Naamkarann

Naamkarann
Genre	Drama
Written by	Gautham Hedge Nikita Dhond Mitali Bhattacharya Arundhati Sharma Ishan Bajpai
Directed by	Mahesh Bhatt Loknath Pandey Faheim Inamdar` Sandeep Vijay Jafar Shaikh Yusuf Ansari
Starring	Aditi Rathore Zain Imam
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	463
Production
Executive producer	Aayush Agrawal
Producers	Guroudev Bhallan Dhaval Gada
Cinematography	Santosh Suryavanshi Raj Panth Shivankar Arora
Editor	Sudhir
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	21 minutes
Production companies	Dhaval and Guroudev Productions Pvt. Ltd
Original release
Network	Star Plus
Release	12 September 2016 (2016-09-12) – 18 May 2018 (2018-05-18)

Naamkarann (lit. Naming) is an Indian Hindi television series, which premiered on 12 September 2016 and was broadcast on Star Plus. It was inspired by the 1998 Bollywood film Zakhm which was based on the life of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

Synopsis

Naamkaran starts off about the painful life of 10 year old Avni Ayesha (Arsheen Naamdaar), an illegitimate child, who lives alone with her mother, Ayesha Haider/Asha Mehta (Barkha Sengupta), and maternal grandmother, Fatima Banu/Nanno (Gulfam Khan). Avni's father is the famous film director Ashish Mehta (Viraf Patel) who lives separately from them and meets them in secret due to society and his mother, Dayawanti Mehta (Reema Lagoo) – a deeply religious Hindu woman who disapproves of his relationship with the Muslim Ayesha. The story revolves around Dayawanti rejecting Avni at every step determined for her son to break his relations with his "illegitimate" family. Avni feels she isn't normal as her dad doesn't live with her and all she wants is a "happy family" . Ashish is forced to marry Neela Parikh (Sayantani Ghosh), the kind-hearted daughter of a rich businessman. Neela finds out his truth only later. Meanwhile, Avni becomes best friends with Neela who helps Avni in her battle for justice by fighting with Dayawanti for Avni's name and rights.

Avni at one point tries to make her heartbreaking story public, thinking it would help her in some way, by making a movie out of her life. Just after the movie's launch, Ayesha is injured in an accident arranged by Dayawanti. Ayesha gives birth to her and Ashish's son, Aman, and regains consciousness after Avni offers the Azaan (Islamic call to worship). As Avni goes out to tell the doctors about Ayesha regaining consciousness, in her absence, Dayawanti suffocates and murders Ayesha and takes Aman away as her family heir, renaming him Amol. Avni goes to the Mehta house to get Aman back to prevent Dayawanti turning him into an evil person like her but Dayawanti tortures Avni and blames her to be filthy alongwith Ayesha. With help from Neela and her best friend Ali, Avni proves that Dayawanti had killed Ayesha but Dayawanti manipulates an emotionally distraught Ashish into believing that Avni killed Ayesha. Ashish, blindly believing Dayawanti, sends Avni behind bars. Neela gets her out of prison and gets ready to leave with Avni. Dayawanti tricks Avni into meeting her alone at a clifftop and shoots her. Avni falls into the water below.

15 years later

Avni (Aditi Rathore) is now a grown woman, renaming herself Ananya Verma. She was saved by Neela after she got shot and fell, she lives with Neela and together they both plot Dayawanti's ruination and getting Aman/Amol back from Dayawanti. She is a generous thief who steals money from rich people and donates the money to hospitals. ACP Neil Khanna (Zain Imam) is working her case attempting to find out her identity.

Neil and Avni bump into each other at the cliff where Avni was shot and get into a minor fight. Suspicious of her, Neil asks his colleague/friend, Dakhal Dayal/DD (Jahaan Arora) to investigate her. Meanwhile, Avni's childhood friend, Ali (Gautam Vig), is shown to be Neil's best friend. He runs a cafe, of which he and Avni dreamt of opening as they were young and has faith she is alive.

