Abhimaan is a Hindi weekly soap that aired on DD National. The serial was broadcasted in the year 1999 on Wednesday at 9PM. It consists of a single season spamming over 78 episodes. The serial was directed by Rakesh Saarang. The story is based around the ambiance of a metropolitan city where the people who are in power, misuse it for their own benefit. A corrupt political leader, an industrialist, who also owns the press media, and protector of law, a police commissioner are the three major characters around which the plot revolves.
The story starts with Saigal, the political leader, who loses the election. This is the first time he tastes defeat. Although he was raging with anger and displeased, he pretends to be calm and accepting the defeat sportingly. He tries to find out who betrayed him and when he does, he kills them out of his overflowing anger. After murdering, the press and media cover it up and he escapes away from the legal questioning. One more reason behind him not being questioned was the fact that he is a gentleman in the eyes of the world, and no one can imagine him as a cruel and corrupt person.
Among the persons who were killed, there was a city corporator. His daughter, Kanak, tries to seek justice. However, as there is not a single clue of witness, she fails terribly in her pursuit. A newspaper editor, Jaidev, tries to help her. As time goes on, people forget about this horrible crime. The industrialist, Chauhan, forms a view that his son Sanjay should marry Saigal’s daughter, Aishwarya. Such relations are always beneficial for the high classes, but Aishwarya refuses to marry. She was in love with the newspaper editor, Jaidev.
Between all this, Saigal visits Kanak quite often and she starts liking him unaware of the fact that he is the one who killed her father. They both develop a secret relationship but later Kanak finds out that he is the criminal. She distances herself away from him and decides on taking him down. By now, Saigal falls in love with Kanak and he just cannot believe this. Around this time, Saigal’s wife leaves him and fights the election against him. But Saigal won’t give up so easily, and he continues to fight back under the backdrop of corruption. This is a story that revolves around betrayal, love, and madness for power.