Aahana Swrup
‘Dabba Cartel’ is a Hindi-language crime drama created by Shibani Akhtar, Vishnu Menon, Gaurav Kapur, and Akanksha Seda. It revolves around the lives of five middle-class women who somehow end up in a web of gangsters and narcotics. When Raji and her business partner, Mala, first started their lunchbox service, they never expected the business to devolve into a front for low-level marijuana peddling. Nonetheless, as the influence of the local crime boss increases, Raji finds unexpected help from her mother-in-law, Sheila, who seems to have run in such circles before. Meanwhile, while these ladies expand their illegal business, a huge scandal breaks open surrounding the dangerous drug circulating through the Indian market that might have a connection to the Pharmaceutical giant VivaLife.
As the threads of lies and deception overlap, Raji’s Tiffin business overtakes the reigns of her and the other women’s lives, leading them down treacherous paths. This riveting exploration of Big Pharma’s drug-infested underbelly through a network of lunchbox delivery services offers a unique look into the Thane-Mumbai criminal world. Naturally, these authentic narrative foundations of the story retain intriguing origins.
Dabba Cartel Fictionalizes a Unique Drug-Dealing Landscape
‘Dabba Cartel’ is not based on real-life people or events. As a result, most of the storytelling elements within the show are works of fiction that can be credited to the creativity of director Hitesh Bhatia and his team of writers, including Shibani Akhtar, Gaurav Kapoor, Vishnu Menon, Akanksha Seda, and Bhavna Kher. The storyline focuses on various narrative threads, most prominently focusing on the outlandish situation that a group of women find themselves in after their lunchbox delivery service business transforms in unpredictable ways. This attention to the lives of regular women and their “tiffin” business enhances the show’s connections to reality.
In real life, there haven’t been any widespread cases of such lunchbox businesses secretly operating Mumbai-wide drug-dealing operations that are comparable to Raji’s story. Even so, the grounded normalcy of the concept paired with the thrilling idea of an illicit business will naturally incite a sense of familiarity in the audience. Alternatively, the premise of using food delivery services to peddle narcotics further maintains an air of realism due to the recent number of such real-life criminal cases. In the recent few years—with the rise of food delivery services—there has been an increase in drug dealers employing the method to move their merchandise in India.
In 2021, The Narcotics Control Bureau foiled a drug-delivery syndicate in Bengaluru. Upon the initial bust raid, the accused individuals were found with large quantities of high-grade ganja and cash. Furthermore, the authorities caught individuals taking delivery boxes of drugs from a courier vehicle. Reportedly, the syndicate employed the delivery platform Swiggy for its operations. Similarly, a more recent bust was made in Telangana in July 2024 when Shaik Bilal was arrested for peddling drugs while disguised as a food delivery person. The authorities also discovered multiple dealers and customers associated with Bilal, uncovering a network behind his operations.
Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, there was recently a rise of “one-dish” restaurants on Zomata, another delivery service platform. These restaurants sold high-priced items with suspicious names, such as Naughty Strawberry and Merry Berry. Many made speculations that these restaurants were a front for drug/vape deliveries or money laundering. Yet, these instances retain a level of separation front, the on-screen operations Raji and her friends get up to in ‘Dabba Cartel.’ As such, while they lack any direct connections to the show, they still highlight the potential for realism behind such storylines. Ultimately, the story doesn’t have any firm counterparts in reality. Even so, its depiction of the lunchbox system, a uniquely familiar social landscape, and its possible criminal underworld isn’t entirely devoid of reality.
Dabba Cartel Mines Authenticity Through Compelling Characterizations
‘Dabba Cartel’ maintains its connections to real life primarily through its fictionalization of realistic narrative elements. However, while this solidifies the authenticity of the story’s worldbuilding, the characters mostly rely upon their characterizations to stay grounded. For the most part, the central characters in the show are works of fiction with no counterparts in reality. Even though there have been instances of overlap between drug dealing and food delivery services in real life, there is no record of a network with middle-class women at its nucleus.
Therefore, intriguing characters like housewife Raji, former criminal Sheila, opportunistic Shahidad, and more are confined to the show’s fictionality. Still, the creators were conscious about maintaining a sense of realism in their storylines. “With Dabba Cartel, we wanted to explore the extraordinary journey of ordinary household women — and how resilience, ambition, and survival instincts can push them into unimaginable circumstances,” creator Shibani Akhtar told Netflix Tudum. “This is a story of friendship, betrayal, and power, set against the backdrop of a world they never imagined being a part of.” As such, each character from the primary circle feels fleshed out and well-rounded, with realistic motivations in place that the audience will find authentic and relatable.
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