MasterChef India has run for nine seasons since its 2010 debut, moving from Star Plus to Sony Entertainment Television along the way and cycling through a rotating cast of celebrity chef judges. Here’s the complete winners list.
Quick Reference: All Winners
| Season | Year | Winner | Runner-Up | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2010 | Pankaj Bhadouria | Jayanandan Bhaskar | ₹1 crore |
| 2 | 2011–12 | Shipra Khanna | Salma Shazia Fathima | ₹1 crore |
| 3 | 2013 | Ripudaman Handa | Navneet Rastogi | ₹1 crore |
| 4 | 2015 | Nikita Gandhi | Neha Deepak Shah | ₹1 crore |
| 5 | 2016 | Kirti Bhoutika | Ashima Arora | ₹50 lakh |
| 6 | 2019–20 | Abinas Nayak | Oindrila Bala | ₹25 lakh |
| 7 | 2023 | Nayanjyoti Saikia | Shanta Sarmah | ₹25 lakh |
| 8 | 2023 | Mohammed Ashiq | Nambie Marak | ₹25 lakh |
| 9 | 2026 | Ajinkya & Vikram Gandhe | Chandana & Saisri Rachakonda | — |
Season 1 (2010): Pankaj Bhadouria
The debut season premiered October 16, 2010, on Star Plus, running 21 episodes with 12 contestants. Akshay Kumar hosted and judged, joined by chefs Ajay Chopra and Kunal Kapur. Lucknow schoolteacher Pankaj Bhadouria won on Christmas Day, taking home ₹1 crore and becoming the first MasterChef winner worldwide to release an official branded cookbook, beating fellow Lucknow contestant Jayanandan Bhaskar.
Season 2 (2011–12): Shipra Khanna
Season 2 premiered October 22, 2011, and concluded January 1, 2012. Chef Vikas Khanna, based in New York City, took over hosting duties, with Kunal Kapur and Ajay Chopra continuing as judges. Shipra Khanna won the title, with Salma Shazia Fathima as runner-up, and both Nita Mehta and Bijou Thaangjam also featured among the season’s contestants.
Season 3 (2013): Ripudaman Handa
Season 3 ran March 11 to June 9, 2013, over 70 episodes — a significant jump in episode count from the first two seasons. Ripudaman Handa won the title, with Navneet Rastogi finishing as runner-up.
Season 4 (2015): Nikita Gandhi
Season 4 ran January 26 to April 12, 2015, over 67 episodes. Nikita Gandhi won the season, with Neha Deepak Shah as runner-up, closing out the fourth consecutive season to offer a ₹1 crore grand prize.
Season 5 (2016): Kirti Bhoutika
Season 5 ran October 1 to December 25, 2016, over 26 episodes — a notably shorter run than its predecessor. This season also saw the prize money drop to ₹50 lakh, half of what earlier seasons had offered. Kirti Bhoutika won the title, with Ashima Arora as runner-up.
Season 6 (2019–20): Abinas Nayak
Season 6 ran December 7, 2019, to March 1, 2020, over 25 episodes, with prize money dropping again to ₹25 lakh — a figure that would remain standard for every season since. Abinas Nayak won the title, with Oindrila Bala as runner-up.
Season 7 (2023): Nayanjyoti Saikia
Season 7 marked the show’s move to Sony Entertainment Television and SonyLIV, premiering January 2 and concluding March 31, 2023, over 65 episodes with 16 contestants. The judging panel shifted to Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Garima Arora. Auditions were held across Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Nayanjyoti Saikia, a student from Tinsukia, Assam, won the ₹25 lakh grand prize, with homemaker Shanta Sarmah of Guwahati as first runner-up and Suvarna Bagul of Mumbai as second runner-up, the latter two both receiving ₹5 lakh consolation prizes.
Season 8 (2023): Mohammed Ashiq
Season 8 ran October 16 to December 8, 2023, over 40 episodes with 12 contestants, again on SonyLIV. Garima Arora was replaced on the judging panel by pastry chef Pooja Dhingra, alongside returning judges Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar. Mohammed Ashiq, a 24-year-old entrepreneur from Mangalore, won the title, with Nambie Marak, a school principal from Meghalaya, finishing as runner-up, and Dr. Rukhsaar Sayeed and Suraj Thapa rounding out third and fourth place.
Season 9 (2026): Ajinkya & Vikram Gandhe
Season 9 introduced the franchise’s biggest format shift yet: for the first time, contestants competed in pairs rather than individually, with 24 contestants forming 12 pairs. The season premiered January 5, 2026, and concluded March 6, 2026, over 45 episodes. Kunal Kapur returned as a full-time judge for the first time since Season 5, joined by returning judges Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar, with Paritosh Tripathi brought in as the show’s first dedicated host. Twenty-five pairs were selected from nationwide auditions and put through an overnight bootcamp challenge nicknamed “Agnipareeksha” before the Top 12 pairs were finalized. Ajinkya and Vikram Gandhe from Nagpur won the season, with Chandana and Saisri Rachakonda finishing as runners-up.
A Note on Spin-Offs and Regional Editions
Beyond the main Hindi series, the MasterChef India franchise has expanded into a Celebrity MasterChef spin-off (2025), hosted and judged by Farah Khan alongside Ranveer Brar, Vikas Khanna, and Kunal Kapur, won by Bigg Boss 18 champion Gaurav Khanna with Nikki Tamboli as runner-up. Separate MasterChef India – Tamil (on Sun TV/SonyLIV, hosted by Vijay Sethupathi) and MasterChef India – Telugu (on Gemini TV, hosted by Tamannaah Bhatia) editions also run independently with their own casts and judging panels.
Final Thoughts
Across nine seasons and one major format overhaul in Season 9’s pairs system, MasterChef India has kept its core judging bench remarkably stable in recent years — Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar have anchored the panel since Season 7, with Kunal Kapur’s Season 9 return bringing the franchise’s very first judge full circle after a long absence. From Pankaj Bhadouria’s inspiring 2010 win to a married-couple victory in Ajinkya and Vikram Gandhe fifteen years later, the show’s willingness to keep evolving its format has helped it remain one of Indian television’s most durable cooking competitions.