming in India on Netflix with a subscription.
- Is Sacred Games in Hindi?
- Yes. Sacred Games is a Hindi-language series.