Avni finds out that Dayawanti is planning to get her other granddaughter, Riya Mehta (Nalini Negi), married to the son of a rich businessman named Prakash Khanna (Sanjay Swaraj). This is because Dayawanti is drowning in debt. To prevent the wedding, Avni wins Dayawanti over and befriends Riya. Riya's fiancè (i.e. Prakash's son) turns out to be Neil. A series of events bring Ananya and Neil closer. Meanwhile, Aman returns but is shown to have grown into a spoilt brat. Ali suspects that Ananya is Avni but Neela convinces him to keep the secret if he wants Avni to succeed in her revenge.

Neil's mother, Shweta Khanna (Shruti Ulfat), dislikes Avni from the beginning. On his wedding day, Neil finds out about Ananya being Avni but does not tell anyone. Seeing the only way to stop Neil and Riya's wedding, Avni replaces Riya and is married to Neil. Neil believes the wedding to be fake but Neela and Prakash recognize Avni to be his wife. Avni tries to leave Neil but he convinces her to stay and promises. Neil starts developing a soft corner for Avni after Neela tells him all the troubles she faced and how she managed to not be evil despite the difficulties. After a series of investigations and difficult tasks completed by Neil, Avni, Ali, Neela and Neil's colleague Mitali Sharma (Sana Amin Sheikh), it is revealed that Ashish was murdered by Dayawanti after he discovered that Dayawanti murdered Ayesha. Ashish left the tape of Dayawanti's confession somewhere for someone trustworthy to find, Avni enraged by her parents’ murders goes to murder Dayawanti unhesitant of becoming a criminal. After Neil consoles her explaining how she shouldn’t burn in the fire of hatred, she calms down and prevents herself from murdering Dayawanti. Dayawanti is arrested along with her other children – Ketan (Puru Chibber) and Diksha (Neelam Sivia). Aman realises Dayawanti's truth and accepts Avni yet Avni believes he hasn't earned Ayesha's name, yet.

The story then focuses on Neil and Avni's confused emotions regarding each other. Neil wants Avni to stop considering herself as a sin and burden on others after Dayawanti made her believe so throughout her entire life. Neil becomes jealous of Ali because of his bond with Avni. Shweta and Riya try to use this to their advantage but fail. When they return, Shweta reveals Avni's identity and her illegitimacy to everyone prompting Neil's grandmother, Harleen Khanna (Neelu Kohli), to throw Avni out of the house. Neil is then critically injured in a bomb blast planned by Amol, who turns out to be a backstabber after he earned Avni's trust and he secretly plots with Dayawanti. Avni saves Neil's life and is welcomed back into the family.

Neil attempts to arrest a human trafficker named Ragini Pandit (Manini Mishra). Pandit joins forces with Dayawanti to destroy Neil and Avni. Meanwhile, Avni saves Neil's ex-girlfriend, Juhi (Poonam Preet), whom Neil believed to have been dead, from Pandit. Therefore, she hands herself to Pandit in Rang Mahal in order to save Juhi as she was under the misconception that Neil still loved Juhi and Avni wanted Neil to get his love back. However Neil loved Avni but was unable to express so. After Neil discovers that Avni has put herself in danger, he goes with his team to save Avni and all the other girls. Aman holds Neil at gunpoint to which Avni steals a gun and holds it at Aman. As Avni is ready to shoot, she is broken by the fact that Aman betrayed her and was ready to trade her. Dayawanti hides in Rang Mahal with Aman, until Neil convinces Aman, he'll be safe if he comes out and helps to catch Dayawanti. Aman comes out and Dayawanti, furious, holds a gun and shoots at Aman unaware there are fake bullets. Avni doesn't know either that they are fake bullets and comes in front to save Aman. Aman realises Dayawanti has been using him and turns over a new leaf. Avni taunts Dayawanti for never being a good mother or grandmother, for never allowing her to get her Naamkarann (naming ceremony). Circumstances end in Aman burning Dayawanti alive, which results in her death and him being sentenced. Avni forgives Aman and feels proud of him getting Ayesha justice. Shweta also accepts Avni as her daughter-in-law.

