Guest

List of actors and filmmakers who appeared in cameos.^[9]

• Jhanvi Kapoor
• Mrunal Thakur
• Neha Dhupia
• Angad Bedi
• Nitesh Tiwari
• Hansal Mehta
• Vasan Bala
• Neetu Kapoor
• Rakesh Roshan
• Prem Chopra

Critical Reception

It received mixed-to-positive reviews with praise for its production design, dialogues and performances, while its writing received polarizing response.

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the series a 2.5 rating by stating, "The principal quintet of actors in Showtime is a diverse lot who bring different performative styles to bear upon the characters that they play."^[17]

Devansh Sharma of Hindustan Times says, "Showtime also works as a spot-the-reference spectator sport because of how zeitgeisty it is. Dialogue writers Jehan Handa and Karan Sharma oscillate from bombarding the audience with the obvious to allowing them to read between the lines." ^[18]

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com rates the show 2.5 and states, "But with only four episodes out and a loose sense of a conflict, it's hard to form a definite opinion about a show that is always watchable but never engrossing." ^[19] While Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in states, "There isn’t enough hard work, at least from the available episodes, to understand just yet whether Showtime is the expose we have been waiting for or yet another half-hearted effort to lure us in by promising dirt. The series fares well when it aims for low-hanging fruit, such as the silly things that Bollywood people do because they can’t see beyond their noses."^[20]

Rahul Dessai of Film Companion in the Part 1 review says, "Somewhere along the way, intent morphs into blind-item content - content that makes it hard to tell a publicity spot from actual series."^[21]

Shubhra Gupta from Indian Express rated the show 2 stars, and stated, "Karan Johar’s by-the-number series on Bollywood’s inner workings lacks bite." ^[22]

Snigdha Nalini from Outlook India rates the show 2.5 stars and says, "There are no revelations, nothing too dramatic."^[23]

Viewership

Showtime appears twice in the top-5 most-viewed list shows of the week clocking 5.7 million views and 4.4 million views, respectively.^[24][25]