The Mishra family is back. Gullak Season 5 premiered on SonyLIV on June 5, 2026, making television history as the first Hindi-language OTT original to successfully run for five consecutive seasons. Created by Shreyansh Pandey and produced by The Viral Fever, the beloved slice-of-life comedy-drama continues to chronicle the everyday joys, frustrations, and quiet triumphs of a middle-class Indian family navigating modern life in a small town.
The new season brings seven fresh episodes that explore how the Mishras adapt to a changing India. The trailer hints at small but significant upgrades in the household, including a freshly painted home and a new Wi-Fi connection, signals that the family is inching toward modernity while holding onto the values that have defined them across four previous seasons. The season blends humor, emotion, and the kind of observational storytelling that has earned Gullak a fiercely loyal audience.
A notable change this season is the casting of Anant V Joshi as Anand Mishra, the elder son of the family, replacing Vaibhav Raj Gupta who portrayed the character in earlier seasons. Joshi joins the returning core cast of Jameel Khan as Santosh Mishra, Geetanjali Kulkarni as the sharp-tongued matriarch, and Harsh Mayar as the younger son Aman. Sunita Rajwar, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Gopal Dutt, Manuj Sharma, and Helly Shah round out the ensemble in important roles.
What sets Gullak apart from the noise of Indian streaming content is its deliberate refusal to chase spectacle. While platforms compete to deliver bigger action sequences and more shocking twists, this series has built its reputation on scenes where a father quietly counts his monthly expenses or a mother discovers her sons have been keeping secrets about their love lives. Open The Magazine noted that the show reflects the evolving reality of middle-class India, capturing how families negotiate tradition and aspiration in an era of rapid technological and social change.
The Viral Fever’s role in Gullak’s success cannot be understated. The digital content studio, which helped pioneer the Indian web series format with shows like Pitchers and Kota Factory, has consistently championed relatable, dialogue-driven storytelling over big-budget production values. Gullak represents the purest distillation of that philosophy, proving that audiences will return season after season for characters they recognize from their own families.
SonyLIV’s decision to greenlight a fifth season reflects the platform’s confidence in content that builds loyalty rather than chasing viral moments. While Amazon Prime Video’s Raakh explores true crime and Netflix invests in action-driven series like Rana Naidu, SonyLIV has carved a distinct identity with shows like Gullak that prioritize emotional authenticity over genre thrills.
Creator Shreyansh Pandey has spoken about how each season is written to reflect the specific moment in India’s social evolution. The first season dealt with a family stretching limited resources; by the fifth, those same characters are grappling with the complexities of upward mobility, changing gender expectations, and the digital transformation of daily life. This narrative evolution has kept the show feeling fresh even as it returns to the same household year after year.
All seven episodes of Gullak Season 5 are now streaming exclusively on SonyLIV. For viewers who have followed the Mishras from their first season, the return feels less like watching a television show and more like visiting relatives whose lives have quietly, imperceptibly shifted since the last visit.
