“There are two kinds of people: those who will watch Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives , and liars,” said one of India’s most followed social commentators, the adman and artist Freddy Birdy, on his Instagram feed when the trailer for Netflix’s new Indian reality series dropped two weeks ago. The show, which went live on Netflix last weekend, revolves around the lives of four middle-aged women – Neelam Kothari Soni, Maheep Kapoor, Seema Khan and Bhavana Pandey – who all married Indian actors of varying degrees of fame. The opening credits, which have more than a hint of Keeping Up With the Kardashians about them, set the tone of what is to come, with jewellery designer Kapoor stating: “Of course we go shopping in a Rolls-Royce. Is there any other mode of transportation?” Kapoor’s claim to fame is that she is married to actor Sanjay Kapoor – the less successful younger brother of Slumdog Millionaire ’s Anil Kapoor – and that she is one of the favourite aunts of Anil Kapoor’s eldest daughter, Sonam Kapoor . “These women represent a subset of Bollywood insiders who have an aspirational lifestyle and have a strong social media following,” says film critic Rajeev Masand. “And it is about time the world knew there was more to India than snakes and elephants.” The show is set up to be India’s answer to US media franchise The Real Housewives : maids trail the wives carrying their handbags and bottles of water, one family goes to Paris for the annual debutante ball, and one of the stars throws out the F-word for everything from eating escargots to toasting her girlfriends. For these “fabulous” women, choosing which sparkling dress to wear to a party is one of life’s major dilemmas. The ‘big fat Indian wedding’ goes on a diet – for now, at least But as author and social commentator Shhobha De says: “How does one quantify ‘fabulous’? Their lives are showy – but ‘fabulous’? Not! More tacky than fab.” The women deliver all the cringe you can expect from a binge-worthy reality show. Leading the pack is Kothari Soni, a former actress and veejay who also had a special guest role in director Karan Johar’s 1998 romantic drama Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Johar’s company, Dharmatic Entertainment, also produces Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives ). She is married to actor Samir Soni, who made one of his last big-screen appearances on Johar’s 2019 film Student of the Year 2 . Born in Hong Kong, Kothari Soni went to the city’s Island School before pursuing a career in Indian cinema, making her film debut in 1984. She comes from a family of jewellers and has her own jewellery brand, which sees her return to Hong Kong for trade shows. In the show she admits to being “prim and proper” and spends the series deciding if she should make her Bollywood comeback. “She has a quintessential classic style,” says Anaita Shroff Adajania, former fashion director of Vogue India and the costume stylist behind films including Dhoom 2 . Khan, a confessed Kardashian fan girl, has her own fashion line known for its boho glam take on Indo-Western fashion. In the first episode she admits she is not in a conventional marriage with her husband, Sohail Khan – an actor, director and producer best known for being the younger brother of the more famous actor Salman Khan – with it evident they live in separate homes. Pandey is the wife of the late 1980s heartthrob Chunkey Pandey and mother of young Bollywood actress Ananya Pandey. A former air hostess, she has hosted events for luxury brands including Dior, Cartier and Louis Vuitton and is a co-founder of her own fashion street label LoveGen, which recently opened a flagship store in Mumbai. She is the approachable one – her style is very easy and she often wears her own brand. “Bhavana, I’ve known for years,” Adajania says. “She’s lovely and always full of warmth. I love that she has a relevant, cool, affordable fashion line, which I wear a lot.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maheep Kapoor (@maheepkapoor) Potty-mouthed Kapoor is known to be brazen and bold and openly describes herself as “vain as f***”. In the series she plans a girls’ trip to Doha which seems obviously lifted from the heavily panned second Sex and the City film. Her husband, actor Sanjay Kapoor, is currently shooting another Netflix series being made by Johar’s production company. “I’m laying my bets on Maheep being super entertaining,” Adajania says. While this is obviously an exaggerated made-for-TV view of the four women’s lives, the show does give an insight into how the privileged in India live, similar to how fashion designer Masaba Gupta’s TV series Masaba Masaba gave a front-row seat into the workings of India’s fashion industry. The Netflix show reveals that Bollywood wives’ lives are not so much fabulous, but pretentious. Perhaps Kothari Soni is not so wrong when she jokingly says in one of the episodes: “We are ridiculous.” Nonetheless, the show will help each wife get an even stronger following on social media, and with each one’s “entrepreneurial” ambitions, it doesn’t really matter what the critics say, as long as the show is trending around the world. Johar, the producer of the show, is considered a star maker or breaker in India and makes several guest appearances himself. Another notable cameo is from his friend, the actor Shah Rukh Khan , known in the media as the “King of Bollywood”. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Seema Khan (@seemakhan76) None of the women are considered top-tier Bollywood wives; none have ever been on the cover of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar , for example, an accolade generally reserved for A-list wives like Gauri Khan (wife of Shah Rukh Khan), who was one of Vogue India ’s first cover girls after the magazine launched in 2007; and Twinkle Khanna (wife of Akshay Kumar) and Sussanne Khan (former wife of Hrithik Roshan), who have been on both the covers of Harper’s Bazaar India and Vogue India . “I remember the Vogue cover with Gauri in 2008 being very special,” Adajania says. “I wanted to disclose a side of her that few people had been privy to. She was the star – strong, sassy and oh-so sexy.” Gauri Khan, referred to as a “prima donna star wife” in Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives , makes a cameo in the show. She and the four women have been friends for 25 years. “In Mumbai, they are at the centre of a social circuit that mixes Bollywood with business and socialites,” Mumbai-based journalist and author Gayatri Shah says. “Going to a party where they are present is certainly heady.”