Juhi tells Neil about, him and Juhi's illegitimate daughter, Mishti (Ayesha Vindhara), who is being held captive by Pandit's son, Vidyut (Karam Rajpal). Avni rescues Mishti who grows close to Avni. Jealous of Mishti's closeness to Avni and wanting Neil back, Juhi tries to create misunderstandings between them. It is revealed that Mishti is in fact Vidyut's daughter, not Neil's. Avni and Neil find out Juhi's truth and get her to confess but she escapes to Vidyut's house with Mishti. Juhi is at a cliff with Mishti, where Avni attempts to scare her by holding a gun at her, unaware that Vidyut is behind her with a gun pointed at Juhi, ready to shoot her. Vidyut makes it look like Avni shot Juhi who died and forces Neil to put Avni behind bars. He gives Neil an option to either put Avni behind bars or give Avni to him as he got obsessed with her. Neil takes Neela's permission to allow him and acts as if he doesn’t believe in Avni's innocence which creates misunderstandings.

6 months later

Heartbroken by the blame of killing Juhi and the lack of trust between her and Neil, Avni learns new fighting skills to fight back for crimes she didn’t commit. She plans to escape from jail with Ali's help and take revenge against Vidyut. Neil has been taking a double role of Neo so he can prove Avni's innocence while breaking the law as Neo. Whereas Vidyut abducts Neela and tells Avni to escape from jail with Ragini Pandit to save Neela. Avni manages to send a message to Neil who rescues Neela and, believing in Neil, decides not to escape from prison. Neela discovers Mishti is alive. Neil saves Neela Maa and Mishti. Neil manages to get Vidyut to confess that Pandit killed Juhi and Avni is innocent. Pandit goes to jail and Vidyut is placed under house arrest. Vidyut breaks into Neil's house and Avni has a feeling of something bad happening during the celebration party held in the Khanna house that welcomes Avni back and her doubt turns right when Neela gets shot during the dark after Vidyut enters and is killed. Avni mourns over Neela's death and cremates her feeling guilty . Avni blames herself for Neela's death claiming she killed all her loved ones by her bad luck, she calls herself ominous after her imagination of Dayawanti tells her to jump in the cremation fire and end herself and her life as Dayawanti says because of Avni, Ayesha and Ashish died and now Neela, her step mother, who treated her like her daughter. Avni helps Neil thwart Vidyut's men and later that night they consummate their marriage.

Vidyut reveals to Avni that he drugged Prakash to kill Neil but Neela came in the way and was killed. Vidyut threatens Avni that to save Prakash, she will have to marry Vidyut. To stop all that from happening, Avni decides to burn Vidyut's house and enters his house as a bride. Neil tries to save Avni but fire fighters find two dead bodies in the house leaving Avni's fate unknown.

10 years later

Neil quit the job as a police officer and has become a radio jockey on the radio channel Raabta and often visits the cliff where Avni and Neil met for the first time. After 10 years, Avni has rechristened herself as Neilanjana and dedicates her life to the well-being of illegitimate children in an orphanage. She has changed her identity to Neilanjana and takes care of a 17 year old Sayesha (Payal Bhojwani), who is in actual Mishti, and other orphan children along with her friends, Sunheri (Soni Singh), Tara (Prakriti Nautiyal), and Sitara (Pragya Nautiyal), in Kashid. Sayesha is shown to be an aspiring singer who is an ardent fan of actor Karan Kapoor "KK" (Zaan Khan).

Neil has become KK's body double. KK went Kashid for shooting with Neil and there they met with the orphan kids and KK especially made a special bond with Sayesha. Neil met with kids & Sunheri but haven't yet met with Neilanjana aka Avni & is unaware of Avni's existence. Meanwhile, DD and Mitali are back in Neil's life. Mitali came to know about Avni's identity but for Avni's (intentionally for her gain as she is in love with Neil) sake she kept it secret from Neil. Mitali is plotting against Avni to throw out Avni from Neil's life.

Sayesha and KK got kidnapped when they got lost in jungle. Avni and Neil individually went in jungle to find them where Avni thought Neil as kidnapper and started to beat him. During their fight, Neil managed to look at Avni's face and got to know that she is alive. Neil and Avni somehow rescued them. The rumours about KK and Sayesha have to lead to his mother, Kamini Kapoor (Jayati Bhatia), to propose Sayesha for KK but Avni was not interested. But as Neil advised Avni, she agreed to let Sayesha get engaged to KK. But Kamini comes to know the truth of Sayesha being an orphan and calls off the engagement.

