Saas-bahu relationships on Indian TV that were actually wholesome: Devyani-Simar, Sudha-Parvati and more

Indian television has spent decades perfecting the art of the saas-bahu conflict, the scheming, the plotting, the elaborate revenge arcs that somehow stretch across five hundred episodes. But tucked inside all of that drama were a handful of relationships that went in an entirely different direction, built on patience, mutual respect, and a quiet understanding that a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law do not have to be enemies. Here are five saas-bahu relationships on Indian TV that proved the genre could do warmth just as well as it could do war.

Before the show took its more fantastical turns, the early episodes presented one of the more genuinely warm saas-bahu relationships on Indian TV, with Simar's earnest and selfless nature slowly winning over a mother-in-law who had not made it easy for her. The relationship worked because Simar never tried to prove herself through grand acts but simply showed up consistently and warmly in the small moments that actually define a family. It gave the show an emotional grounding that its earliest fans remember most fondly.

One of the longest-running shows in Indian TV history built much of its emotional core around Parvati and her mother-in-law, Sudha, a dynamic defined less by grand gestures and more by the daily unglamorous work of two women holding a family together. Sakshi Tanwar's Parvati brought a grounded dignity to every interaction, and the show understood that the most powerful version of this relationship was not built on drama but on the kind of steady, unspoken loyalty that holds through every crisis. It was a portrait of a family that felt genuinely real.

The show that defined an era of Indian TV gave us one of its most iconic mother-daughter-in-law dynamics, with Smriti Irani's Tulsi earning the love and respect of her saas Savita through years of quiet devotion to the Virani family. What made their bond so compelling was that it was never handed to them but built slowly through shared grief, shared responsibility, and a mutual recognition that they wanted the same things for the people they loved. At a time when the saas-bahu trope was just beginning to dominate prime time, this relationship set a standard that the genre rarely matched again.

Akshara Singhania and Kaveri Singhania's relationship built its foundation on something the genre rarely attempts: genuine patience on both sides, with Akshara's warmth and grace gradually transforming her relationship with Kaveri from careful politeness into something that looked unmistakably like family. The show got the idea that creating the most sustainable relationships is not achieved during the time of crisis but in the obviousness of everyday life, in the same kitchens and the quiet talks and the little gestures of respect that build up to something indestructible. It is one of the most popularly recalled dynamics in the long-term of the show on Indian TV.

Anupama and Leela's relationship is one of the most layered and honestly written saas-bahu dynamics on Indian TV in recent years, beginning with decades of thankless labour and one-sided sacrifice before slowly, painfully shifting into something more complicated and more real. Leela was never a villain but a woman shaped entirely by tradition and fear, and the show gave her the space to evolve even as it never excused the ways she had failed Anupamaa. What makes their bond so compelling is that it did not arrive easily or neatly but was earned through every difficult, unresolved, deeply human moment between them.