Most of us have the same scene at home every evening. Four people in one room, four different screens, everyone “busy”, nobody really talking. You promise yourself a break from the phone on Sunday, and by lunch you’re scrolling again. That’s exactly the kind of everyday madness Thode Door Thode Paas turns into a story – one that feels pulled straight out of real life digital detox stories you’ve heard from friends or lived yourself.
This five-episode Hindi family drama, created by Shiirshak S. Anand and directed by Ajay Bhuyan, follows the Mehta family as they’re pushed into a six-month digital fast by their retired naval officer patriarch, Ashwin Mehta. The show dropped on 7 November 2025, with Pankaj Kapur, Mona Singh and Kunaal Roy Kapur leading the cast.
If you usually browse new web series hoping to find something you can watch with parents and teenagers in the same room, this one sits right in that sweet spot. It leans into drama, warmth and humour more than lecture mode, and fits neatly alongside other Drama web shows you reach for on a relaxed weekend. You can also jump straight to the Thode Door Thode Paas series page whenever you’re ready to start.
One Challenge, One Crore, And A Family That Forgot How To Talk
The premise sounds simple, almost like a joke shared over dinner. Ashwin Mehta (Pankaj Kapur) lands up unannounced at his son Kunal’s (Kunaal Roy Kapur) Mumbai home and realises nobody really has time for him. His son is half-living inside spreadsheets and calls, his daughter-in-law Simran (Mona Singh) is glued to work emails and parenting apps, the kids are lost in reels and games.
Instead of another angry speech about “aajkal ke bachche”, Ashwin throws a curveball. He offers ₹1 crore to each family member if they can stay away from all gadgets for six months. No phones. No social media. No random scrolling “just for five minutes”. Either the whole family completes the detox, or nobody gets the money.
It’s outrageous, a little funny and very believable. You can almost imagine a real grandfather somewhere actually trying this after one too many dinners eaten in silence. That’s where the show overlaps so neatly with real-life digital detox stories – the challenge feels exaggerated only in numbers, not in emotion.
Why It Feels Like Your Own Digital Detox Story
The early episodes don’t pretend that unplugging is pretty. The Mehtas go through the same withdrawal most of us feel when we misplace our phone for half an hour. Fidgeting. Irritation. Reaching for a device that isn’t there. Teenagers complain. Work suffers. Old arguments that were buried under notifications start resurfacing.
Because this Hindi web series is only five episodes, it stays tight. Each chapter picks one slice of the detox:
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the first shock of losing screens
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the boredom and awkward silence
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the slow rediscovery of old hobbies
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the moments when everyone wants to quit
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and finally, the question of whether the family has actually changed or just survived the task
Nothing here feels like a lecture on “screen time”. Instead, it feels like someone quietly turned a camera on inside a real home trying this experiment and cleaned up the edges for us. That’s the charm – it plays like fiction, but the feelings come from the same place as genuine real life digital detox stories people share in interviews and social posts.
Performances That Keep It Honest
A concept like this collapses quickly if the actors feel staged. Here, they don’t.
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Pankaj Kapur gives Ashwin a mix of mischief and hurt. He isn’t the angry, shouting elder; he’s the one who has simply run out of patience with half-conversations and glowing screens.
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Mona Singh plays Simran as a modern working woman who genuinely believes she has no choice but to live on her phone. Watching her slowly realise what she has missed in her children’s lives hits harder because it is played so quietly.
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Kunaal Roy Kapur brings dry humour to Kunal. His panic about “how anything will run” without devices mirrors what many of us feel when we even think of a digital break.
The younger actors – Ayesha Kaduskar, Sartaj Singh, Mayur More, Gurpreet Saini – round out the house with the kind of small gestures that make the family believable: sulking over lost streaks, sneaking glances at hidden gadgets, then slowly drifting into board games, late-night chats and balcony time when the noise dies down.
One of A Real Life Digital Detox Stories For 2025
Critics have already called this 2025 web show a “breezy, optimistic” watch and praised it for being warm without becoming preachy. That balance is exactly what makes Thode Door Thode Paas stand out among screen-heavy dramas. It knows we can’t just throw every gadget away and move to a village. But it also knows something is off when Wi-Fi signals are stronger than conversations at home.
The family web series keeps returning to one simple question: if we truly tried to disconnect for a while, what would we get back? Silence and stress… or connection and clarity? Real families who’ve tried short digital breaks often talk about the same arc – initial chaos, long arguments, then a strange kind of calm when everyone stops reaching for a device every few minutes. Thode Door Thode Paas folds that arc into five neat episodes and lets you watch the shift play out.
That’s why it sits so naturally in a conversation about real life digital detox stories. It doesn’t claim to be a documentary. It just tells a story that looks uncomfortably like real life, then nudges you to wonder what would happen if someone at your dining table made the same bet.
How To Start Your Own “Thode Door Thode Paas” Evening
You don’t have to copy the Mehtas’ six-month gamble or wait for a New Year resolution. You can keep it simple:
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Pick one evening where phones, laptops and tablets stay in another room.
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Put on Thode Door Thode Paas with the whole family.
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Talk about which character feels most like you once the episode ends.
It’s a small step, but that’s how most real life digital detox stories begin—one honest look at how you’re living now, and one gentle push towards something better.
Bio of Author: Gayatri Tiwari is an experienced digital strategist and entertainment writer, bringing 20+ years of content expertise to one of India’s largest OTT platforms. She blends industry insight with a passion for cinema to deliver engaging, trustworthy perspectives on movies, TV shows and web series.
