Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki

Soumya is a quiet and simple girl. Her sister Surbhi is bubbly and happy-go-lucky, and gets all the love and attention in the family. Soumya is unaware of the indifference between her and her younger sister.

Soumya and Surbhi have grown up. Surbhi decides to teach the spoilt troublemaker, Harman Singh, a lesson. Wanting revenge, Harman decides to kidnap Surbhi but ends up kidnapping Soumya. To avoid social embarrassment, Harak orders Harman to marry Soumya. They marry and eventually both of them fall in love with each other.

On learning that she is intersex (having a complete androgen insensitivity syndrome), Soumya tells Harman, who is enraged. Preeto finds out about Soumya and exiles her to a kinnar society. Soumya and Harman adopt an orphan Aditya. Preeto reveals Soumya's identity to the orphanage, and they take Aditya away.

Harman falls for Soumya for who she really is and not just for her sexuality. Surbhi and Varun get married, Soumya and Harman reunite. Veeran, Varun and Ballu beat Soumya and Harman and throw them in river. They are taken to the hospital but lose their memory.

With no previous memories of one another, their relationship starts off on mutual dislike, but later they become friends.

Harman and Soumya start falling for each other and elope. Eventually, they recall everything and unite. Pregnant, Surbhi returns from Delhi. Varun attacks her and she dies after giving birth to Soham.

Soumya takes Soham away and searches for work to be able to take care of him. She gets the job of being the caretaker for Vedant.

Vedant starts falling for Soumya and confesses his feelings but she rejects him. He falsely frames Harman to get him jailed and asks Soumya to fake marry him in exchange of his freedom. Helpless, Soumya agrees. Harman assumes that Soumya cheated on him and marries Mahi in jealousy.

Harman is suffering liver problems due to excessive drinking and blames his family when he learns about Mahi's pregnancy.

Vedant pushes Harman off a cliff and is arrested, whereas Harman dies. Mahi gives birth to an intersex child similar to Soumya. On learning the child's true identity wants disown her, however Preeto and Soumya stop her. Preeto realises in circumstances and gives the child's responsibility to Soumya, Harak Singh named the child Heer.

Heer is a bubbly young girl, loved by Soumya and Preeto but hated by Mahi. Mallika reveals Heer's identity to Harak. He tries to shoot Heer but she is saved by Soumya, who goes into a coma. Eventually, Soumya recovers and rejoins her family.

Harak meets Preeto and asks her to send Soumya away in exchange of Heer's acceptance. Soumya agrees to leave the country. On the way to the airport, Soumya meets with an accident and dies.

Heer is a beautiful, happy woman fiercely protected by her brothers, Soham and Rohan. Heer becomes friends with Virat and later fall in love. They elope to a temple and marry.

Preeto reveals Heer's identity to Virat and he begins to hate and hurt her. Still confused by Virat's behaviour (not knowing why), angry Heer promises to forget him forever.

Jharna enters into Virat’s life again she was called by Virat’s parents. Heer and Virat get into the same NGO group over there Virat challenges Heer that he will remove Heer from the college in five days.

Jharna bribes everyone with new phones and tablets, so they side with her, so they ostracise Heer. But she challenges Virat to stop her from coming to the NGO group.

After the death of Nutan, a eunuch who was Heer’s best friend, Virat reflects and starts to fall for Heer again despite her identity. Jharna then leaves after knowing that Virat does not wish to marry her.

Virat then jumps off a cliff but survives, while trying to prove to Preeto that he truly loves Heer.

Virat’s family is convinced of Heer and Virat’s wedding. But his task was to convince Heer’s family.

During the 9 days of Navaratri, he pledged to convince Heer’s family. Everyone in the family gets convinced, except for Preeto which leaves Heer enraged.

