Balika Vadhu

• Pratyusha Banerjee / Toral Rasputra as Anandi Singh Shekhar – Khajaan and Bhagwati's daughter; Jagdish's ex-wife; Shivraj's widow; Nandini and Shivam's mother; Amol's adoptive mother (2010–2013) / (2013–2016) (Dead)
  • Avika Gor as Child Anandi Singh (2008–2010)
• Shashank Vyas / Shakti Anand as Dr. Jagdish "Jagya" Singh – Bhairon and Sumitra's son; Sugna's brother; Nandu and Bhairavi's adopted cousin; Anandi and Gauri's ex-husband; Ganga's husband; Abhimanyu's father; Mahendra's step-father (2010–2015) / (2015–2016)
  • Avinash Mukherjee as Child Jagdish Singh (2008–2010)
• Sidharth Shukla as IAS Shivraj "Shiv" Shekhar – Anoop and Meenakshi's elder son; Mahi's brother; Sanchi's cousin; Anandi's second husband; Nandini and Shivam's father; Amol's adoptive father (2012–2015) (Dead)
• Surekha Sikri as Kalyani Devi Singh – Dharamveer's widow; Bhairon's mother; Basant's adoptive mother; Sugna and Jagdish's grandmother; Nandu and Bhairavi's adoptive grandmother; Varun, Shagun and Abhimanyu's great-grandmother; Mahendra's step-great-grandmother (2008–2016) (Dead)
• Sriti Jha / Sargun Mehta / Aasiya Kazi as Ganga Singh – Ratan's ex-wife; Jagdish's third wife; Mahendra and Abhimanyu's mother (2013) / (2013–2014) / (2014–2016)
  • Roshni Walia as Child Ganga Singh (2013)
• Anjum Farooki / Deblina Chatterjee as Dr. Gauri Singh – Jagdish's ex-wife (2010–2012) / (2014)
  • Mahima Makwana as Chlid Gauri Singh (2010)
• Mahhi Vij as Dr. Nandini Shekhar Malhotra – Anandi and Shivraj's daughter; Naren and Jamuna's adopted daughter; Shivam's twin-sister; Anmol and Sudha's adopted sister; Kundan's ex-wife; Krish's wife (2016)
  • Gracy Goswami as Child Nandini "Nimboli" Shekhar (2015–2016)
• Ruslaan Mumtaz as Dr. Krish Malhotra – Kundan's step-son; Nandini's husband (2016)

