The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives

 If BLM can be commodified and consumed, surely nepotism can be too? Another Indian reality show called the Fabulous  Lives of Bollywood Wives dropped on Neflix yesterday, featuring four wives of B-list Bollywood celebrities. Two of the husbands come from Bollywood families. Who would have thought the nepots of Bollywood are as vapid, charmless and annoying as we imagined? I would like to think I watched the show to critique it from a ethnographic perspective, but I was just bored. It is true, though, that I do pay attention to the sociological aspects. How do they behave with their servants (impeccably on camera), how do the servants dress, what cars do the stars drive, etc. But, there is not much you can glean from a show which has clearly been curated. You can't be sure if your insight is actually an insight or you have just picked up a curated detail of the show, such as how they are unfailingly polite to their servants on camera. Someone on Twitter picked up another interesting detail aboutthe gender dynamics that I had missed. All the women and daughters were haughty and entitled, while the men came  across as unambitious wastrels who were coasting through life on dint of their blood ties. And, just as pointing out racism is considered worse than being racist, there were a number of self-pitying rants against people pointing out nepotism. What remains a mystery is how do B-list stars maintain such lavish lifestyles? Also, one can understand A-listers kids getting breaks, but how do B-listers kids manage it? Without talent, without looks, without charisma.