The families of the bride and groom start the preparations for Heer and Virat's marriage. Just when Heer feels like her childhood dream to get married comes true, it gets destroyed. Preeto stops the wedding after 4 of the auspicious rounds of the marriage, and says that Heer and Virat will have to earn the remaining 3 rounds for the wedding to be solemnized. Virat accepts the conditions despite Heer's refusal. Disappointed with Preeto, Heer sets a condition as well which is that Preeto will not be present at Heer's send-off. This leaves Preeto devastated. Soon after, disregarding Preeto's conditions, Virat and Heer officially get married. Later, Simran finds out that she is pregnant and she begins to worry. Parmeet automatically assumes that Heer is pregnant and reveals this to the family. Taking advantage of this misconception, Simran requests Heer to pretend that she is the one who is pregnant for the time being. Hesitant at first, Heer accepts to take a false impression. However, Tajinder learns the truth and reveals that Heer is not pregnant, leaving the family shocked. Terrified from society's perception, the family wants abortion for the unborn baby. However, Heer stops the planned abortion as she manages to arrange Simran's marriage with Rohan. During the wedding ceremony, Shanno unfolds the truth of Heer's identity to Tajinder; her being a kinnar.

Anjel, who comes to take revenge, kidnaps Heer and plans to take her to Bangkok. When Virat's family learns that Heer is missing, they begin to search for her. Parmeet finds Heer but just as she is about to save her, Angel discloses that Heer is a intersex. She is shocked at this fact and decides to not save Heer. Parmeet is furious upon learning the truth. Soon, Virat rescues Heer from the goons.

When they arrive home, Sant Baksh confronts Tajinder for he suspicious actions by holding her at gunpoint. He orders her to reveal the truth. Tajinder bluntly shouts that Heer is a kinnar while everyone hears. They are stunned upon hearing this. Virat admits the truth to Heer after she tells Virat to speak the truth. Sant Baksh and Parmeet offend Heer for her identity. Devastated, Heer goes to Preeto's house to confront them for hiding her truth to her while Sant Baksh stops Virat from following her. Heer is shattered when her family tells her that they hid the truth from her. Heer begins to accept that she is a kinnar by breaking her relationships.

Angel manipulates Heer so that she goes with her to complete a ceremony; a ceremony in which Angel has control over Heer. Having failed to stop the ritual, Heer completes the ceremony identified as her new name, Apsara. Virat and the rest of the family are shocked to see Heer transform into a kinnar. Virat's parents ask Preeto and Harak to help get Virat married to someone else.

• Rubina Dilaik as Soumya Singh: Harman's wife, Nimmi's daughter, Surbhi's sister, Soham and Heer's adoptive mother (2016–2020)[4]
• Vivian Dsena as Harman Singh: Soumya's husband, Preeto and Harak's son, Raavi's brother, Heer's father; Soham's adoptive father (2016–2019)[5]
• Jigyasa Singh as Heer Singh: Virat's wife, Soumya's adoptive child, Mahi and Harman's daughter (2020–present)
• Simba Nagpal as Virat Singh: Heer and Isha's husband, Parmeet and Sant's son, Daljeet and Simran's brother (2020–present)

