In Dil Dosti Dilemma, Asmara, a sheltered girl, learns important life lessons when she is sent to live with her grandparents for the summer. The series is streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Asmara and her best friends—Tania and Naina—are sheltered college students who can be privileged and classist without meaning to be.
Asmara’s maternal grandparents are not as rich as her parents. It so happens that Asmara’s grandmother comes to visit her when Asmara’s friends are with her.
Ashamed of her middle-class background, Asmara lies to her friends and introduces her grandmother as her grandmother’s friend.
When Asmara’s parents find out about how she treated her grandmother, her mother decides to send her to live at her grandparents’ place on Tibbri Road as punishment.
Asmara was supposed to go to Canada with her parents. She gets upset with her mother when she is forced to live with her grandparents instead.
Asmara lies to her friends about being in Canada when she is at her grandparents’ house, where she has trouble adjusting to their lifestyle.
Similarly, it is not easy for her grandparents to accept Asmara’s way of life, but they try. Fortunately, Asmara makes a friend: Rukhsana, whom Asmara had earlier met at college and helped.
Asmara also grows close to Rukhsana’s brother, Farzaan, who owns a clothing store and is helping Asmara’s grandfather in his struggle against a builder who is exploiting the poor in the name of redevelopment.
Asmara realizes that Rukhsana is a talented seamstress and convinces her to start her own business on social media.
One day, when Asmara’s friends see her grandmother during a video call, her grandmother finds out that Asmara has been lying to her friends, which upsets her.
Soon after, Asmara starts liking her grandparents and gets used to living with them; she even starts solving the neighborhood’s problems.
One night, Asmara and Farzaan almost kiss, but an insecure Asmara lies to him about having feelings for Naina’s brother, Nikhil, a lie that Farzaan catches.
Asmara’s argument in favor of the redevelopment project in front of the neighborhood makes matters worse between her and Farzaan.
However, Asmara’s argument makes her grandfather see that the neighborhood needs to fight against exploitation but not development. He now wants to negotiate with the builder.
Eventually, Asmara and Farzaan resolve their differences when Asmara tells him that she was once rejected by Nikhil, and that made her insecure about being liked by anyone.
Asmara then meets a girl named Farha, who asks Asmara to style her hair on her wedding day, and Asmara agrees, unaware that there is a family feud between Farha and Farzaan’s grandmothers.
Farzaan’s grandmother, Akhtar Begum, is Asmara’s grandmother’s neighbor. She is a bitter woman who does not like Asmara much.
Asmara finds out that Akhtar Begum’s son left the country. He was in love with Asmara’s mother, who did not reciprocate his feelings and married Asmara’s father.
Akhtar Begum keeps accusing Asmara’s mother of choosing a rich man over her son and blames her for her son’s departure.
When Asmara’s mother honestly tells her about what happened, Asmara no longer feels angry towards her mother for punishing her.
In fact, she thinks that her mother sending her to live with her grandparents is the best thing that she ever did for her.
Farha tells Asmara that she wants to reconcile her family with Akhtar Begum’s. She invites Asmara’s grandparents and Akhtar Begum’s family to her wedding reception.
The reception will be held at the Corporator’s house, which will give Asmara’s grandfather an opportunity to discuss the redevelopment plan with the Corporator.
He takes it upon himself to convince Akhtar Begum to attend the reception. She only agrees when Farzaan tells her that the Corporator’s son might be interested in marrying Rukhsana.
What Farzaan does not know is that Rukhsana is in love with their tenant, Suhail, a singer who is still waiting for his big break before marrying Rukhsana.
Meanwhile, Tania, thinking that her father is having an affair with his coworker named Mandy, decides to intern at his agency and work under Mandy.
Tania confides in a fellow intern, Dhruv, about her problems and takes his help to spy on her mother, only to discover that it is her mother who is having an affair, not her father.
Tania keeps sending Dhruv on errands, not letting him focus on his work, which results in Dhruv getting fired. On top of that, she insults Dhruv’s neighborhood.
Dhruv then holds her accountable for being selfish and classist. Tania, who has developed a crush on Dhruv, realizes her mistake too late.
Naina also makes mistakes. She likes a boy named Armaan, who only pursues her to get her father, a renowned tennis player, to coach him.
Naina’s friends warn her against dating Armaan, so she does not tell them about going on dates with him, unaware that Armaan is using her.
It is Naina’s father who sees Armaan with another girl and tells Naina about it. Although Naina is heartbroken, she asks her father to continue training Armaan.
