Naamkarann

Naamkarann (International title: My Identity) is an Indian drama television series which premiered 12 September 2016 on Star Plus. Inspired by the 1998 Bollywood film Zakhm, it was based on the life of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

The show initially starred child actor Arsheen Naamdaar as Avni Mehta, besides Viraf Patel, Barkha Sengupta and Reema Lagoo from September 2016 to March 2017. It then took a fifteen year-leap and focused on Avni Mehta (Aditi Rathore) and Neil Khanna (Zain Imam). In May 2017, Ragini Shah replaced Reema Lagoo due to the latter's death. The show ended on 2 June 2018 completing 463 episodes.

Plot
9 year old Avni Ayesha lives with her mother, Ayesha Haider. Avni's father, Ashish Mehta, who’s a famous filmmaker, meets them in secret because of his mother, Dayawanti, a religious yet corrupt Hindu woman. She hates Ayesha as she is a Muslim, and rejects Avni due to the fact that she was born out of wedlock, to this day Avni has not had her Naamkaran (Naming Ceremony) and therefore goes by Avni and Ayesha. Ashish is forced to marry a kind woman Neela Parikh who befriends with Avni and stands up against Dayawanti.

Later, Ayesha gives birth to a son, Aman Mehta. Dayawanti almost kills Ayesha, in a car accident, but fails.Then she fully kills her by stuffing a pillow in her face at the hospital and takes Aman, framing Avni for Ayesha's death. Riya, Ashish’s niece also tells him a fake story about how Avni mixed something in Dayawanti’s food. Believing her, Ashish gets Avni arrested, being heartbroken after Ayesha’s death. Neela bails her out and leaves with her, divorcing Ashish. After Avni's bail, Dayawanti tricks Avni and tells her to meet her in the woods so that she can meet her brother Aman. Avni arrives at the woods to learn that Dayawanti has a gun in her hand and shoots Avni, and she falls from a cliff into the water. Dayawanti runs away with Aman and raises him after renaming him to Amol Mehta. Neela goes behind her and saves Avni. But, for the rest of the world Avni is presumed to be dead. Ashish gets to know that Dayawanti killed Ayesha and framed Avni, and he pledges to get Dayawanti jailed. However, when he calls Dayawanti and Ketan to his room, they deny it. Meanwhile, Ashish tells his family helper to record this behind his second door, and this all gets recorded on camera. This causes Ashish to vent his anger out and tells Dayawanti he’s not related to her, and he goes to fulfill his pledge as Avni was right all along. Then, when he’s about to go, Ketan starts causing an altercation, pushing him back and both start fighting. Ketan pushes him and then he slips on the broken tile and falls on the table hitting his head. The table breaks, due to which Ashish hits his head hard and dies. Ketan and Dayawanti thus bury Ashish in a deserted place, and save themselves.

15 years later
Avni is now grown up and lives with Neela as Ananya Verma. She steals money from the rich and donates to the poor. She still holds grudges against Dayavanti and wants to reconcile with her brother Aman and therefore decides to come back to the Mehta Mansion. She finds out that her cousin Riya is getting married and decides to find and befriend her in order to be in her wedding and take Aman back.

ACP Neil Khanna is recruited to find out the belongings of the case 123 (which is Avni). Avni's childhood friend, Ali finds out that Ananya is Avni and helps her. Avni's brother, Aman is grown into a spoiled brat and troubles Avni and Neela.

Neil finds that Ananya is in fact Avni. She marries Neil to save him from Mehtas' and their trap to take money from the Khannas. Eventually, Neil develops a soft corner for Avni and learns about her childhood from Neela. It is revealed that Ashish has found the truth about Ayesha's death, but is killed by his brother, Ketan while confronting Dayawanti. Avni finds out by watching this on camera, and heads out to confront Dayawanti and Ketan in anger, Avni, Neil and Neela expose Dayawanti and Ketan, who are arrested. Seeing Dayawanti's truth, Aman reforms himself. He kills Dayawanti when she tries to kill Avni and is arrested. Avni forgives Aman. Then, Avni, Aman, Ali, and Fatima head over to where Ketan and Dayawanti buried Ashish to hide their crimes, and then digs the skeleton out. Then, Avni performs the death rituals right there.

