Choti Sarrdaarni

Choti Sarrdaarni () is an Indian drama television series that premiered on 1 July 2019 on Colors TV. It stars Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia, Avinesh Rekhi, Kevina Tak, Aekam Binjwa, and Gaurika Sharma.
Plot.
Carefree and bubbly Meher falls in love with Manav, who runs a local restaurant. Mehar becomes pregnant with his child. Meher's mother, Kulwant learns of Meher's pregnancy and her relationship with Manav, she refuses to accept Manav as he is financially unstable. Kulwant invites him to her house and stabs him and tries to kill her unborn child. She wants Meher to marry a widower Sarabjeet "Sarab" Singh Gill who is the president of the ruling party in Attari, Amritsar. Sarab has a five-year-old son, Paramjeet "Param". Kulwant forces Meher to marry Sarab, because she wants to become a MLA. At first, Meher refuses the marriage proposal but later complies to save her unborn child from Kulwant's ill intentions.
On their wedding night, she reveals her pregnancy to Sarab and pleads to him to let her go as she wants to settle far away and bring up her child. Sarab gets angry but later promises to have her settled in Serbia. However, Sarab, Meher, and Param visit Serbia with a new identity. But, Sarab is accused of killing Meher and is arrested and taken to India. Meher is kidnapped by goons and comes to know about what happened to Sarab. She escapes from there and comes to India and rescues Sarab from the false accusation with the help of her eldest brother, Jagjeet "Jagga". Sarab accepts her child as his own. Sarab and Meher tell Param about her pregnancy. Excited, Param reveals this to everyone. A grand party is organized to celebrate Meher's pregnancy news. Harleen finds out that the baby is not Sarab's and blames Meher and demands her to abort the child or leave Sarab.
Eventually, Meher and Sarab start developing feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Meher's third brother, Ranbir "Ranna" marries Ginni. During the marriage, Meher gets injured and is taken to the hospital. They find out that Sarab can only save Meher or the baby. Sarab first chooses the baby but later he chooses Meher. However, Meher gives birth to a baby boy and names the child as Karanjeet "Karan" Singh Gill. Still, Harleen refuses the baby but she does a pretense of accepting him for his brother's happiness.
In this time, Harleen and Sarab's half-sister, Dr. Aditi Kaur Gill enters into their life to take revenge due to her toxic past. After that, Manav who now has memory loss, returns as Vikram Diwan, a CBI officer. He falls in love with Dr. Aditi and also came back to take revenge on Kulwant and Sarab. Kulwant learns that Manav is alive. Meher and Sarab meet Vikram, who are shocked after seeing Manav alive, but later she accepts that Vikram is just his lookalike.
During Vikram and Aditi's engagement, Sarab and Harleen find out that Aditi is their half-sister and reunite with her. However, Vikram gets flashes from his past of Manav during his marriage with Aditi. Vikram faints and is hospitalised. He escapes from the hospital and asks his father, Suriya Pratab the reason for hiding his truth. Suriya reveals that how he finds Manav when he was stabbed after the death of his son, Vikram Diwan. After Manav recovers, Suriya introduced him as Vikram to his wife, Seema who was a heart patient. Manav is shocked after learning all of this. He meets Meher and reveals his truth. Shocked Meher ignores him because she is married. After many circumstances, Meher and Sarab celebrate their first marriage anniversary. During the celebration, Sarab is shot and is sent to the hospital. Meher informs Sarab that Vikram is Manav and he is Karan's real father. Sarab is shocked and helps her to keep Karan with them. Soon, Manav learns that Karan is his son. He requests Meher to give him Karan but Meher refuses.
After that, Hell-bent Manav joints with Harleen's husband, Robbie and Pathak to get Karan's custody. They decide to show Karan's DNA report to Harleen. Sarab and Meher learn what Manav did and Sarab reveals Karan's secret to Punjab at a press conference. After learning truth, Aditi demands Meher and Sarab to give Karan to Manav. When Meher and Sarab refuse, she kicks them out of the Gill Mansion. Sarab and Mehar start living modestly with their children. Soon, the entire family goes against Aditi. She regrets her actions and asks for forgiveness. Manav hands over Karan to Sarab while telling him that Sarab is the best father to Karan. Manav leaves with Aditi after that.
