Netflix Renews 'Indian Matchmaking' For Season Three: Report

Celebrations are in order for fans of Sima Taparia because OTT giant Netflix has reportedly renewed popular marriage show Indian Matchmaking for a third season. This update comes even as the second season of the show is yet to hit screens. It is part of the slate of new shows and renewals the streaming platform announced Thursday.

While Netflix's announcement only confirmed the second season of the wildly successful show about India's unique arranged marriage culture, Variety in a report claimed season three is also on the cards. The second season's description relates how "matchmaker Sima Taparia returns to help some familiar faces and new singletons across the globe who have decided that it’s time to put their love lives in the hands of the expert."

However, the Indian version of matchmaking will not be the only release of its kind on the Netflix calendar. The producers of Indian Matchmaking have reportedly hopped on board a new show Jewish Matchmaking, that will bring together Jewish couples in the United States and Israel.

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When it released in 2020, Indian Matchmaking and its primary figure, Sima Taparia - or Sima 'aunty' as she insisted on being called and as the internet came to know her - shot to fame, commanding space in the top 10 category on Netflix for days. Though the show generated mass reactions, not all of it was positive.

There was wide criticism for the custom of arranging marriages on the basis of appearance, background and astrology, which is still favoured in India. The show was called out for allegedly promoting regressiveness, particularly through a gendered lens that urged women to conform to sexist stereotypes. Which is why many eyes popped when it was announced last year that Indian Matchmaking had won a nomination at the Emmys. More here.

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In a conversation with SheThePeople last year, Aparna Shewakramani, one of the matchmaking contestants who became an overnight household name, spoke about why people related to her on the show. "People resonated with an evolved woman. I'm ten years older than most of the women you see on television..."

"Whether it was in matchmaking or in the workplace or in school or in their WhatsApp groups or their husbands even, there's a big part of them that wanted to be like Aparna... It was overwhelming but also an indication of where we are as a society that women in spheres of their lives - it might not be the same sphere as me, which was matchmaking - feel the same way." ">Watch the full interview here.