A series of new benzimidazole bearing thiazolidinedione derivatives has been designed, synthesized by using conventional as well as microwave-assisted methods. Microwave-assisted synthesis caused a significant reduction in the reaction times and improvement in the yields of all the derivatives. All the new synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic potential against selected human cancer cell lines of breast (MDAMB-231), prostate (PC-3), cervical (HeLa), lung (A549) and bone (HT1080) along with a normal kidney cells (HeK-293T). The compounds 17n, 17p and 17q were found to be potent cytotoxic with IC50 values in the range of 0.096-0.63 μM on PC-3, HeLa, A549 and HT1080 cancer cells. Most of the compounds have found to be safe on normal HeK-293T kidney cells in comparison to cancer cells. The treatment of cells with 17p and 17q showed the typical apoptotic morphological features like fragmentation and shrinkage of nuclei. Further, test compounds resulted in inhibition of cell migration through disruption of F-actin protein assembly. Hoechst, DCFH-DA staining, mitochondrial membrane and annexin binding assays revealed that the cancer cell proliferation was inhibited through induction of apoptosis in A549 cells.