Meher learns that Sarab's family accountant, Tarkash has been abusing his wife Aarti and tells Sarab. Sarab refuses to believe it. However, Meher finally unmasks Tarkash's demonic side to Sarab with evidence. After that, Sarab kicks him out of the house in anger. On Jagga's son, Yuvi's birthday, both Jagga and Meher receive messages to meet each other. Meher meets Jagga at outside and runs to hug him. But, Jagga is stabbed by somebody and he faints and dies in front of Meher. The police suspect Meher as the murderer and arrest her. Sarab tries his best to prove Meher's innocence while Kulwant disowns Meher and declares her dead. Unfortunately, in court, Meher is sentenced to life-time imprisonment. She asks Sarab to care of the kids and to tell them that she is dead before she leaves.
5 years later.
Now, Meher living under the identity of Seerat and lives in Kashmir with her and Sarab's daughter, Seher. Sarab returns to India with Harleen and Karan while Param is staying in London. Kulwant teaches Yuvi to take revenge on the Gill family. It's revealed that Tarkash killed Jagga and trapped Meher into this to take revenge and Tarkash's wife, Arati gives evidence that her husband killed Jagga and Meher is released. Karan visits Kashmir for a field trip and meets Meher and introduces him as Rahul. Kulwant plans for Bittu and Rana to kill Karan in order to take revenge on Meher. Bittu and Rana attempt to kill Karan several times but he is saved by Meher. She discovers that Rahul is Karan. Sarab comes to Kashmir to pick up Karan and thanks Seerat, unaware that she is Meher. Param returns to India while Seher comes to Gill mansion. However, she falls sick and is sent to hospital and Param saves her life. In the hospital, Sarab learns that Seerat is Meher and Seher is their daughter. 
Meher returns to the Gill mansion after years and leaves for some work. From Arati, Kulwant finds out that Jagga was killed by Tarkash not Meher. She regrets for her actions. Sarab waits for Meher's return, but he is shocked seeing a woman named Sandhya arrives instead of Meher. Sandhya informs Sarab that how Meher gets kidnapped while saving her from her brother, IG Rajan. However, Sarab and Kulwant trace Meher's location and reach to save her, but Rajan burns Meher alive. Shocked Sarab and Kulwant complete her final prayers and Sandhya begins to care take Param, Karan and Seher. Sarab is told by Harleen to marry Sandhya, but Rajan accuses him for killing Meher. On the other hand, Meher is shown to be alive and she's in coma after saved by Sandhya's mother. Soon, Meher regains conscious and finds that Rajan's false accusations. She comes back surprising everyone and reveals Rajan's truth. Meher and Sarab reunite again as Sandhya marries her fiancé, Sameer. Kulwant apologizes Meher for her actions and Meher forgives her. But, their happiness limits for short time as Meher loses her memory of past 10 years, due to the shocks she faced.
Production.
Development.
Based in Amritsar, Punjab, the series is mainly filmed in Mumbai. In November 2019, the honeymoon sequence was filmed in Serbia.
On 12 September 2019, the filming was held for three hours due to the fight by the workers’ union and Allied Mazdoor Union with producers owing to due in payments.
Filming.
The production and airing of the show was halted indefinitely in late March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. The filming resumed after three months and the show started airing again on 13 July 2020. During the break, the main actors Rekhi, Ahluwalia and Tak shot a few episodes from their homes during the nationwide lockdown which streamed under "Lockdown Special Episodes" on Colors TV's official digital platform Voot.
The production was halted for few days from 1 September 2020 after Krishna Soni tested positive for coronavirus.
Reception.
Critical response.
The initial promo based on Gurudwara background of the series created disappointment between the Sikhs and a complaint protesting it was written to the channel by All India Sikh Students Federation as they considered some portrayal hurting their sentiments.
Ratings.
In week 41 of 2020, it became the fourth most watched Hindi GEC in urban with 5.281 million impressions.
Crossover.
In December 2019, "Choti Sarrdaarni" and "Vidya" had a crossover while Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha and Sai Manjrekar appeared to promote their upcoming film "Dabangg 3".