Meanwhile, the media gets informed about Avni being alive and file a case against her fake death drama. Avni gets taken under custody for interrogation. Neil reaches police station and bailed Avni. On the other hand, Sayesha and KK decide to run away and marry. Sayesha reaches the venue and waits for KK all the night outside the temple. But KK didn't come as his mom emotionally blackmails him. Avni get worried about Sayesha's whereabouts but doesn't get a piece of news. Finally, KK's dad calls Avni secretly to tell her about Sayesha's whereabouts. They reach the temple, where Sayesha faints.

Sayesha is revealed to be pregnant and Avni decides to abort the child. But before abortion, KK reached there. Later,it is revealed that it was Avni's plan to reunite KK and Sayesha and make them realise their mistake. Soon after this, Sayesha and KK get married in a register office. Sayesha is often treated badly by Kamini without KK noticing. Avni is in search of new homes for the kids and gets a call from a home owner. It is later revealed that it was a plot set up by Kamini to make Avni realise her mistake by her acceptance of KK and Sayesha's marriage. The goons drug Avni and she somehow manages to run away from them but only to be surrounded by the goons later on. Neil comes and saves Avni.

Later, Prakash gets a call from the Central Jail that Vidyut is dead. Sayesha gets to know about her true identity. Avni and Neil's son, Mowgli Khanna (Kabir Shah), is found to have many similarities with Neil. It is revealed to Prakash that Mowgli is Avni and Neil's son. After, Neil wants the custody of Mowgli. Due to this, they go to court and fight for his right on his son and Neil gets the rights over Mowgli.

Later, Mowgli gets sick and Avni is called to look after Mowgli for that day. After some incidents including Mowgli getting kidnapped Neil gives Mowgli's legal custody to Avni. Avni decides to leave the city along with Mowgli so that Neil can start a new life with Mitali. Soon Sayesha tells Neil about the sacrifice made by Avni to save Prakash from Neela's murder case, Neil asks forgiveness from Avni for his rudeness. Avni reminds him of his promises made to Mitali and sends him back. Neil with a heavy heart gets ready to marry Mitali.

On the wedding day, Mitali tells Neil to return to Avni as he can only be happy with her. Happily he tells Mitali that he will be her best friend forever. His family asks him to bring Avni and Mowgli back. He rushes to them and reunites with Avni thus having a normal happy family. The show ends on a good note with Avni having her perfect happy family which she desired for years.

Cast

Main

• Aditi Rathore as Avni Ayesha, Neil's wife, Asha & Ashish's daughter, Dayawanti's granddaughter, Neela's adopted daughter, Aman's elder sister, Mowgli's mother, Ali's childhood friend, Riya's cousin sister, Sayesha's legal guardian. (2017–2018)
• Zain Imam as Neil Khanna, Avni's husband, Shweta and Prakash's son, Mowgli's father, IPS officer, RJ. (2017–2018)
• Arsheen Naamdaar as Young Avni Ayesha, Asha and Ashish's daughter, Dayawanti's granddaughter, Neela's adopted daughter, Aman's elder sister and Riya's cousin sister. (2016–2017)
• Reema Lagoo as Dayawanti Mehta (2016–2017)
• Ragini Shah as Dayawanti Mehta Avni, Riya and Aman's grandmother (2017)
• Barkha Sengupta as Ayesha Mehta, Ashish's wife, Avni and Aman's mother (2016-2017)
• Sayantani Ghosh as Neela Parikh, Ashish ex-wife and Avni's adoptive mother (2016-2018)
• Viraf Patel as Ashish Mehta, Asha's husband, Avni and Aman's father (2016-2017)
• Nalini Negi as Riya Mehta, Avni and Amol's cousin, Ketan and Hetal's daughter, Dayawanti's granddaughter, who wants to marry Neil (2017)
• Gautam Vig as Ali, Avni's childhood best friend,Neil's friend, Chamko cafe's owner who loved Avni. (2017-2018)

