Indian matchmaking has been praised for its portrayal of the South Asian diaspora and its exploration of the complexities of matchmaking in the modern age.
Our Bureau
Mumbai/New York
Netflix’s hit reality show, Indian Matchmaking, is back for a third season. Apart from the matchmaking effort in India and US, the show will include London too.
The show follows the efforts of Sima Taparia, popularly known as ‘Sima Aunty’, as she sets out to match South Asian singles looking for love. This time, Sima will be travelling to London, New Delhi, Miami and New York, among other cities, in search of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes.
The show has received mixed response from the viewers, it has gained enough excitement on social media. Indian matchmaking has been praised for its portrayal of the South Asian diaspora and its exploration of the complexities of matchmaking in the modern age.
Smriti Mundhra, 42, an Indian American, took 10 years to get this show on air. Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s then-head of unscripted content , realized the international appeal of the series. In 2020, Netflix released the first season of Indian Matchmaking, unleashing an international discussion about arranged marriage. In 2020, Netflix released the first season of Indian Matchmaking, unleashing an international discussion about arranged marriage.
Mundhra, whose father moved to India from California and was a film-maker too, was the co-director (along with Sami Khan) of the Oscar-nominated docu-short St Louis Superman (2019). She has also made hard-hitting documentaries, about marriage in India, homeless children in America. There is one thing that ties them all together: an effort to shine a light on the truth, Mundhra says.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that arranged marriage equals forced marriage,” Mundhra says. “The beauty of a lot of our cultural traditions is the elasticity of them. Yes, the traditional, textbook definition of arranged marriage is it’s arranged by two families. But in this modern era … the idea of arrangement is more about a recognition that marriage affects more than just the two people who are deciding to marry,” she continues.
