How the Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives and Indian Matchmaking show India’s fascination with super wealthy lives

Over this weekend, India has watched four very wealthy, very privileged women with filmy connections on Netflix. Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives Season 2 , which has little to offer as entertainment or storytelling, is the most watched show on the OTT platform currently.  It has probably aided the streaming platform add subscribers, a boost that Netflix India needs despite its many Bollywood based content pieces.

Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives is not alone in getting viewership basis lives of super wealthy Indians. This microscopic segment of our country folk that live overseas in mansions, brownstones and gardened bungalows, alongside the gilded existences of the UHNI (Ultra High Net Worth Individual) in India, spend mega bucks and evidently, endless amounts of time pursuing an ideal, super-sized wedding. The series- that simply rests on the premise of rich people looking for other rich people to get married, albeit with preset criteria- is one of the most successful Indian OTT shows ever. It has fascinated viewers in UK, Europe, North America because of the unique Indian concept- arranged marriage before love, a constructed fusion of hearts, minds and bodies that may or may not lead to love.

Both shows are often called ideal for ‘cringe binge’ by reviewers and industry commentators. Question is, who is bingeing? Why are they bingeing? Are they really cringing or are they just playing along with peers and social circles?

The consistent success that both these series have achieved can’t be put down just to curiosity or initial hype. The second seasons have found wider audiences and viewership is growing. It shows just how deeply voyeuristic we are, as a society and culture. And that the way people with money and glamour live reflects the way they marry and follow up on the commitment. The Indian obsession with a big, fat, Instagram worthy marriage, is not going to fade away anytime soon.

Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives is about the day-to-day struggles and joys of Maheep Kapoor (wife of Sanjay Kapoor), Neelam Kothari (former actor and wife of Sameer Soni), Bhavna Pandey (wife of Chunky Pandey) and Seema Sajdeh (ex-wife of Sohail Khan).  Essentially their identity rests on the fact that they are wives or ex-wives, and their marriage is structural to their fame. Over the past decade, posing for pictures on social media in the company of movie stars and particularly under the halo of Gauri Khan, these ladies have gained currency as true-blue insiders of ‘Bollywood’. The series shows almost none of that, instead focusing on midlife angst of a universe where first world problems niggle at them. None are massive enough to cast an actual furrow or deepen a line around their well-maintained eyes, lips and faces. The truth about botox fillers, the painful and literally numbing process, along with allied procedures, make an appearance. There are crushes, cameos by Bollywood filmmakers and stars, including Bhavna’s daughter, Ananya Pandey. And there are tiffs and tussles, because, after all, they are wives- no wife can have a life free of arguments and battles. Overall this series does an efficient job of minimizing the day to day, routine struggles of running a home, bringing up kids and managing a social standard that most Indian women across social classes face. There are almost no exhausting chores in sight, beyond accompanying kids to photoshoots.  It’s ending- that of Ranveer Singh’s body being objectified in detail- has left many feeling distasteful. But in a series where an entire season has almost no element of feet touching ground reality for its four central characters, is it any surprise that silly lust is the final resolution? Although a male movie star stating that he loves being a piece of meat is not a salute to women’s liberation, at any level. All it is, is recognition of the bubble that can build around lives of people that exist on the fringes of the Hindi film industry.

But their ways of living and their personal choices have become a major topic of water cooler and coffee break conversations. Because that is the life, after all, that a whole new generation of consumerist India- urban and semi urban, even rural- deeply aspires to. Existing in a similar socio-economic space, Indian Matchmaking Season 2 turns the clock back on gender related progress significantly. Apart from formatted expectations of her clients, the most unsavory part of this series are the choices that Nonresident Indians make. They are almost stuck in a time warp when it comes to understanding marriage and companionship. Taparia often advises the young that she looks to get hitched- no one gets one hundred percent; you need to settle for 60 to seventy percent. Might not seem so nice, but it is commonly true. Marriage, like all partnerships, needs some adjustment. As for judging her statements, they need to be viewed in the light of her clientele. Amongst the super-rich, when they marry, a common truth prevails- wealth begets wealth; money begets money. This hasn’t changed since the Victorian age. Except for the rare aberration where love intervenes, marriage is still a merger of sorts for those that have countless zeros on their bank balance. The baffling part here are the exacting standards that these candidates seek from a partner. They want such an ideal, glossy, movie like wedding that sizing this down to today’s reality, where free will plays a strong role in everyone’s lives, is almost impossible. Perhaps that explains why no one seems to get married on this top matchmaker’s watch!

These shows that show lives most can only imagine having, have cast a spell on viewers like Karan Johar’s movies did about 15-20 years ago. The people at their centre feel unreal. But most of us love watching them anyway. And when it comes to us Indians, marriage is the biggest marker in a person’s life that still determines his/her identity at multiple levels.

Archita Kashyap is an experienced journalist and writer on film, music, and pop culture. She has handled entertainment content for broadcast news and digital platforms over 15 years. 

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