Tenali Rama is an Indian Hindi-language historical fiction comedy drama based on the life of the legendary Telugu poet Tenali Ramakrishna, one of the Ashtadiggajas at the court of Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya (C.E. 1509–1529).
The series premiered on Sony SAB on 11 July 2017 and concluded on 13 November 2020.
The second season aired from 16 December 2024 to 19 July 2025.
Series overview
Plot Season 1 The series begins with the preparations of Rama's marriage with Sharada. Ramakrishna is a poor Brahmin who lives in a village called Tenali. Rama is found to be absconding from his own marriage and is later found to be dozing under a tree. Gundappa, his closest friend comes to wake him up and take him to his marriage. Rama, though loves Sharada, is not of the opinion to get married immediately to her. One day, he comes across Tathacharya, the royal priest of Vijayanagar. After a series of events, Tathacharya believes that Rama has insulted him. He challenges Rama to enter the city of Vijayanagar. Soon, Gundappa's father faces crisis due to his land not being ploughed, Rama tricked the villagers into believing that the field contains a treasure full of gold coins within it. And overnight, the entire population of Tenali dig up Gundappa's father's field. Hence, Rama is successful in getting the field dug up and ready for seed planting. By seeing his wit, wisdom, humor, intelligence and cleverness, a Sadhu tells him to go to the nearby temple of Kaali Mata and chant her name a thousand times so that he can be successful in life. As soon as Rama gets Kaali Mata's blessings, he marries Sharada and leaves for Vijayanagar. Over the years, he saves Vijayanagar from various dangerous opponents and threats. By using his wit, wisdom, humor, intelligence and cleverness, he becomes legendary royal advisor and one of the famous Ashtadiggajas Pandit Ramakrishna in Krishnadevaraya's court.
Nine months later
Legendary poet and royal advisor Pandit Ramakrishna in Krishnadevaraya's court uses his timely wit and intelligence to solve even the trickiest problems. His arch-rival Tathacharya, the royal priest, who wants to humiliate him, is often stumped by Rama's intelligence. Rama is very close to the King, Krishnadevaraya, often behaving and caring for each other like best friends. Rama's wife Sharada gets pregnant with their son, Bhaskara. Bhaskara is shown to have been an active part of Rama's clever ploys eve while being a baby who could just cry.
Six years later
Bhaskara, Ramakrishna's son, is a naughty child and causes his father to be humiliated in the court of Krishnadevaraya multiple times, to which Rama starts punishing Bhaskara for his naughtiness. He stops spoiling Bhaskara like he used to in his childhood making Bhaskara realising his mistakes. Prince Balakumara arrives in Vijaynagar. Balakumara is Krishnadevaraya second wife, Tirumalamba's, brother. Balakumara is a spoiled prince who cares a lot about his hair. Bhaskara who was in Tathacharya's home to get Tathacharya to forgive him on his father's orders had to glue together a broken vase to repent. Balakumara, who is also at Tathacharya's home to learn from him, accidentally puts on the broken vase as a crown. The vase had glue on it, which causes it to be stuck to Balakumara's hair. Later, Balakumara's hair pulled off his head to remove the vase and he never gets his hair back. Due to the incident, Balakumara is forever angry at Bhaskara, who is blamed for Balakumara's mistake. Bhaskara is then sent to Gurukul away from Vijaynagar for 20 years as punishment. Three months later, Krishnadevaraya and Ramakrishna have a debate about whether the golden era of Vijayanagar would end, foreshadowing the future.
