What is Shahrzad about?

It is a romantic historical drama set in Tehran around the 1953 coup that toppled Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Shahrzad and Farhad are in love, but a powerful patriarch forces her into a marriage she never chose.

Who stars in Shahrzad?

Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti and Mostafa Zamani lead, with Ali Nassirian, Parinaz Izadyar and Gelare Abbasi.

How many seasons are there?

Shahrzad ran for three seasons. All of it streams on K-Time.

Is Shahrzad in Persian?

Yes — original Persian, on K-Time, with no VPN and no geo-block.

Shahrzad — Hassan Fathi's 1953 Historical Romance, on K-Time

Two lovers are pulled apart by a powerful family against the backdrop of the 1953 coup. Hassan Fathi's Shahrzad is the series that proved a Persian period drama could rival anything on television — and it remains one of the most beloved Iranian shows of the last decade, rated 8.0 on IMDb.

Shahrzad — شهرزاد — is the series many people point to as the start of the modern Persian streaming drama: a home-network production with film-grade ambition, made when most Iranian series still looked like television. Hassan Fathi set it in Tehran around the 1953 coup, and used that fracture in the country’s history as the pressure under a love story.

What it’s about

Shahrzad (Taraneh Alidoosti) loves Farhad (Mostafa Zamani). But the era is turning violent, and the will of a powerful man — Bozorg Agha, the family patriarch — bends her life away from the man she chose and toward a marriage arranged for power. Shahab Hosseini anchors the show as Qobad, the husband caught between his family’s command and his own conscience. It is melodrama, openly, but melodrama built on real craft.

Why it still matters

A decade on, Shahrzad holds an 8.0 on IMDb and a place in the diaspora’s collective memory that few shows reach. It proved that a Persian period drama could carry production design, a real ensemble and a long arc — and that audiences abroad would follow it season after season. If you grew up hearing the theme song at family gatherings, this is where it came from.

Where to go next

Fathi returned to the period mode with Jeyran, his later Qajar-era romance — a useful companion piece. For newer Persian series, Vahshi and the broader Iranian drama shelf are the next stops, and the 2024 collection covers the recent film side.

Watching on K-Time

All of Shahrzad streams on K-Time in original Persian, full quality, on Android TV, Fire TV, Google TV and Nvidia Shield — no VPN, no geo-block. Start a free trial, or pick up the pre-configured K-Time دستگاه at an Iranian shop in the Greater Toronto Area and start season one tonight.