Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki

Soumya is quiet and simple, raised lovingly by Nimmi but hated by Maninder and Nalini. Her happy-go-lucky and bubbly sister, Surbhi gets all love and attention in the family.

Grown-up, Soumya mostly lives inside. Currently in college, Surbhi teaches lesson to spoilt troublemaker Harman. Vengeful, he vows to punish her but mistakenly kidnaps Soumya. Harman's father, Harak Singh orders Harman to wed Soumya to avoid social embarrassment. They marry and fall in love. Nimmi reveals Soumya's truth that she is an intersex having a complete androgen insensitivity syndrome.

This leaves Harman enraged, but later starts loving Soumya. His mother, Preeto finds the truth and deeply traumatizes Nimmi, who dies of cardiac arrest. Later, Preeto asks Soumya to pitch Harman and Surbhi. For Soumya's sake, the two marry but Surbhi later divorces him to not come between them. Preeto had tell the truth to harman that she firstly married harak's elder brother, but after few years of marriage he left her, then she married harak singh and they give birth to harman and raavi.Harak's nephew, Varun, who hates Harak, weds Surbhi to remain close to them pretending as a well-wisher. Eventually, Preeto realizes her misdeeds and accepts Soumya.

After numerous twists, Varun is finally disowned by Harak, who finds out his intentions. Pregnant, Surbhi returns from Delhi. In an confrontation, Varun ends up accidentally injuring her. Before dying, Surbhi delivers a son, Soham and hands over Soumya his responsibility. Varun is jailed for Surbhi's murder.

Preeto again starts hating Soumya, as she had to do widow's ritual, after her first husband, Nihaal's death. Thus, Soumya leaves them with Soham and lives Mallika's community. She takes care for Vedant Bansal, who falls for her. As she rejects him, Vedant gets Harman jailed to blackmail Soumya. Soumya fakes her marriage to save Harman, who misunderstood her. In jealous, Harman marries Mahi.

After 2 months, Harman has liver problems. Mahi is pregnant. Harman finds out the truth about Soumya and Vedant's fake marriage and how Vedant threatened Soumya. He comes to save her but gets assumed dead as Vedant pushes him off cliff and is jailed. Soumya and Preeto reunite and adopt Vedant's nephew, Rohan as their family member. Later, Mahi delivers an intersex child and disowns her. Soumya and Preeto stop Mahi and take responsibility of the child. Harak names the child as Heer unaware her truth.

Heer is bubbly, brought up by Soumya and Preeto. On knowing her truth, Harak intends to kill Heer but is arrested. Bailed, Varun returns and tries to get Soham back. But Maninder exposes he killed Surbhi so Soham disowns him. The police allows Harak to meet Preeto, whom he asks to send Soumya away if she wants him to accept Heer. Preeto agrees; Soumya leaves with a tearful goodbye to everyone but vows to return after years.

Heer is grown into a strong girl and is fiercely protected by Soham and Rohan. Heer falls in love with Virat and they elope to marry. However, Preeto reveals Heer's truth to Virat who initially hates her. Later, Virat realizes he loves Heer and hides her truth. Virat and Heer get marry. Eventually, everyone learn Heer's long-hidden truth. Heer blames her family for hiding the truth, but soon understands their love for her. Angel manipulates Heer, who falls off cliff and presumed died while saving Virat.

After 6 months, Heer is shown to be alive and has working as a caretaker and namesake family member of Dr. Akshay's family. Virat has gone mad. Heer returns to her family finding about Virat, who recovers and reunites with her. They are attacked by Angel. Soumya returns home after 16 years to protect her family. Surprisingly back and alive, Harman also reconciles with the family after years, proving he's Harman, though his face changed (as he got surgery). Angel is jailed. Soumya and Harman unite with Heer after years, who also remarries Virat. Heer hires a maid Gitu, who is molested by Virat's brother, Daljit. Heer fights for Gitu's justice is killed by Parmeet, Daljeet and Sant Baksh.

Soumya, Harman and Virat eventually learn about Heer's death. They make Parmeet, Daljeet and Santbaksh confess their crime who get arrested. Raavi's son, Chintu returns to destroy Harak's family. Preeto and Soumya save an intersex baby from being buried alive. They adopt the child, being supported by entire family. Chintu and Angel team up to snatch the family happiness, but finally realize their mistakes. Preeto names the baby as Shagun. Soumya wills to protect and raise her by letting her know her truth. The show ends on a happy note, with the family united.