• Dishank Arora as Shivam Shekhar – Anandi and Shivraj's son; Nandini's twin brother; Amol's adopted brother; Sudha's husband (2016)
  • Viren Vazirani as Child Shivam Shekhar (2015–2016)
• Yukti Kapoor as Sudha Shekhawat Shekhar – Naren and Jamuna's daughter; Nandini's adopted sister; Premal's ex-wife; Shivam's wife (2016)
• Vineet Kumar Chaudhary as Kundan Singh – Akhiraj and Harki's son; Kamali's brother; Urmila and Nandini's ex-husband; Krish's step-father (2016) (Dead)
  • Sparsh Srivastav / Karan Pahwa as Teenage Kundan Singh (2015–2016)
• Shahab Khan as Naren Shekhawat – Jamuna's husband; Sudah's father; Nandini's adoptive father (2016)
• Neetu Pandey as Jamuna Shekhawat – Naren's wife; Sudha's mother; Nandini's adoptive mother (2016)
• Anup Soni as Bhairon Singh – Dharamveer and Kalyani's son; Basant's adopted brother; Sumitra's husband; Sugna and Jagdish's father; Varun, Shagun and Abhimanyu's grandfather; Mahendra's step-grandfather (2008–2014)
• Smita Bansal as Sumitra Singh – Bhairon's wife; Sugna and Jagdish's mother; Varun, Shagun and Abhimanyu's grandmother; Mahendra's step-grandmother (2008–2014)
• Satyajit Sharma as Basant Singh – Dharamveer and Kalyani's adopted son; Bhairon's adopted brother; Jamuna and Gehna's ex-husband; Nandu and Bhairavi's father (2008–2014)
• Neha Marda / Sheetal Khandal as Gehna Singh – Basant's ex-wife; Niranjan's wife; Nandu and Bhairavi's mother (2008–2011) / (2011–2015)
• Sanjay Basak as Nandikishore "Nandu" Singh – Basant and Gehna's son; Bhairavi's brother; Sugna and Jagdish's adopted cousin (2012–2015)
• Geeta Tyagi as Jamuna Singh – Basant's ex-wife (2008)
• Karmveer Choudhary as Niranjan Singh – Gehna's second husband; Nandu and Bhairavi's step-father (2009–2010; 2014–2015)
• Vibha Anand / Janvi Chheda as Sugna Singh – Bhairon and Sumitra's daughter; Jagdish's sister; Nandu and Bhairavi's adopted cousin; Pratap's ex-wife; Shyam's wife; Varun and Shagun's mother (2008–2010) / (2011–2013)
• Vikrant Massey / Sachin Shroff as Shyam Singh – Madan and Radha's son; Sugna's husband; Shagun's father; Varun's step-father (2009–2010) / (2011–2013)
• Shivansh Kotia / Rudra Soni as Varun Singh – Sugna and Pratap's son; Shyam's step-son; Shagun's half-brother; Abhimanyu's cousin; Mahendra's step-cousin (2010) / (2011–2013)
• Harsh Mehta as Mahendra "Mannu" Singh – Ganga and Ratan's son; Jagdish's step-son; Abhimanyu's half-brother; Varun and Shagun's step-cousin; Pooja's husband (2015–2016)
  • Dhairya Ashani as Child Mahendra "Mannu" Singh (2014–2015)
• Simran Natekar as Pooja Singh – Mahendra's wife (2015)
• Shaswat as Abhimanyu Singh – Jagdish and Ganga's son; Mahendra's half-brother; Varun and Shagun's cousin (2015)
• Chetanya Adib as Khajaan Singh – Bhagwati's widower; Anandi's father; Nandini and Shivam's grandfather; Amol's adoptive grandfather (2008–2015)
• Bhairavi Raichura as Bhagwati Singh – Khajaan's wife; Anandi's mother; Nandini and Shivam's grandmother; Amol's adoptive grandmother (2008–2012) (Dead)
• Sudhir Pandey as Premikishore Shekhar – Alok and Anoop's father; Shivraj, Sanchi and Mahi's grandfather; Nandini and Shivam's great-grandfather; Amol's adoptive great-grandfather (2012–2015)
• Avinash Wadhawan / Akshay Anand as Anoop Shekhar – Premkishore's younger son; Alok's brother; Meenakshi's husband; Shivraj and Mahi's father; Nandini and Shivam's grandfather; Amol's adoptive grandfather (2013–2015)
• Anita Kulkarni as Meenakshi Shekhar – Anoop's wife; Shivaraj and Mahi's mother; Nandini and Shivam's grandmother; Amol's adoptive grandmother (2012–2015)
• Jaineeraj Rajpurohit as Alok Shekhar – Premikishore's elder son; Anoop's brother; Iravati's husband; Sanchi's father (2012–2015)
• Sonal Jha as Iravati Shekhar – Alok's wife; Sanchi's mother (2012–2015)
• Abhishek Tiwari as Mahi Shekhar – Anoop and Meenakshi's younger son; Shivraj's brother; Sanchi's cousin (2012–2014)
• Roop Durgapal as Sanchi Shekhar Kabra – Alok and Iravati's daughter; Shivraj and Mahi's cousin; Vivek's wife (2012–2015)
• Vimarsh Roshan as Advocate Vivek Kabra – Roshan and Shalini's elder son; Saurabh and Rakhi's brother; Sanchi's husband (2013–2015)
• Shubham Jha as Amol Shekhar – Anandi and Shivraj's adopted son; Nandini and Shivam's adopted brother (2014–2015)
• Trisha Kapoor as Urmila – Kundan's ex-wife (2015)
• Sunil Singh as Akhiraj Singh – Harki's husband; Kundan and Kamli's father (2015–2016) (Dead)
• Rudrakshi Gupta as Harki Singh – Akhiraj's wife; Kundan and Kamil's mother (2015–2016)
• Farah Hussain as Kamli Singh – Akhiraj and Harki's daughter; Kundan's sister; Pushkar's wife (2015–2016)
• Sushmita Mukherjee as Subhadra – Premkishore's sister; Hardik's grandmother (2014–2015)
• Gaurav Bajaj as Hardik – Subhadra's grandson; Gulli's husband (2014)
• Nidhi Jha / Sonam Lamba as Gulli – Champa's daughter; Hardik's wife (2011–2013) / (2014)
• Shivshakti Sachdev as Champa – Anandi's friend; Gulli's mother (2008)
• Sonal Handa as Saurabh Kabra – Roshan and Shalini's younger son; Vivek and Rakhi's brother; Sanchi's rapist (2013–2014)
• Bobby Parvez as Roshan Kabra – Shalini's husband, Vivek, Saurabh and Rakhi's father (2014)
• Shalini Arora as Shalini Kabra – Roshan's wife; Vivek, Saurabh and Rakhi's mother (2014–2015)
• Farhina Parvez as Rakhi Kabra – Roshan and Shalini's daughter; Vivek and Saurabh's sister (2014)
• Chandresh Singh as Ratan Singh – Ganga's ex-husband; Mahendra's father (2013–2015)
• Jehangir Vakil as Pratap Singh – Sugna's ex-husband; Varun's father (2008–2009)
• Amar Sharma as Madan Singh – Radha's husband; Shyam's father; Shagun's grandfather; Varun's step-grandfather (2008–2014)
• Asmita Sharma as Radha Singh – Madan's wife; Shyam's mother; Shagun's grandmother; Varun's step-grandmother (2008–2010)
• Hiten Tejwani as Dr. Anant Maheshwari – Pediatric doctor; Kiran's father (2015–2016)
• Vidhi Pandya as Kiran Maheshwari – Anant's daughter (2015–2016)
• Rajeshwari Sachdev as Mangaladevi Singh – Nandini's mother-figure (2015–2016) (Dead)
• Ayush Anand as Premal Singh – Sudha's ex-husband (2016)
• Faiza Faiz / Mamta Chaturya as Phooli Singh (2008–2010) / (2010–2012)
• Pankaj Jha as Kashyap – Phooli's brother (2010)
• Reena Aggarwal as Ashima (2012–2013)
• Abhijeet Lahiri as Ramcharan Singh (2009–2010)
• Neha Gosain as Asha Singh (2011–2013)
• Ankit Gupta as Abhishek Singh (2012–2013)
• Rishi Dev as Gopal (2015)
• Rajendra Gupta as Mahaveer Singh (2009–2012)
• Parichay Sharma as Pushkar Singh (2015–2016)
• Farida Jalal as Vasundhara Devi (2009, 2012)
• Arpit Joshi as Lal Singh (2010–2012)
• Masshe Uddin Qureshi as Brijesh Shanghvi (2010–2012)
• Farnaz Shetty as Kanchan (2013)
• Nivedita Bhattacharya as Shivani Rajadhyaksha (2011, 2014)
• Harsh Chhaya as Palash Scindia (2014)
• Kamalika Guha Thakurta as Pramila (2014)
• Sadiya Siddiqui as Sandhya (2008–2013)
• Sakshi Tanwar as Tiipri (2010)
• Shweta Mahadik as Rasika (2014)
• Geetanjali Mishra as Sona / Khusum (2014–2015)
• Sonia Shah as Karuna Malhotra (2016)
• Avinash Sachdev as Dr. Amit Goel (2016)
• Prithvi Sankhala as Dr. Naresh Goel (2016)
• Smriti Khanna as Dr. Vandana Mittal (2016)
• Hetal Yadav as Pavitra Singh (2016)