Twenty years later
Bhaskara returns from Gurukul and finds from the reformed Tathacharya that Balakumara was crowned king after King Krishnadevaraya left the kingdom for an unknown reason and as there was no one else from the royal lineage to be crowned the monarch. Kaikala, Balakumara's uncle and Mahamatya, is actually running the kingdom. Bhaskara's family left Vijaynagar, and Bhaskara tries to find them. He eventually identifies Mooshak, the leader of a bandit group to be his mother, Sharada. On one of his attempts to interact with Amrapali, Mahamatya Kaikala's daughter, he eavesdrops on Kaikala revealing that he had kidnapped and imprisoned Maharaja Krishnadevaraya and Pandit Ramakrishna for twenty years. Kaikala soon received news that Pandit Ramakrishna had fled from prison after befooling the guards during a thunderstorm. Bhaskara is astounded to know all this. He then pretends to be his father, Ramakrishna, to give justice to people in Vijayanagar. He gives back Tathacharya his position as royal priest, which he had lost for many years, which causes Tathacharya to become evil again. Eventually, Kaikala is caught trying to kill Balakumara, which causes the former to be put in jail for life. Balakumara's wife and Kaikala's assistant, Sulakshana Devi eventually gets Balakumara banished from Vijayanagara and assumes the role of a ruler.
Four months later
Ramakrishna returns to Vijaynagar and stops Sulakshana Devi from being crowned the Empress of Vijayanagar in a way makes that in 4 years, Sulakshana Devi's adopted son, Swami, will be crowned emperor of Vijayanagar. Sulakshana Devi's Minister and Kaikala's son, Pralayankar, Sulakshana Devi's brother Bharkam, and Sulakshana Devi's sister Charulata try to beat Ramakrishna but fails. Krishnadevraya returns with his wives and punishes Sulakshana Devi by ordering her to find her husband Balakumara who was banished from the kingdom. Many people come to get rid of Ramakrishna but he stays put and saves Vijayanagar from various enemies. At last, Ramakrishna realises that the youth in Tenali are going out to achieve their jobs, leaving their native village Tenali, undeveloped. Ramakrishna immediately gets ready to leave back to Tenali, his native village, forsaking Vijayanagar kingdom to help the youth in Tenali and its development. Since then, the people gave him the name "Tenali Ramakrishna" for his love to his homeland.
Cast Main Krishna Bharadwaj as Pandit Tenali "Rama" Ramakrishna: The legendary poet, chief advisor and one of the Ashtadiggaja in Krishnadevaraya's court. (2017-2019; 2020, 2024-2025) Sudama: A doppelganger of Rama who tried to kill Krishnadevraya but was later sent to prison. (2018) Bhaskara Sharma: Ramakrishna and Sharada's son; He is a lookalike of his father. (2019-2020) Pratyaksh Panwar as Child Bhaskara. (2019) Ayaan as Baby Bhaskara.(2018–2019) Pankaj Berry as Tathacharya: Krishnadevraya's father figure; Varunmala's husband; Saudamini's love interest; Ananta Lakshmi's brother; Amrapali's foster father. The royal priest of Vijayanagar. He is cunning, opportunistic, greedy, hypocritical and Rama's rival. He doesn't want Krishnadevraya to favour and applaud Rama and is always jealous of Rama's achievements. Over the years, he becomes fond of Rama and repents. He becomes a just and wise man. (2017-2020) He turns to his cunning, opportunistic, greedy, hypocritical self following Rama's banishment from the royal court. (2024-2025) Venkanna: A hardworking washerman who was a lookalike of Tathacharya. Rama uses his addiction of betting to prove himself innocent to the king. (2025) Manav Gohil as Maharaja Krishnadevaraya: Queen Chinna Devi and Queen Tirumalamba's husband; Achyutadevaraya's elder brother. A notable emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire. He is a just, courageous, wise and far-sighted king who loves his people populace immensely. (2017-2019) Tarun Khanna replaced Gohil as Maharaja Krishnadevaraya: He came after 20 years of exile into the Vijayanagara Empire and was shocked by the problems faced by the