Ending explained:
Sharing secrets
Asmara is happy to see everyone at Farha’s wedding, but she later finds out that Rukhsana’s wedding has been arranged without her consent.
Infuriated, Asmara confronts Rukhsana’s family and ends up arguing with Akhtar Begum when she once again speaks ill of Asmara’s mother.
No one supports Asmara when she argues with Akhtar Begum. In fact, Rukhsana is emotionally manipulated into accepting the proposal.
Asmara becomes frustrated when everyone around her avoids the truth. It is then that she realizes she also needs to tell the truth to her friends.
She calls her best friends, who are just as tired of keeping secrets, and confesses that she has been living with her middle-class grandparents.
Tania also confesses that her parents are not a happy couple as she had led everyone to believe and that she has a crush on Dhruv.
Lastly, Naina admits to dating Armaan and having her heart broken by him. The three of them forgive each other and promise never to lie to each other again.
Facing their problems
Asmara takes her friends to Tibbri Road and tells them how much the place has come to mean to her.
Her friends then meet Farzaan and convince Asmara to talk to him. Farzaan apologizes to Asmara for not being on her side when she argued with his grandmother.
He is also grateful to her because if it were not for her, he would have never realized that his sister is in love with Suhail. Asmara forgives Farzaan.
However, Asmara is unwilling to apologize to Akhtar Begum for being disrespectful, which leads to her grandmother asking her to go back home.
Asmara does so, but not before helping her grandmother realize that failing to stand up to older people when they are wrong is also not right.
When Akhtar Begum sees Asmara leaving and makes a rude comment, Asmara’s grandmother defends her. Asmara then decides not to leave and apologizes to Akhtar Begum.
Tania also decides to confront her mother about her affair. She urges her parents to talk to each other to solve the problems they have been having.
Tania reaches out to Dhruv to apologize, but he refuses to reconcile with her after feeling like he has been mistreated and taken for granted.
Now that Naina has told her friends everything, she has the courage to confront Armaan about dating other girls behind her back and break up with him.
While Naina has convinced her father to continue coaching Armaan, she has also persuaded her brother to return home and defeat Armaan in a tennis match.
Rukhsana’s decision
Rukhsana, believing that her family’s happiness and the redevelopment project depend on her marrying the Corporator’s son, breaks up with Suhail.
When Asmara tells her friends about Rukhsana’s business, Tania realizes that two of their classmates, Nia and Ariana, stole Rukhsana’s designs.
Nia and Ariana had been interning for a famous designer, David Chenoy. They pitched Rukhsana’s designs to Chenoy and took credit for them.
Tania’s father’s firm is marketing Chenoy’s new collection, which is why Tania immediately realizes what Nia and Ariana did.
Tania and Asmara then barge into a meeting with Chenoy and reveal the truth to him. They also introduce him to Rukhsana, who shows him her designs.
While Chenoy fires Nia and Ariana, he asks Rukhsana to work for him. Now that Rukhsana has a job, Asmara convinces her to run away to Mumbai with Suhail.
As Farzaan wants his sister to be happy, he encourages Rukhsana to choose her happiness, and Rukhsana agrees to leave with Suhail.
Saving Tibbri Road
Asmara’s grandfather tells her that the Corporator is not doing anything to help the neighborhood; the poor are still being exploited in the name of redevelopment.
Many residents, along with the community hall, have received notices to evacuate. Asmara then comes up with a solution.
She seeks to spread the word about what is happening to the residents of Tibbri Road to gain city-wide support in protecting the neighborhood.
Tania and Naina work with Asmara to assist the residents. They plan a concert called Dil Deke Dekho to draw people’s attention to the issue. Tania and Naina’s parents also get involved.
While Naina’s mother gets a famous singer, Pasha, to perform at their concert, Tania’s mother takes legal action against the builder.
Asmara arranges for Suhail to perform at the concert before Pasha, and Suhail receives the recognition that he always wanted. The concert is a hit, impressing even Akhtar Begum.
Naina’s mother then informs Asmara’s grandfather that they have obtained a stay order from the court, which means that the builder cannot demolish the buildings for now.
While everyone enjoys the concert, Rukhsana slips out to meet Suhail at the bus station. However, she keeps waiting, and Suhail never shows up.
Additionally, a woman comes to the concert to meet Farzaan. It is implied that the woman is Farzaan’s first love and that her arrival will cause problems between Farzaan and Asmara.