Balika Vadhu became one of the most watched Hindi GEC in its runtime and is one of the shows which helped get newly launched channel Colors TV to the first position in Hindi GEC, beating the nine years top position maintained by Star Plus.[4][5]

Balika Vadhu was met with mixed responses. While some appreciated it for portraying the issues of child marriage, some criticised the show for glorifying it.[6] The series had a very low initial rating of 0.7 TVR, but by five weeks after launch, it had entered the top five most-watched Hindi GEC and had become Colors TV's top programme.[7][8][9]

In five weeks after launch, it entered the top five most-watched Hindi GEC.[10] Thus, Balika Vadhu helped Colors TV's top positioning a lot. Balika Vadhu often held top position mostly on the ratings charts from 2008 to 2013.

In week 11 of 2009, it occupied third position with 5.9 TVR.[11] On 13 June 2009, it was at fourth position with 5.3 TVR.[12] In week 11 of 2010, it occupied top position and garnered 7.7 TVR.[13] In week 30 of 2010, it occupied with the top position with 6.9 TVR.[14]

On 28 May 2011, it occupied the top position with 4.91 TVR.[15] In week 24 of 2011, it was at second position with 4.81 TVR.[16] In first two weeks of August 2011, it garnered 6.1 and 5.2 TVRs maintaining its top position.[17] In the first week of 2012, it occupied the second position with 4.76 TVR.[18] In week 50 of 2012, it was at top position with 5.8 TVR.[19] In last week of July 2013, it was at second position with 3.9 TVR.[20]

The series was addressed in Indian Parliaments during 2009, prompting the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to stop its telecast, condemning it for portraying child marriage against the Indian constitutional law.[21][22][23]