people of the Empire. He rebuilds the Golden Era of the Vijayanagara Empire after the reign of Balakumaran and Sulakshana Devi. (2020) Aditya Redij replaced Khanna as Maharaja Krishnadevraya: He banishes Rama from the royal court and faces a looming threat to the Kingdom's security. (2024-2025) Hari Om: A woodcutter who is a lookalike of the king. The king called him to Vijayanagar to test his courtiers. (2017) Jiten Mukhi as Mahamantri Timmarasu: Krishnadevraya's Chief Minister and father figure; Rama's friend. He is an Honest, Loyal and Hardworking minister and one of the few characters who knew about Tathacharya's greed and selfishness. He always supported and helped Rama. (2017–2019) Amit Pachori replaced Mukhi as Mahamantri Timmarasu: He is believed to have strength of 10 bulls and is known as Heart of Vijayanagar. (2024-2025) Sumit Kaul as Girgit Raj: He is cunning and versatile, known for his ability to disguise himself and deceive others. (2024-2025) Pavitra Punia as Laila: Sultanet assassin and a Vishkanya. (2025)
Recurring Priyamvada Kant as Sharada: Rama's wife; Lakshmi Amma's daughter-in-law; Bhaskara's mother; Govind's elder sister. A naive but kind-hearted lady. She has a catchphrase "Uthalo" (trans. Pick Up). (2017–2018 ; 2024-2025) Niya Sharma replaced Kant as Sharada (2018–2019) Aasiya Kazi replaced Sharma as Sharada (2019–2020) Nimisha Vakharia as Lakshmi Amma: Rama's mother; Sharada's mother-in-law; Bhaskara's grandmother. After becoming a widow, she took a vow of silence for life and uses sign language which can only be understood by Sharada. (2017–2019; 2020 ; 2024-2025) Krish Parekh as Gundappa: Rama's brother-like-friend. He left his parents in Tenali to become successful in life by living with Rama in Vijayanagar. (2017-2019) Aman Mishra as Adult Gundappa: He helped Bhaskara against Kaikala and other enemies. (2019–2020) Sonia Sharma as Maharani Chinna Devi: Krishnadevraya's first wife. She was a former royal dancer whom Krishnadevaraya marries and was crowned as Vijaynagar's senior queen. (2017–2019; 2020 ; 2024-2025) Priyanka Singh as Maharani Tirumala Devi: Krishnadevraya's second wife. She was the princess of Srirangapatana who marries to Krishnadevraya and was crowned as Vijaynagar's junior queen. (2017–2019; 2020 ; 2024-2025) Sohit Soni as Manicharya: Tathacharya's Disciple and Dhanicharya's friend. He always silent insults Tathacharya along with Dhani. (2017–2020 ; 2024-2025) Sanjay Mangnani as Dhanicharya: Tathacharya's Disciple and Manicharya's friend. He always silent insults Tathacharya along with Mani. (2017–2020 ; 2024-2025) Shreya Patel as Padmavati: eldest among chatur chaar, her parents were abducted by girgat raj and started living with rama's family.(2024-2025) Aria Sakaria as Lachamma: her life was in danger when she was exposed to poisionus gas from gajashastra made by girgit raj and later was saved by rama and tathacharya by bringing Rakht Pushp. (2024-2025) Jitendra Pathak as Nagar Kotwal: He was an accomplice of Tathacharya but later left his side. His real name is probably Sarvapalli as mentioned in a subtitle of a season 1 episode. (2017–2019 ; 2024-2025) Neha Chauhan as Varunmala: Tathacharya's wife. She is dedicated to her husband and she always thought him as a divine person who is blessed by the God. (2017–2019 ; 2024-2025) Heer Chopra as Saudamini: Royal Dancer in Krishnadevraya's court; Tathacharya's love interest. (2017–2019; 2020; 2025) Trishaan Shah as Vachaspati (2024-2025) Afnaf Khatri as Balabhadra: Because of overeating, he was kicked out of his house by his step-mother. He later became part of the Chatur Chaar. (2024-2025) Nishi Singh as Pushpavalli: Kotwal's wife and a plump woman. (2017–2018) Tejal Adivarekar: replaced Nishi singh as Pushpavalli. (2025) Rishina Kandhari as Goddess Lakshmi. Also portrayed, Navadurga, Kaali and Saraswati. (2018–2019; 2020) Chahat Pandey as Ananta Lakshmi: Tathacharya's younger sister; Govind's love interest. (2018) Meghan Jadhav as Govind: Sharda's younger brother; Ananta Lakshmi's love interest. (2018)