Four More Shots Please! shows modern urban Indian female lives, but is it country’s Sex and the City?
- About four young women living in Mumbai, Four More Shots Please! is the most watched TV show on Amazon Prime Video in India this year
- Creator and producer Rangita Pritish Nandy says the show is ‘about women, by women’ and is breaking boundaries in the Indian TV industry
F-bombs are dropped abundantly. Shots of alcohol are poured and knocked back in mildly alarming quantities. Steamy sexual fantasies are played out in boardrooms and a lesbian relationship between a Bollywood superstar and her personal trainer is thrown in for good measure.
Occasional cheesy and cringeworthy dialogue aside, the juicy lives and adventures of four young women living in Mumbai are setting small screens across India alight. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Four More Shots Please! is currently the platform’s most watched TV show of 2020 in India. The first season premiered early last year and a third season was announced this month.
The show is often dubbed the Indian version of HBO’s Sex and the City given its four female lead characters and mega-city setting. While its creators find the comparison to the iconic American show flattering, they say it is not entirely accurate.
“To be honest, we were never inspired by SATC. But of course I’ve watched and loved it,” says Rangita Pritish Nandy, creator and producer of Four More Shots Please!. “Growing up in India, albeit in South Mumbai – one of the more privileged parts of the city and country – I’ve often looked for movies, shows and content that spoke about, and to, the girl-woman in me, and found none.”
Created out of a lack of representation, the programme seeks to show the contemporary urban Indian female experience and her ability to make and take ownership of her choices through its four lead characters: Damini (played by Sayani Gupta), a successful, but anxiety-prone, investigative journalist; Anjana (Kirti Kulhari), a lawyer, mother and divorcee; Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo), a young girl from a wealthy family whose mother is obsessed with getting her married; and Umang (Bani J), a free-spirited, bisexual personal trainer.
Nandy emphasises that the four protagonists are “far from perfect, and chronically flawed”.
“We’re saying perfect does not exist. And that’s the reality for every girl, every woman, everywhere – the female choice. That’s what the show represents, and a sisterhood that has your back irrespective of what that choice is.”
Lisa Ray, who plays the role of Umang’s superstar love interest Samara Kapoor, lauds the growing visibility of more complex, flawed female characters.
Four More Shots Please! is a result of a proliferation of online streaming platforms available in India such as Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which are free from the limitations of India’s harsh censorship board. Amazon recently announced 14 new Indian original titles during CEO Jeff Bezos’ visit to the country in January.
Whenever I’m abroad, I spend so much time attempting to paint a more complete picture of Indian women … I find sometimes the diaspora has the most conservative, strangest and outdated notions of India
Entertainment consumption is huge in India, given its population, and lockdowns induced by Covid-19 mean more viewers are going online. Darker, more realistic shows, are proving popular, like Sacred Games, a Netflix original, and Delhi Crime and Paatal Lok (both Amazon originals), which reveal India’s gritty political realities and the deep-seated patriarchal violence embedded in society; and Made in Heaven (also an Amazon original) which, like, Four More Shots Please!, also addresses topics considered taboo in conservative societies through a high-society perspective.
Purely entertainment-driven, Four More Shots Please! is not without its critics. Expected complaints come from the country’s conservative traditionalists, while the way it aims to provoke viewers by dramatising topics ranging from mental health issues to sexual preferences doesn’t go down well with everyone. Others, however, simply see it as easy lockdown entertainment, while some praise the show for breaking taboos.
“Many don’t believe women like this exist in India. Me and my tribe of women are living proof that they do,” Nandy says. “[But] some think we should have flagged more ‘real’ issues for women and others think we’re not feminist enough.”
The show might not be entirely realistic, but is it relatable in a country as large and diverse as India? Its cult following suggest it represents experiences that a portion of the country’s population can identify with, though no one should consider its storylines as sweeping generalisations about a country of 1.4 billion people, Ray says.
“It’s impossible to make content that will appeal to, or reflect all of, India – it’s so complex,” says Ray, who was born in Canada and has lived in Mumbai since she was 16. “But why not finally make a show that celebrates fabulous, fallible women in urban India?
Shows like Four More Shots Please! that are conceived for local audiences but are accessed by viewers globally – especially as people increasingly turn to streaming services under lockdown – can have cultural implications beyond entertainment. While the show was conceived to represent the urban Indian female perspective, it is important to remember that it is fiction made for entertainment first and foremost.
In India’s television industry, however, the show is breaking other types of boundaries – the writers, directors, producers and most of the crew are women, Nandy says.
“Don’t forget that it’s a show about women, by women – that female gaze is all-important.”