• Kamya Panjabi as Preeto Kaur Singh: Harak's wife, Harman and Raavi's mother (2016–present)
• Sudesh Berry as Harak Singh: Preeto's husband, Harman and Raavi's father (2016–present)
• Bhuvan Chopra as Veeran Singh: Harak's brother; Shanno's husband; Sindhu's father (2016–present)
• Aarya Rawal as Shanno Singh: Veeran's wife; Sindhu's mother (2016–present)
• Garima Jain/Pooja Singh as Raavi Singh: Preeto and Harak's daughter, Harman's sister (2016–present)
• Ekta Singh as Saaya/Mallika Khanna: Transgender; Milkha's sister (2016–present)q
• Chhavi Awasthi as Chameli: Transgender (2017–present)
• Nidhi Bhavsar/Vaani Sharma as Sindhu Singh: Veeran and Shanno's daughter; Ankush's wife (2019–present)
• Sareeka Dhillon as Mahi Singh: Harman's widow, Heer's mother (2019–present)
• Meherzan Mazda as Rohan Singh: Soumya's adoptive nephew; Simran's husband (2020–present)
• Parag Tyagi as DSP Sant Baksh Singh: Parmeet's husband; Virat, Daljeet and Simran's father (2020–present)
• Gauri Tonk/Jasveer Kaur as Parmeet Singh: Sant's wife, Virat, Daljeet and Simran's mother (2020–present)
• Aakash Talwar as Daljeet Singh: Parmeet and Sant's son; Virat and Simran's brother; Gurwinder's husband (2020–present)
• Ekroop Bedi as Gurwinder Singh: Daljeet's wife (2020–present)
• Rachana Mistry as Simran Singh: Parmeet and Sant's daughter; Virat and Daljeet's sister; Rohan's wife (2020–present)
• Bhawna Hada/Kaveri Priyam as Dr. Isha Singh (née Talwar): Virat's second wife (2021–present)
• Puneett Chouksey as Akshay: Kuhu's father; Heer's boss (2021–present)
• Anahita Jahabaksh as Beeji: Jagjit and Akshay's mother (2021–present)
• Pankaj Bhatia as Jagjit Singh: Beeji's son; Akshay's brother; Archana's husband (2021–present)
• Neha Narang as Archana: Jagjit's wife (2021–present)
• Mahira Khurana as Young Soumya Singh (2016)
• Tasheen Shah as Young Surbhi Singh (2016)
• Reena Kapoor as Nimmi Kaur Singh: Anjana's daughter; Mahinder wife; Soumya and Surbhi's mother (2016)
• Emir Shah as Monty: Harman's friend (2016)
• Shiwani Chakraborty as Mahima: Harman's former fiancée (2016)
• Mahi Sharma as Kalsi: Soumya and Surbhi's best friend (2016–2017)
• Mahek Thaakur as Young Sindhu Singh (2016–2017)
• Kishori Shahane as Sharmani: Transgender (2016–2017)
• Unknown/Unknown as Kishan Lal Sodhi: Ballu's father (2016–2018)
• Roshni Sahota/Iti Kaurav as Surbhi Singh: Nimmi and Maninder's daughter, Soumya's sister, Harman and Varun's former wife, Soham's mother (2016–2019)
• Unknown as Anjana Singh: Nimmi's mother; Soumya and Surbhi's grandmother (2016–2019)
• Ayub Khan as Maninder Singh: Nalini's son; Nimmi's husband; Soumya and Surbhi's father (2016–2020)
• Mamta Luthra as Nalini Singh: Maninder's mother; Soumya and Surbhi's grandmother (2016–2020)
• Lakshya Handa as Varun Singh: Harak and Veeran's nephew; Surbhi's former husband, Soham's father (2016–2020)
• Kajol Saroj as Kareena: Transgender; Soumya and Heer's enemy (2016–2020)
• Unknown/Rishikesh Ingley as Balwinder "Ballu" Sodhi: Raavi's former husband; Kishan's son; Chintu's father (2017–2018)
• Unknown/Unknown as Chintu Sodhi: Raavi and Ballu's son (2017–2018)
• Sara Khan as Mohini: Harak's former mistress (2017–2018)
• Anand Goradia as Maharani: Transgender (2017–2019)
• Krutika Desai Khan as Payal Singh: Preeto and Sukha's mother (2018)
• Sonal Handa as Jeet Singh: Motilal's son; Jasleen's brother; Raavi's 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 (2018)
• Sahil Mehta as Sameer Singh (2018)
• Tiya Gandwani as Dr. Lavneet Kaushal (2018)
• Alka Mogha as Gopika Singh: Sameer's mother (2018)
• Unknown as Dr. Samay Kaushal: Lavneet's father; Tanvi's husband (2018)
• Unknown as Dr. Tanvi Kaushal: Lavneet's mother; Samay's wife (2018)
• Prakash Ramchandani as Nihaal Singh: Harak and Veeran's brother; Preeto's former husband (2019)
• Abigail Jain as Riya (2019)
• Rohit Roy as Nishant Bhalla (2019); Sunaina's husband; Garry's father (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 (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 Mehat (2019)
• Tanvi Kishore as Sweety Singh: Varun's wife (2019)
• Unknown as Vidhaan Singh: Rekha's husband; Rohan's father (2019)
• Shweta Sinha as Rekha Bansal: Sunil's daughter; Vedant's sister; Vidhaan's wife; Rohan's mother (2019)
• Rajesh Puri as Sunil Bansal: Harak and Harman's business rival; Vedant and Rekha's father (2019)
• Ayaz Ahmed as Arjun: Vedant's friend (2019)
• Hitanshu Jinsi as Ankush Singh: Sindhu's husband (2019)
• Sahil Uppal as Vedant Bansal: Sunil's son; Rekha's brother (2019)
• Preeti Puri as Dr. Gayatri Mathur (2019)
• Avisha Shahu as Reet Mathur: Gayatri's daughter; Heer, Rohan and Soham's friend (2019)
• Sumaiya Khan as Young Heer Singh (2019–2020)
• Unknown/Meet Mukhi as Young Rohan Singh (2019–2020)
• Vivaan Sharma as Young Soham Singh (2019–2020)
• Kanwarjit Paintal as Baksh Singh: Sant and Tejinder's father; Virat, Daljeet and Simran's grandfather (2020)
• Shiva Gupta as Esha: Heer's friend (2020)
• Prerna Panwar as Nutan: Transgender (2020)
• Sonya Ayodhya as Jharna Narula: Uttam's daughter; Virat's former fiancée (2020)
• Naveen Saini as DIG Uttam Narula: Jharna's father (2020)
• Avinash Mukherjee as Soham Singh: Surbhi and Varun's son; Harman and Soumya's adoptive son (2020)
• Sikandar Kharbanda as Shergil: The man who buys Heer (2020)
• Nimisha Vakharia as Tejinder Singh: Sant's sister; Virat, Daljeet and Simran's paternal aunt (2020)
• Sonam Arora as Angel: Transgender; Heer's enemy (2020–2021)
• Aniruddh Dave as Shyam: Transgender; Angel's partner (2021)

