As someone who builds digital platforms for the Indian diaspora and talks to aspirational families every day, The Pyramid Scheme hit me hard — in the best possible way. This show doesn’t just entertain; it reflects a very real, very dangerous pattern playing out across middle-class India right now. [1]
Set in Haridwar, the story of Goldy — an ambitious but impatient young man pulled into the glittering world of pyramid marketing — felt like a dramatized version of stories I keep hearing from friends, relatives, and even customers. [2] The pressure to “make it big” fast, the humiliation of being stuck in a low-income loop, the constant comparison with people flaunting their success online — this is the emotional fuel scammers are burning every single day. [3]
TVF’s The Pyramid Scheme is essential viewing for every Indian family — part gripping drama, part financial literacy crash course, with standout performances from Paramvir Singh Cheema, Ranvir Shorey, and Ashish Raghav.
The Scam Epidemic Behind the Fiction
What makes The Pyramid Scheme so important is that it doesn’t exaggerate the problem; if anything, it’s catching up with reality. Between April 2020 and March 2025, India’s SACHET portal received 1,531 complaints related specifically to money being collected through MLM, direct selling, and Ponzi-style schemes. In the same period, Indian authorities took up around 220 money-laundering cases linked to investment-related frauds, and SEBI handled dozens of actions against illegal investment and pooling schemes. [4]
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In 2024 alone, India reportedly lost over ₹11,000 crore to cyber scams, a large share of which are investment and money-multiplication style frauds targeting ordinary people looking for better returns. [5] These scams don’t just wipe out savings; they shrink the middle class’s purchasing power and confidence, hitting families who can least afford a major financial shock. [3]
When you watch Goldy and his cousin Satkar move from selling cheap products to selling “hope” to poorer people, you realise how thin the line is between victim and perpetrator in these schemes. Many of the people pulling others into such scams are themselves desperate, underemployed, or drowning in debt. That’s exactly why this show is so relevant — it humanises the problem instead of just blaming individuals. [7]
Why I Call It a Perfect Family Watch
As a content creator and entrepreneur, I’m constantly thinking: “Can this piece of content start a meaningful conversation at the dinner table?” The Pyramid Scheme absolutely can. It’s shot and written like a TVF family drama — joint families, generational friction, emotional stakes — while also being a crash course in how pyramid schemes work in real life. [1]
For Indian families, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities, this is the ideal show to watch together. Parents can use it to warn their children about “too good to be true” opportunities. Young adults can see their own frustrations and temptations reflected on screen. And everyone can understand that “high returns, low risk, join quickly” is almost always a red flag — exactly the kind of pitch SEBI repeatedly warns investors against when cautioning them about unregistered schemes and guaranteed high-return offers. [8]
I genuinely see this show as both entertainment and financial literacy content — a rare combination that India badly needs right now.
Huge Respect for TVF and the Entire Team
I’ve admired TVF for years for telling stories rooted in real India, and The Pyramid Scheme continues that legacy beautifully. The direction team and writers manage a tricky balance: they make you laugh, they make you anxious, and they make you think — without ever turning the show into a boring lecture. [9]
Paramvir Singh Cheema, as Goldy, captures that mix of ambition, insecurity, and impatience that defines so many young Indians today. [10] Ranvir Shorey, playing Manoj Srivastava, brings a grounded, almost tragic energy as a sincere man slowly pulled into moral compromise. Shekhar Suman, as the flashy “mentor” Tarun Bajaj, is the perfect embodiment of the modern motivational guru who sells guilt-free greed as a life philosophy. [11]
Add to that veterans like Aanjjan Srivastav, Akhilendra Mishra, Smita Bansal, and others, and you get a cast that feels like a real Indian family and ecosystem — not just characters on a screen. [12] As a storyteller myself, I know how hard it is to build that level of authenticity.
Special Applause for Ashish Raghav as Satkar
I have to give a very special mention to Ashish Raghav for his performance as Satkar. [13] Satkar is that unemployed cousin we’ve all seen at family functions — the one everyone underestimates, who is quietly absorbing all the signals about success, failure, and respect. In the show, he becomes an integral part of the recruitment machinery, helping turn a struggling household into an engine of false hope. [7]
Ashish plays Satkar with a mix of innocence, frustration, and moral confusion that stays with you long after the episode ends. For me, Satkar represents an entire segment of India’s youth — educated enough to dream bigger, but not empowered enough to find legitimate paths — who are therefore extremely vulnerable to schemes promising overnight transformation. As Amit Gupta the entrepreneur, and Amit Gupta the audience member, I want to say: Satkar is one of the most important characters in this narrative, and Ashish Raghav absolutely nails it. [13]
Why We Need a Season 2
From a business and storytelling perspective, I genuinely believe The Pyramid Scheme deserves — and almost demands — a Season 2. The first season sets up the emotional and ethical universe: how a simple dream to “earn more” mutates into a full-blown scam machinery. But anyone who has tracked real-world scams knows that the story usually doesn’t end with one collapse; the same networks and mindsets often re-emerge in new forms. [4]
A second season could go even deeper into:
- How regulators, banks, and law enforcement respond when such schemes blow up
- How families rebuild trust after financial betrayal from within
- How scammers rebrand and relaunch under new names, targeting fresh victims
Given the scale of frauds that continue to hit India’s aspiring classes — from pyramid and Ponzi schemes to digital investment scams — the narrative space is huge and underexplored. [5] [6] As a viewer and as someone working with Indian communities worldwide, I’m genuinely looking forward to what Season 2 can unlock in terms of awareness and impact.
My Message to Viewers and Families
If you’re reading this as part of the Indian middle class or diaspora, I’ll say this bluntly: shows like The Pyramid Scheme are not just “content” — they’re training tools. Watch it with your family. Talk about every red flag you notice in the show. Compare it with the messages you get on WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram from “mentors,” “upline leaders,” and “investment experts.”
We live in a time when scammers are using sophisticated marketing, emotional hooks, and even religious or patriotic language to justify exploitation. [14] The least we can do is use powerful storytelling like this to protect ourselves and the people we love.
So thank you, TVF and team, for giving us The Pyramid Scheme. And a heartfelt shoutout once again to Ashish Raghav as Satkar and the entire cast and crew. I’ll be waiting — with hope and high expectations — for Season 2.
References
- TVF’s The Pyramid Scheme gets a premiere date — Cinema Express
- The Pyramid Scheme: Story of Goldy — Prime Video IN (Facebook)
- How frauds shrink India’s middle class — LinkedIn / Anto T. Joseph
- Parliamentary Annexure on MLM/Ponzi Complaints — Government of India
- India’s Digital Scam Epidemic: A Threat to its Financial Future — FICO
- Investment scams accounted for 75%+ of money lost to fraud — The Print (Facebook)
- The Pyramid Scheme Review: A funny, frightening look at Indians’ easy-money dreams — India Today
- Caution to Investor — SEBI
- The Pyramid Scheme — First Look | Paramvir Cheema, Ranvir Shorey — YouTube
- The Pyramid Scheme Review — Koimoi
- Amazon Prime Video announces The Pyramid Scheme — Instagram
- Pyramid Scheme Review: Is TVF’s Scam Drama Worth Watching? — All Dat Matterz
- Ashish Raghav — IMDb
- Joint US–India focus on cyber scams — Global Initiative