• Rubina Dilaik as Soumya "Gulabo" Singh / Tarana: Transgender; Nimmi and Maninder's elder daughter; Surbhi's sister; Harman's wife; Aditya, Soham, Rohan, Heer and Shagun's adoptive mother (2016–2020) (2021)[5]
  • Mahira Khurana as Child Soumya Singh (2016)
• Vivian Dsena/Cezanne Khan as Harman Singh: Harak and Preeto's son; Raavi's brother; Varun, Garry, Sindhu and Praval's cousin; Soumya's husband; Surbhi and Mahi's ex-husband; Heer's father; Aditya, Soham and Shagun's adoptive father (2016–2019) (2021)[6]
• Jigyasa Singh as Heer Singh: Transgender; Mahi and Harman's daughter; Soumya's adopted daughter; Chintu and Soham's cousin; Rohan's adoptive cousin; Virat's wife (2020–2021) (Dead)
  • Sumaiya Khan as Child Heer Singh (2019–2020)
• Simba Nagpal as Virat Singh: Santbaksh and Parmeet's younger son; Daljeet and Simran's brother; Heer's husband (2020–2021)

• Kamya Panjabi as Preeto Kaur Singh: Payal's daughter; Sukha's sister; Nihaal's ex-wife; Harak's wife; Raavi and Harman's mother; Chintu and Heer's grandmother; Soham, Rohan and Shagun's adoptive grandmother (2016–2021)
• Sudesh Berry as Harak Singh: Nihaal, Veeran and Swaran's brother; Preeto's second husband; Raavi and Harman's father; Chintu and Heer's grandfather; Soham, Rohan and Shagun's adoptive grandfather (2016–2021)
• Sareeka Dhillon as Mahi Singh: Harman's former wife; Heer's mother (2019–2021)
• Reena Kapoor as Nimmi Kaur Singh: Geeta's daughter; Maninder's wife; Soumya and Surbhi's mother; Soham's grandmother (2016) (Dead)
• Roshni Sahota/Iti Kaurav as Surbhi Singh: Nimmi and Maninder's younger daughter; Soumya's sister; Harman and Varun's former wife; Soham's mother (2016–2018)/(2018–2019) (Dead)
• Lakshya Handa as Varun Singh: Swaran's son; Raavi, Harman and Sindhu's cousin; Surbhi's ex-husband; Sweety's husband; Soham's father (2016–2020) (Jailed)
• Meherzan Mazda as Rohan Singh: Rekha and Vidhaan's son; Soumya's adopted nephew and son-figure; Heer and Soham's adoptive cousin; Simran's husband; Sunehri's adoptive father (2020–2021)
  • Unknown/Meet Mukhi as Young Rohan Singh (2019)/(2019–2020)
• Ekta Singh as Mallika "Saya" Khanna: Transgender and Leader of Punjab kinnars' community; Milkha's sister; Soumya's namesake mother; Heer's namesake grandmother (2016–2021)
• Ayub Khan as Maninder Singh: Nalini's son; Nimmi's husband; Soumya and Surbhi's father; Soham's grandfather (2016–2020) (Dead)
• Mamta Luthra as Nalini Devi Singh: Maninder's mother; Soumya and Surbhi's grandmother; Soham's great grandmother (2016–2020) (Dead)
• Dishi Duggal as Geeta Singh: Nimmi's mother; Soumya and Surbhi's grandmother; Soham's great grandmother (2016–2019) (Dead)
• Garima Jain/Pooja Singh as Raavi Singh: Harak and Preeto's daughter; Harman's sister; Varun, Garry, Sindhu and Praval's cousin; Balwinder and Jeet's former wife; Chintu's mother (2016–2018)/(2018–2021)
• Bhuvan Chopra as Veeran Singh: Nihaal, Harak and Swara's brother; Shanno's husband; Sindhu and Praval's father (2016–2021)
• Parag Tyagi as DSP Santbaksh Singh: Baksh Singh's son; Tejinder's brother; Parmeet's husband; Daljeet, Virat and Simran's father; Sunehri's grandfather (2020–2021)
• Gauri Yadav Tonk/Jaswir Kaur as Parmeet Singh: Santbaksh's wife; Daljeet, Virat and Simran's mother; Sunehri's grandmother (2020–2021)
• Aakash Talwar as Daljeet Singh: Santbaksh and Parmeet's elder son; Virat and Simran's brother; Gurwinder's husband (2020–2021)
• Ekroop Bedi as Gurwinder Singh: Daljeet's wife (2020–2021)
• Aarya Rawal as Shanno Singh: Veeran's wife; Sindhu and Praval's mother (2016–2021)
• Nidhi Bhavsar/Vani Sharma as Sindhu Khurana: Shanno and Veeran's daughter; Raavi, Harman and Varun's cousin; Praval's sister; Ankush's wife (2019–2020)/(2020–2021)
  • Mahek Thaakur as Teenage Sindhu Singh (2016–2017)
• Rachana Mistry/Visha Vira as Simran Singh: Santbaksh and Parmeet's daughter; Daljeet and Virat's sister; Arjun's ex-girlfriend; Rohan's wife; Sunehri's mother (2020–2021)
• Chhavi Awasthi as Chameli: Transgender (2017–2021)
• Avinash Mukherjee as Soham Singh: Surbhi and Varun's son; Soumya and Harman's adopted son; Chintu and Heer's cousin; Rohan's adoptive cousin (2020)
  • Vivaan Yogesh Sharma as Young Soham Singh (2019–2020)
• Kajol Saroj as Kareena: Transgender; Soumya and Heer's enemy (2016–2021)
• Sonam Arora as Angel: Transgender; Soumya and Heer's enemy; Maharani's disciple (2020–2021)
• Paintal as Baksh Singh: Sant Baksh and Tejinder's father; Daljeet, Virat and Simran's grandfather (2020)
• Prerna Panwar as Nutan: Transgender; Heer's best friend (2020)
• Puneett Chouksey as Dr. Akshay Kaul: Harjinder's younger son; Jagjeet's brother; Meenakshi's ex-boyfriend; Kuhu's father; Heer and Virat's friend (2021)
