For decades, the Northeast has flickered at the margins of India’s mainstream screen culture, mainly used as a scenic backdrop, a vague “border zone,” or represented through token characters. That pattern is now finally breaking. Three of India’s most influential OTT franchises including Paatal Lok 2, The Family Man 3 and Delhi Crime 3 are turning the Northeast region into a central force in their storytelling, giving space to its people, politics, and cultural identity with an intent that feels long overdue.
Paatal Lok 2:
The second season of Paatal Lok takes the boldest stride. The thriller moves its narrative core to Nagaland, weaving a high-profile Delhi murder case with the social and political tensions of the Naga insurgency. Kohima and adjoining regions aren’t just visual settings; they shape the direction of the investigation and the motivations of the characters.
A majority of the cast in the season is drawn from Nagaland which is an unprecedented move for a major Hindi series. Actor-comedian Merenla Imsong appears as Rose, while internationally acclaimed Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua features as Ken, a respected community elder. The series also brings in well-known Naga names like rapper LC Sekhose and textile revivalist Theyie Keditsu, anchoring its world firmly in the region’s lived realities.
The Family Man 3:
Raj & DK’s The Family Man also pivots eastward. The upcoming season, streaming on November 21, 2025, drops Srikant Tiwari into his most dangerous mission yet, one that unfolds across Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
Jaideep Ahlawat joins the cast as Rukma, a ruthless drug smuggler whose operations run deep inside the Northeast’s porous terrain. The locations, cultural politics and local fault lines aren’t decorative but they drive the stakes of the national security threat at the heart of the plot.
Delhi Crime 3:
The third season of Delhi Crime widens its investigative net to follow the trail of an interstate human-trafficking network. The crisis originates in the “eastern pockets” of the country, and the show makes that link clear by placing DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in a posting in the Northeast which is hinted to be Silchar, Assam, at the start of the series. It is here that she intercepts a group of trafficked girls, revealing how the region has become a major conduit for exploitation routed toward metropolitan centres.
Soumaraya Dutta of the Asian Confluence, Shillong, told News Ei Samay, "While it is encouraging to see the Northeast gaining visibility in Bollywood and national conversations, often through its political issues, there should be equal attention on the region’s cultural richness and natural beauty."
He added, "See, places like Meghalaya deserve to be highlighted not just for their crimes and conflicts, but for their vibrancy and unique identity, and hopes these aspects also find space at the centre of mainstream storytelling."
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Why are shows like these finally giving the Northeast some limelight?
For the first time, three heavyweight franchises are simultaneously placing the Northeast at the heart of their narratives, not as an exotic detour or a troubled borderland, but as a lived cultural space with its own political stakes, artistic talent and human stories.
With Paatal Lok 2, The Family Man 3 and Delhi Crime 3, the Northeast is no longer “the backdrop”—it is the map itself. And Indian entertainment finally seems ready to look at it with the depth and honesty it deserves.
