Special Squad (2005)

Special Squad
The title logo of the series
Genre	Mystery Drama Thriller
Written by	Bijesh Jayarajan
Directed by	Nand Kumar Kale Satyam Tripathy
Starring	Bhanu Uday Kuljeet Randhawa Paritosi Sand Gauri Pradhan Tejwani Manava Naik Iqbal Azad Pankit Thakker Vineet Sabharwal Raj Banerjee
Country of origin	India
Original language(s)	Hindi
No. of episodes	52
Production
Producer(s)	Ronnie Screwvala Zarina Mehta Deven Khote
Location(s)	Mumbai
Release
Original network	STAR One
Original release	November 2004 (2004-11) – 2005

Special Squad is an Indian crime thriller television series, which premièred on STAR One in November 2004. The series was written by Bijesh Jayarajan and directed by Nand Kumar Kale and Satyam Tripathy. It was produced by Deven Khote, Zarina Mehta and Ronnie Screwvala.

Special Squad is a fictional elite investigative arm of Mumbai Police set up by the Commissioner of Police. The modern and incorruptible team of investigators and forensic specialists is led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Aryan Khanna (Bhanu Uday).Kuljeet Randhawa as Shaina Singh (A criminal psychologist and a forensic investigator) was the main female lead in the show. Later, (Gauri Pradhan Tejwani) as Deepika Ghosh (a Forensic Expert and acting lead of Special Squad) was introduced as another female lead.

The show mixed deduction, gritty subject matter and character-driven drama. Every episode begins with a new crime, rarely extending to 120 minutes. The series had 52 total episodes, and culminated with the death of ACP Aryan Khanna. Later the show was re-run on many other subsidiary of STAR channels.

The director of Special Squad, Nand Kumar Kale, later directed another detective show "CID" from 2006 to 2013. The show won the 'Best Thriller' Award at ITA Awards 2006 beating CID and other crime related shows.

Special Squad for its great performances and tight narration has found a cult status over the years. The show debuted on Star One remained slightly low on viewership as its other shows at that time but it found a good amount of appreciation and the channel subsequently showed re-runs of the show. The show went to become highly popular on its sister Channel "Star Utsav". Bhanu Uday despite featured in a couple of movies and TV assignments over the years is still remembered for his portrayal of "Aryan Khanna". Kuljeet Randhawa too left a strong Impression on the viewers with her portrayal of "Shaina Singh". The show recently featured on Indiatimes as one of the best Indian crime shows ever made. Also, Scoopwhoop.com featured the show as one of the top shows out of the best 52 TV shows of all time on Indian Television.