Uorfi Javed, Ashneer Grover, Anupam Mittal, and lauki… all the panchayat behind Panchayat’s S3 marketing

For nearly two years, viewers of Amazon Prime Video’s show Panchayat patiently waited for a sniff of its season three announcement because they’d finally know if their beloved protagonist Sachiv ji would leave the comforts of hilariously chaotic Phulera following his transfer order, or if the village’s affable denizens would pull off a caper and keep him there. 

Dropped on Amazon Prime Video in 2020, Panchayat has gone on to become one of India’s most popular and streamed shows. 

The first confirmed whiff of anything related to the show’s season three was at the video streamer’s ‘Prime Video Presents’ event in March 2024 where it announced its upcoming content slate that included a peek of Panchayat season three.  

The release date, however, remained a mystery much like Sachiv ji’s future at Phulera. Following the peek, the video streamer decided to spread the charm of the lauki – a symbolic part of the show – across India using the show’s cast, brands, and billboards and make people work to find the release date.

The cast urged people to visit a website where they had to pluck the lauki to unearth the release date. As per the brand, over 14 lakh laukis were plucked. Brands on social media got into the act and delivered earned media for the humble lauki and the show.  

Accompanying this online plucking was the cast and aam junta across multiple cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Indore, and Jaipur encountering laukis stamped with the season three release date at their marketplaces.

The release date is 28 May, 2024.

Once the release date was out, Prime Video put up billboards to further drill down the date’s recall among people’s minds. 

Following this activity was creator Kusha Kapila's where she did her take on the rant Sachiv ji is known to go on during the show. 

Jitendra Kumar, the actor who plays this character, rose to fame with an angry scene and rant in The Pitchers made by The Viral Fever, the content and production house behind Panchayat. 

And if all this wasn’t enough, Phulera’s sarpanch Manju Devi and Pradhan ji decided to go on a hiring hunt for the next Sachiv.  

Prime Video dropped a video – made by its internal team and Kulfi Collective - starring creator Uorfi Javed, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, and singer King, trying to impress the hiring committee.

Applications poured in from all corners, and here are some of them and their reasons for being hired: 

Ritesh Deshmukh: Homely with no tantrums, will do work and entertain too.

Masaba Gupta: The real-life daughter of Manju Devi, she will give a fashion and beauty makeover to all and make Phulera the next glam town. Her new collection is ‘The Lauki Range’. 

Ashneer Grover: Will make Phulera India’s new start-up hub, pitched an idea to Pradhan ji, warns against misleading aspirants doing doglapan. 

Karishma Kapoor: Will do karishma in Phulera, make every home indulge in song and dance.

The show’s third season is a couple of weeks away, but a week ago, The Verge reported Amazon's plans to launch three fresh ad formats on Prime Video to lure subscribers to buy products while streaming their favourite shows. In India, Amazon offers five Prime plans from Rs 299 a month to Rs 1499 a year.