• Anand Goradia as Maharani: Transgender; Mafia Don of Bangkok; Soumya's enemy (2017–2019)
• Unknown/Rishikesh Ingley/Kush Sharma as Balwinder "Ballu" Singh: Kishanlal's son; Raavi's husband; Chintu's father (2016–2017)/(2017–2019)/(2021)
• Unknown/Unknown as Kishanlal Singh: Balwinder's father; Chintu's grandfather (2016–2018)/(2018–2021)
• Tushar Kawale as Chintu "Angad" Singh: Balwinder and Raavi's son; Soham and Heer's cousin (2021)
  • Unknown/Unknown as Young Chintu Singh (2017–2018)
• Sahil Mehta as Sameer Singh: Gopika's son; Soumya's obsessed lover (2018)
• Sahil Uppal as Vedant Bansal: Sumit's son; Rekha's brother; Soumya's obsessed lover (2019)
• Rajesh Puri as Sumit Bansal: Rekha and Vedant's father; Rohan's grandfather; Harak's business partner (2019)
• Emir Shah as Monty Shergill: Harman's friend (2016)
• Shiwani Chakraborty as Mahima "Mahi" Gill: Shanno's niece (bring her sister's daughter); Harman's former fiancé (2016)
• Mahi Sharma as Kalsi Sandhu: Pargat and Jugni's daughter; Soumya and Surbhi's best friend (2016–2017)
• Kishori Shahane as Sharmani: Transgender (2016–2017)
• Sara Khan as Mohini: Harak's former mistress (2017–2018)
• Krutika Desai Khan as Payal Singh: Preeto and Sukha's mother; Raavi, Harman and Garry's grandmother; Chintu and Heer's great grandmother (2018)
• Sonal Handa as Jeet Singh: Motilal's son; Jasleen's brother; Raavi's former husband (2018)
• Amrita Prakash as Jasleen Kaur Singh: Motilal's daughter; Jeet's sister; Harman's childhood friend (2018)
• Hemant Choudhary as Motilal Singh: Jasleen and Jeet's father; Harak's friend (2018)
• Dheeraj Gumbar as Sumit Kapoor: Surbhi's friend and business partner (2018)
• Tia Gandwani as Dr. Lavneet Kaushal: Samay and Tanvi's daughter; Harman's obsessed lover (2018)
• Alka Mogha as Gopika Singh: Sameer's mother (2018)
• Unknown as Dr. Samay Kaushal: Tanvi's husband; Lavneet's father (2018)
• Unknown as Dr. Tanvi Kaushal: Samay's wife; Lavneet's mother (2018)
• Abigail Jain as Riya (2019)
• Rohit Roy as Nishant Bhalla (2019)
• Mouli Ganguly as Shruti Bhalla (2019)
• Jaswant Menaria as Sukhwinder "Sukha" Singh: Payal's son; Preeto's brother; Sunaina's husband; Garry's father (2019)
• Shivani Gosain as Sunaina Singh: Sukha's wife; Garry's mother (2019)
• Rohit Chandel as Gurmeet "Garry" Singh: Sunaina and Sukha's son; Raavi and Harman's cousin (2019)
• Aashish Kaul as Advocate Milkha Singh Khanna: Mallika's brother (2019)
• Nikita Sharma as Archana Kapoor (2019)
• Rushad Rana as Advocate Navjot Chaddha (2019)
• Ronit Roy as Advocate Rajat Singh (2019)
• Preetika Chauhan as Sneha (2019)
• Roopal Tyagi as Manasvi Singh Mehat (2019)
• Tanvi Kishore as Sweety Singh: Varun's second wife (2019)
• Prakash Ramchandani as Nihaal Singh: Harak, Veeran and Swaran's brother; Preeto's former husband (2019)
• Unknown as Vidhaan Singh: Rekha's husband; Rohan's father (2019)
• Shweta Sinha as Rekha Singh: Sumit's daughter; Vedant's sister; Vidhaan's wife; Rohan's mother (2019)
• Ayaz Ahmed as Arjun Sharma: Vedant's friend (2019)
• Hitanshu Jinsi as Ankush Khurana: Sindhu's husband (2019)
• Preeti Puri as Dr. Gayatri Mathur (2019)
• Avisha Shahu as Reet Mathur (2019)
• Shiva Gupta as Esha Gupta: Heer's friend (2020)
• Sonyaa Ayodhya as Jharna Narula: Uttam's daughter; Virat's former fiancée (2020)
• Naveen Saini as DIG Uttam Narula: Jharna's father; Sant Baksh's boss (2020)
• Sikandar Kharbanda as Indrajit Shergill: The man who buys Heer (2020–2021)
• Nimisha Vakharia as Tejinder Singh: Baksh's daughter; Santbaksh's sister (2020)
• Aniruddh Dave as Shyam: Transgender; Angel's partner (2021)
• Bhawna Hada/Kaveri Priyam as Dr. Isha Sharma: Virat's childhood friend and obsessed lover (2021)/(2021)
• Anahita Jahabaksh as Harjinder Kaul: Jagjeet and Akshay's mother; Kuhu's grandmother (2021)
• Unknown as Meenakshi Sharma: Akshay's former girlfriend; Kuhu's mother (2021)
• Neha Narang as Archana Kaul: Jagjeet's wife (2021)
• Pankaj Bhatia as Jagjeet Kaul: Harjinder's elder son; Akshay's brother; Archana's husband (2021)
• Kapil Nirmal as Jeet Verma: Angel's accomplice (2021)
• Sanjeev Siddharth as Harish Verma: Jeet's grandfather (2021)
• Unknown/Salman Shaikh as Arjun Randhawa: Kamini's son; Nayan's brother; Simran's ex-boyfriend; Sunehri's father (2020)/(2021)
• Unknown as Kamini Randhawa: Arjun and Nayan's mother; Sunehri's grandmother (2021)
• Dharti Bhatt as Nayantara "Nayan" Randhawa: Kamini's daughter; Arjun's sister; Virat's ex fiancèe (2021)
• Paras Zutshi as Gurpreet "Guru" Singh: Heer and Virat's college friend (2021)
• Unknown as Gitu Jakhar: Arvind's daughter; a maid appointed at Virat's house by Heer (2021)
• Unknown as Arvind Jakhar: Gitu's father (2021)