Neil's ex-fiancée, Juhi informs him about their illegitimate daughter, Mishti; who is being held captive by Vidyut. Avni rescues Mishti and bonds with her. Mishti turns out to be Juhi and Vidyut's daughter. Juhi tries to marry Neil but Avni stops the wedding and fights for her rights in Neil's life. Later on, Juhi is shot to death. Vidyut makes it look like Avni shot Juhi, forcing Neil arrest her for Juhi's murder to safeguard her from Vidyut's trap. Avni misunderstands Neil to be hating her.

6 months later
Heartbroken by the accusation of killing Juhi, and the lack of trust between her and Neil, Avni learns combat skills in prison to fight against the crimes she didn't commit. Neil proves Avni innocent in Juhi's murder and Ragini Pandit; Vidyut's mother is arrested for Juhi's murder and later she dies. Neil and Avni reunite as her misunderstanding gets clear; they later consummate their marriage. Vidyut, in order to take revenge on Neil drugs Prakash and wants him to kill Neil but Neela saves Neil and is fatally shot. Vidyut threatens Avni to marry him to save Prakash. Avni acts to marry Vidyut and burns Vidyut's place, leaving with Mishti. Neil reaches there and unable to find them presumes that they died. Vidyut gets arrested under Avni and Mishti's murder charges.

10 years later
Neil has resigned from the post of ACP and has now turned into a radio jockey living in Avni's memories. Neil shares his and Avni love story to everyone in the world through the Radio. Avni has changed her name to Nilanjana and dedicates her life to the well-being of illegitimate children in an orphanage, named Sukoon house. She takes care of Mishti who is renamed Saisha and also takes care of her son from Neil, Mowgli. Saisha (Mishti) is an aspiring singer and an ardent fan of actor Karan Kapoor. Saisha and Karan eventually fall in love and they get married. Whereas a jailed Vidyut dies in an altercation with a prisoner.

Avni decides to leave the city with Mowgli so that Neil can start a new life with Mitali; And Neil comes to know Neela was murdered by Prakash because of a drug affect given to Prakash when he followed Vidyut 's order and unknowingly killed Neela Instead of Neil, and now Neil comes to know that Avni left him to safeguard Prakash in Neela's murder. He apologises to Avni but Avni sends him to Mitali who was eager to marry him. But Mitali changes her mind and encourages him to pursue Avni and Mowgli. Neil, Avni and Mowgli lived happily ever after.

Main

 * Aditi Rathore as Avni Ayesha Khanna: Owner at Sukoon house; Ashish and Ayesha's daughter; Neela's adopted daughter; Aman's sister; Riya's cousin; Ali's best friend; Neil's wife; Mowgli's mother (2017-2018)
 * Arsheen Naamdaar as Child Avni Ayesha (2016–2017)
 * Zain Imam as Neil Khanna – Former ACP turned radio jockey; Shweta and Prakash's son; Avni's husband; Mowgli's father (2017–2018)
 * Sayantani Ghosh as Neela Parikh: Hemant's daughter; Ashish's ex-wife; Avni's adoptive mother; Mowgli's adoptive grandmother (2016–2018) (Dead)
 * Reema Lagoo / Ragini Shah as Dayawanti Mehta – Ashish, Ketan and Diksha's mother; Avni, Riya and Aman's grandmother; Ashish and Ayesha's murderer; Mowgli's great-grandmother (2016–2017) / (2017) (Dead)
 * Barkha Sengupta as Ayesha Haider Mehta – Fatima's daughter; Ashish's wife; Avni and Aman's mother; Mowgli's grandmother (2016–2017) (Dead)
 * Viraf Patel as Ashish Mehta – Dayawanti's elder son; Ketan and Diksha's brother; Ayesha's widower; Neela's ex-husband; Avni and Aman's father; Mowgli's grandfather (2016–2017) (Dead)

