Pankaj Kapoor Starred Karamchand was india's first detective television serial, aired on Doordarshan DD National in 1985-1989 at 9PM on Sundays. The show was popularly known all over because of ‘Pankaj Kapur’, who played the chief detective with the name Karamchand. This television series was one of the very first detective stories to be aired on Indian television. The original release had been done in 1985, and it went on till 1989. The show came out with one new episode every week that used to be aired on every Saturday, at night 9:00 p.m., on Doordarshan. Each episode was of about twenty-five minute duration. And each episode followed an all new case.
The plot of the story revolves around Karamchand, who is a private detective, but one who also helps the local authorities to solve cases of murders. The character Karamchand has been portrayed as a huge chess fan, one who always is caught playing chess, and eventually solves a case through the help of chess as well. Being a private detective he should work alone, but he also has a secretary, who goes by the name Kitty. She is a very silly and dim-witted girl, one who always messes up due to her idiotic questions.
When the show used to be aired, it caught the attention of its viewers with highlighting comic moments like Karamchand’s inimitable manner of playing chess with the inspector A. Khan, Kitty’s silly questions to Karamchand, which used to get only one response: Shut up, Kitty, Karamchand’s carrot eating, and so on. Numerous dialogues and actions were famous in Indian household due to this one television series, which marked the beginning of detective stories on Indian television.
During the show’s original telecasting, Pankaj Kapur used to play the character of Karamchand, and Kitty’s role had been played by two actors interchangeably throughout its span. One was ‘Sushmita Mukherjee’, and then‘Archana Puran Singh’.
Later in the year 2007, Sony Entertainment thought of rejuvenating Indian television screens with some nostalgia, and hence they brought back Karamchand to their channel. Pankaj Kapoor reappeared in the vivacious role of Karamchand. But Kitty’s role had been offered to a new age actor by the name ‘Sucheta Khanna’. Although the show enjoyed a feeling of comeback onto the screens, but it couldn’t create such mania it used to make in the olden days. So, the channel eventually withdrew the serial from its air time.