• Salman Khan to promote Bigg Boss 10 (2016)
• Parineeti Chopra and Ayushmann Khurrana to promote Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017)
• Jay Soni as Bakool Vasavda from Bhaag Bakool Bhaag (2017)
• Helly Shah as Devanshi Pawan Bakshi from Devanshi (2017)
• Piyush Sahdev as Pawan Bakshi from Devanshi (2017)
• Varun Kapoor as Dr. Veer Malhotra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Swarda Thigle as Dr. Saachi Veer Malhotra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Vikram Sakhalkar as Dr. Kabir Kapoor from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Meera Deosthale as Chakor Suraj Rajvanshi from Udaan (2017 and 2018)
• Sahil Uppal as Kunal Singhania from Ek Shringaar-Swabhiman (2017)
• Sangeita Chauhan as Meghna Kunal Singhania from Ek Shringaar-Swabhiman (2017)
• Sidharth Shukla as Parth Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
• Rashami Desai as Shorvori Parth Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
• Jasmin Bhasin as Teni Negi from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
• Arjun Bijlani as Deep Raj Singh/Deep Raichand from Ishq Mein Marjawan (2018)
• Aalisha Panwar as Aarohi Deep Raj Singh from Ishq Mein Marjawan (2018)
• Ritvik Arora as Ahaan Dhanrajgir from Tu Aashiqui (2018)
• Sanjay Dutt and Aditi Rao Hydari to promote Bhoomi (2017)
• Krystle D'Souza as Roopa Amarnath Awasthi from Belan Wali Bahu (2018)
• Harshad Chopda as Aditya Hooda from Bepannah (2018)
• Jannat Zubair Rahmani as Pankti Ahaan Dhanrajgir from Tu Aashiqui (2018)
• Affan Khan as Young Roopendra Singh Vaghela to promote Roop - Mard Ka Naya Swaroop (2018)
• Ankita Lokhande on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
• Mouni Roy on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
• Gauahar Khan on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
• Shashank Vyas as Roopendra Singh Vaghela from Roop - Mard Ka Naya Swaroop (2018)
• Avika Gor as Anushka Yuvraj Singh Choudhary from Laado 2 (2018)
• Drashti Dhami as Nandini Rajdeep Thakur from Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka (2018)
• Aashish Kaul as Milkha Singh Khanna: Mallika's brother (2019)
• Arjit Taneja as Azaan Akhtar Mirza from Bahu Begum (2019)
• Samiksha Jaiswal as Noor Hasan Qureshi from Bahu Begum (2019)
• Kunal Jaisingh as Reyansh Khurana from Pavitra Bhagya (2020)
• Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia as Meher Sarabjeet Singh Gill from Choti Sarrdaarni (2020)
• Siddharth Kumar For Online Promotion of NIIT Class (2021)
• Meenakshi Sharma as Meenakshi: Akshay's former's girlfriend, Kuhu's mother (only in flashbacks) (2021)