• Salman Khan to promote Big 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 Bakshi from Devanshi (2017))
• Piyush Sahdev as Pavan Bakshi from Devanshi (2017)
• Varun Kapoor as dr. Veer Malhotra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Swarda Thigle as Dr. Saachi Malhotra/Mishra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Vikram Sakhalkar as Dr. Kabir Kapoor from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
• Meera Deosthale as Chakor Rajvanshi from Udaan (2017)/(2018)
• Sahil Uppal as Kunal Singhania from Ek Shringaar-Swabhiman (2017)
• Sangeita Chauhan as Meghna 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 Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
• Arjun Bijlani as Deep Raj Singh/Deep Raichand from Ishq Mein Marjawan (2018)
• Aalisha Panwar as Aarohi Raichand 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 from Belan Wali Bahu (2018)
• Harshad Chopda as Aditya Hooda from Bepannah (2018)
• Jannat Zubair Rahmani as Pankti 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 Sangwan from Laado 2 (2018)
• Drashti Dhami as Nandini Thakur from Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka (2018)
• Aashish Kaul as Milkha Singh Khanna – Mallika's brother (2019)
• Arjit Taneja as Azaan from Bahu Begum (2019)
• Samiksha Jaiswal as Noor from Bahu Begum (2019)
• Kunal Jaisingh as Reyansh Khurana from Pavitra Bhagya (2020)
• Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia as Meher from Choti Sarrdaarni (2020)
• Siddharth Kumar For Online Promotion of NIIT Class (2021)
• Meenakshi Sharma as Akshay's former's girlfriend; Kuhu's mother (only in flashbacks) (2021)

After a 10 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 was killed off. 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 stepped out of 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 5 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 roped in. In late June 2020 actress Gauri Tonk quit the show and was replaced by Jasveer Kaur.