Recurring

• Gulfam Khan as Fatima Banu, Avni's maternal grandmother, Ayesha's mother (2016-2017)
• Palak Dey as Young Riya (2016)
• Shubh Kalra as Young Ali (2016)
• Rajesh Singh as Tiku, Fatima's nephew (2016)
• Kunwar Amarjeet Singh as Aladdin/Kabir (2016)
• Anaya Soni as Hetal Mehta, Ketan's wife, Riya's mother, Avni's and Amol's aunt (2016)
• Vivek Madan as Hansmukh, Diksha's ex-husband (2016)
• Puru Chibber as Ketan Mehta, Dayawanti's son, Ashish's younger brother, Riya's father, Avni and Aman's uncle (2016-2017)
• Neelam Sivia as Diksha, Dayawanti's daughter, Ashish and Ketan's younger sister, Avni, Aman and Riya's aunt (2016-2017)
• Sushant Mohindru as Aman Ayesha, Asha & Ashish's son, Avni's younger brother and Riya's cousin (2017)
• Shruti Ulfat as Shweta Khanna, Prakash's wife, Neil's mother and Avni's mother-in-law. Mowgli's grandmother (2017–2018)
• Sanjay Swaraj as Prakash Khanna, Shweta's husband, Neil's father and Avni's father-in-law. Mowgli's grandfather. (2017–2018)
• Neelu Kohli as Harleen Khanna, Neil's grandmother, Prakash's mother and Shweta's mother-in-law. Mowgli's great grandmother. (2017–2018)
• Karan Jagdish Singh as Avni's lawyer. (2018)
• Manini Mishra as Ragini Pandit, Vidyut's mother, leader of a human trafficking racket (2017-2018)
• Priya Tandon as Monica, a prisoner (2017-2018)
• Jahaan Arora as Dakhal Dayal, Neil's close friend and colleague, a police officer, Sunheri's love interest. (2017–2018)
• Poonam Preet as Juhi, Neil's ex-girlfriend and Mishti's mother (2017)
• Prakriti Nautiyal as Tara, Avni's friend, earlier a prisoner.(2017–2018)
• Pragya Nautiyal as Sitara, Avni's friend, earlier a prisoner.(2017–2018)
• Ayesha Vindhara as Young Mishti, Juhi-Vidyut's daughter. (2017-2018)
• Soni Singh as Sunehri, Avni's friend and her well-wisher, who was in jail with Avni. (2017–2018)
• Sana Amin Sheikh as Mitali Sharma, Ananya Verma, police inspector, Neil's friend. (2017–2018)
• Karam Rajpal as Vidyut R, Ragini Pandit's son, Mishti's father (2017-2018)
• Kabir Shah as Mowgli Khanna, Neil and Avni's son (2018)
• Payal Bhojwani as Sayesha Kapoor/Mishti, Juhi-Vidyut's daughter, who lives with Avni and Karan's wife. (2018)
• Zaan Khan as Karan Kapoor, film industry's superstar, Sayesha's husband and Neil's friend. (2018)
• Jayati Bhatia as Kamini Kapoor, Karan's mother. (2018)
• Bhavesh Balchandani as Samrat, an orphan at sukoon house (2018)
• Swasti Katyal as Pinki, An Orphanage girl who lives with Avni (2018)
• Pawani Sharma as Daisy, an orphan at sukoon house. (2018)
• Mohit Chauhan as Mr. Kapoor, Karan's father. (2018)

Soundtrack

Track list(s)	Title	Singer(s)	Lyricist	Music composer(s)
1	"Naamkarann Title Track"	Shreya Ghoshal version	Kausar Munir	Anu Malik
2	"Naamkarann Title Track"	Monali Thakur version	Kausar Munir	Anu Malik
3	"Aaj Jaane Ki Zid"	Arijit Singh	E. M. I. Pakistan	Punsurjan Aaryan
4	"Aa Leke Chalu Tujhko"	Palak Muchhal, Sneha Shankar	Vijay Vijawatt	Jeet Gannguli
5	"Chal Meri Jaan"	Aryan	Aryan	Aryan
6	"Chal Meri Jaan" (unplugged)	Palak Muchhal	Aryan	Aryan
7	"Dhal Gaya Chand"	Asho Ghosala	Katil Shuphaie	Aaryan
8	"Dhoop Ka Ek Tukda"	Anuradha Paudwal, Kumar Sanu	Vijay Vijawatt	Samidh
9	“Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”	Arijit Singh	Pritam
10	Tere Dar Par Sanam	Aryan	Ravee
11	Tere Dar Par Sanam Female	Saloni	Ravee

See also

• Vishesh Films

External links

• Naamkarann streaming on Hotstar
• Naamkarann at IMDb