Recurring

 * Kabir Shah as Mowgli "Pillu" Khanna – Avni and Neil's son (2018)
 * Gulfam Khan as Fatima Haider – Ayesha's mother; Avni and Aman grandmother; Mowgli's great-grandmother (2016–2017)
 * Gautam Vig as Ali Khan – Avni's childhood friend; Neil's best friend (2017–2018)
 * Shubh Kalra as Child Ali (2016)
 * Sushant Mohindru as Aman "Amol" Mehta – Ayesha and Ashish's son; Avni's brother; Riya's cousin (2017)
 * Jahaan Arora as Inspector Dakhal "DD" Dayal – Neil's friend; Sunheri's love interest (2017–2018)
 * Kunwar Amarjeet Singh as Aladdin aka Kabir – Avni's friend (2016)
 * Nalini Negi as Riya Mehta – Hetal and Ketan's daughter; Aman and Avni's cousin (2017)
 * Anaya Soni as Hetal Mehta – Ketan's wife; Avni and Aman's aunt; Riya's mother (2016–2017)
 * Puru Chibber as Ketan Mehta – Dayawanti's younger son; Ashish and Diksha's brother; Riya's father; Ashish's murderer (2016–2017)
 * Neelam Sivia as Diksha Mehta – Dayawanti's daughter; Ashish and Ketan's sister; Hansmukh's ex-wife (2016–2017)(Jailed)
 * Vivek Madan as Hansmukh Agarwal – Ashish's friend; Diksha's ex-husband (2016)
 * Sanjay Swaraj as Prakash Khanna – Harleen's son; Shweta's husband; Neil's father; Mowgli's grandfather (2017–2018)
 * Shruti Ulfat as Shweta Khanna – Prakash's wife; Neil's mother; Mowgli's grandmother (2017–2018)
 * Neelu Kohli as Harleen Khanna – Prakash's mother; Neil's grandmother; Mowgli's great-grandmother (2017–2018)
 * Payal Bhojwani as Mishti "Sayesha" Pandit Kapoor – Juhi and Vidyut's daughter; Karan's wife (2018)
 * Aayesha Vindhara as Child Mishti Pandit (2017–2018)
 * Zaan Khan as Karan "KK" Kapoor – Film superstar; Kamini and Sharad's son; Mishti's husband (2018)
 * Poonampreet Bhatia as Juhi Pandit – Vidyut's wife; Mishti's mother (2017) (Dead)
 * Karam Rajpal as Vidyut Pandit – Ragini's son; Juhi's husband; Mishti's father (2017–2018) (Dead)
 * Soni Singh as Sunehri – Avni's friend; DD's love interest (2017–2018)
 * Sana Amin Sheikh as Inspector Mitali Sharma – Neil, Avni, Ali and DD's bestfriend; Neil's ex-fiancée (2017–2018)
 * Prakriti Nautiyal as Tara – Sitara's twin sister; Avni's friend (2017–2018)
 * Pragya Nautiyal as Sitara – Tara's twin sister; Avni's friend (2017–2018)
 * Jayati Bhatia as Kamini Kapoor – Sharad's wife; Karan's mother (2018)
 * Mohit Chauhan as Sharad Kapoor – Kamini's husband; Karan's father (2018)
 * Bhavesh Balchandani as Samrat – An orphan at Sukoon house (2018)
 * Swasti Katyal as Pinki – An orphan at Sukoon house (2018)
 * Pawani Sharma as Daisy – An orphan at Sukoon house (2018)
 * Manini Mishra as Ragini Kumar Pandit – Vidyut's mother; Misti's grandmother; Juhi's murderer (2017–2018) (Dead)
 * Priya Tandon as Monica – Avni's rival; Avni, Tara, Sitara and Sunheri's co-prisoner (2017–2018)
 * Karan Jagdish Singh as Avni's lawyer in Mowgli's custody case (2018)

Production
The show initially starred child actor Arsheen Naamdaar as Avni Ayesha, besides Viraf Patel, Barkha Sengupta and Reema Lagoo from September 2016 to March 2017. It then took a fifteen year-leap and focused on Avni Ayesha (Aditi Rathore) and Neil Khanna (Zain Imam). In May 2017, Ragini Shah replaced Reema Lagoo due to the latter's demise. The show ended on 18 May 2018 completing 463 episodes and its slot was taken by Krishna Chali London.