After a ten-year leap in June 2016, child actors Mahira Khurrana and Tasheen Shah were replaced by Rubina Dilaik and Roshni Sahota respectively. Vivian Dsena was roped in as the male lead. Besides them Kamya Panjabi, Sudesh Berry, Garima Jain, Bhuvan Chopra, Aarya Rawal, Mahek Thaakur and Lakshya Handa joined the cast.

In November 2016 Reena Kapoor quit the series and her character Nimmi died. It had a crossover with Sasural Simar Ka in April 2017 and Savitri Devi College & Hospital in June 2017. In August 2017 Anand Goradia was chosen to play Maharani. In November 2017 Sara Khan bagged the series as Mohini. Three months later, Jain left the show and was replaced by Pooja Singh. Later Amrita Prakash was roped in to play Jasleen. Some other new cast entered including Sahil Mehta, Hemant Choudhary, Alka Mogha and Sonal Handa.

Afterwards Krutika Desai Khan played Payal but she later quit the show. The same month Sahota too quit. During Soumya and Harman's memory loss story, Tiya Gandwani joined the cast as Lavneet Kaushal whereas Mehta and Mogha returned. In very late of December 2018 Iti Kaurav replaced Sahota as Surbhi, but quit after a short 10 episodes in January 2019, before Jaswant Menaria, Shivani Gosain and Rohit Chandel joined the cast. In March 2019, Rohit Roy, Ronit Roy, Mouli Ganguly and Roopal Tyagi were cast and Aashish Kaul appeared in a special appearance.

Next month, Nidhi Bhavsar and Hitanshu Jinsi entered. In May 2019, Nikita Sharma and Prakash Ramchandani were seen in the series. In June 2019, Sahil Uppal entered in a negative role along with Rajesh Puri. In July 2019, Sareeka Dhillon became a part of the show. Next month, Shweta Sinha was cast for a short appearance and Dsena quit because of not wanting to play a father, as a five-year leap was confirmed.

In September 2019, child actors Sumaiya Khan, Vivaan Sharma and Meet Mukhi were cast in the series. In October 2019, Mamta Luthra, Handa and Ayub Khan returned while Preeti Puri and Avisha Shahu became a part of the show. Initially the 16 year leap was planned for November 2019, but got extended to January 2020. Dilaik quit the show, and several actors joined the cast, with Jigyasa Singh and Simba Nagpal as new leads. Others included Avinash Mukherjee, Meherzan Mazda, Parag Tyagi, Gauri Tonk, Kanwarjit Paintal, Aakash Talwar, Vaani Sharma, Ekroop Bedi and Rachana Mistry. In February 2020, Sonyaa Ayodhya, Prerna Panwar and Naveen Saini were hired. In late June 2020 actress Gauri Tonk quit the show and was replaced by Jasveer Kaur. In October 2020, Avinash Mukherjee also left the show.

In February 2021, Aarya Rawal who played as Shanno quit the show. In March 2021, Rubina Dilaik joined the show again. In April 2021, Cezanne Khan replaced Vivian Dsena and joined the show as Harman Singh.