The new season of The Family Man opens in festive Kohima, Nagaland — celebrations cut short by a blast that triggers further explosions across the state. The scene shifts to the Tiwaris during the griha-pravesh of their new home, setting the tone for season three of what has become India’s biggest OTT spy franchise. It arrives almost four years after the previous instalment, and creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK admit that expectations and pressure have only grown.

“There’s no real conviction when you start writing,” DK laughs. “You’re constantly aware that the target is already 350 runs ahead. The attempt is always to outdo your own previous season, and that’s a huge mountain to climb.”

Before they tackled geopolitics and narrative twists, the duo found joy in naming their characters — none more so than Shrikant Tiwari. Raj explains, “The whole idea was James Bond is so cool especially when he says, ‘My name is Bond, James Bond. You can never do, ‘My name is Tiwari, Shrikant Tiwari’,” he laughs. “So the idea was to be the opposite of the cool and suave we see on screen.”

They loved the term ‘Shri’. “In our heads he was ‘Shri agent’, like a respected agent. That word meant a lot to us.” Jaideep Ahlawat’s Rukmangadha comes from their childhood slang. “In Tirupati, whenever someone was ajeeb and undefinable, we would call them Rukmangadha,” Raj recalls.

Nimrat Kaur’s Meera reflects the contrast of Meera Bai — purity positioned inside the murky world of arms dealing. “We wanted that contradiction.” Raj likens it to outlaw nicknames like Babyface — soft on paper, deadly in reality.

Raj & DK say new cast members Kaur and Ahlawat have expanded their vision. DK notes, “We imagine the character first, but a great actor comes in and expands what we’ve imagined. They bring their own spice, internal logic, and the show grows because of it.”

Season three also pushes scale and action. Raj says Manoj Bajpayee and Ahlawat’s commitment to driving their own action scenes, removed the need for camera cheats. “The shot literally travels from Manoj to Jaideep on a moving vehicle and we needed that authenticity. The scale, ambition, and stakes are bigger.” They also place familiar characters in unfamiliar terrains, creating new dynamics.

With parts of the season set against the backdrop of the recent Northeast conflict, they emphasize balance. DK says, “Our idea has always been to build fiction on top of real incidents — things inspired by newspaper headlines. But at its heart, The Family Man is entertainment. That comes first.”