Four years ago, when the first season of Made in Heaven released on Amazon Prime Video India, it was largely a shot in the dark. Despite the young cast, hip language and glittery trappings, its makers were unsure how a series that looks introspectively at Indian weddings will play in a society that gives undue centrality to the institution of marriage.
Sobhita Dhulipala in ‘Made In Heaven’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“We as Indians are too attached to the idea of a beautiful wedding,” says Alankrita Shrivastava, co-writer and co-director on both seasons of Made in Heaven. “It’s too momentous an occasion in every family and here we were using the wedding as a prism to look at life and society.” They were assured in their vision when the first reactions to the show started pouring in. “We were encouraged by how seen and heard people felt.”
Created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti — also behind the critical hit Dahaad earlier this year — Made in Heaven tracks two upstart Delhi wedding planners, Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur), as they arrange grand bespoke weddings for their wealthy clientele. The series examines class, patriarchy, identity, and social pretense, hingeing entirely on Sobhita’s and Arjun’s affable dual act. As Tara and Karan put out last-minute fires in the wings, their worldviews clash with an offensively rich, innately parochial social order.
“Our characters are caught between their own complex realities and the political undercurrents of a wedding,” Sobhita says. “Somewhere between the hustle and their loud beating hearts, they find their dance.”
Arjun, who was nominated for an International Emmy for his performance as Karan, a gay man living independently in pre-2018 India, remembers the day the Supreme Court read down Section 377 and decriminalised homosexuality. “Uncannily, I was shooting the scene where Karan is on television speaking for his rights when the news arrived,” Arjun says.
Arjun Mathur in ‘Made In Heaven’ | Photo Credit: MANPREETSINGHVIRK
“The fact that the queer community in India felt represented by our show is something that I feel honoured about,” says Sobhita, who remembers meeting a young boy who said he could come out to his family after watching the show.
Karan’s conflicts, Arjun says, are more ‘inward’ in the new season. “The fact that a law was revoked does not mean it has necessarily changed anything for your lived experience. Maybe it’s worse.”
The shoot of the second season was interrupted several times due to the pandemic. The show has evidently ‘scaled up’, with a huge guest cast — Mrunal Thakur, Radhika Apte, Dia Mirza, Sanjay Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Sabyasachi — and an interlude in France. There is also encouraging inclusivity in evidence. Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, a trans doctor-turned-actor, has joined the cast as a recurring trans character. And Neeraj Ghaywan — known for acclaimed films like Masaan and the short Geeli Pucchi in Ajeeb Daastaans — has directed two episodes including one centred on a Dalit character. “Made in Heaven dispels the idea of marriage as an endogamous monolith,” Neeraj says of the show’s appeal. “It celebrates all kinds of love and it does not have to fit into anyone’s idea of what is perfect.”
It is hard to describe Made in Heaven as a humourous piece, yet it has unexpected comedic beats. Jim Sarbh, as Tara’s ultra-rich husband Adil (they are suing each other in the new season), is the uncontested captain of that ship. “In my head, a scene and its parody are always running simultaneously,” the actor grins. Another fun aspect of the show is the mini-reunions going on in the background: Pulkit Samrat and Manjot Singh from Fukrey; Shashank Arora and Shivani Raghuvanshi from Titli; Jim and Ishwak Singh (joining in Season 2) from Rocket Boys. “Unfortunately, Ishwak and I didn’t do a scene together,” Jim says. “But there’s definitely tension between our characters.”
Jim Sarbh and Kalki Koechlin in ‘Made In Heaven’ | Photo Credit: MANPREETSINGHVIRK
Neeraj sums up Made in Heaven as a show about unlikely ‘companionships’. In fact, one of its most fascinating arcs—between nouveau riche Tara and young ingenue ‘Jazz’ (Shivani Raghuvanshi), two Delhi girls on different ends of the social ladder—is left beautifully unstressed. “I feel sisterhood and female friendship are heavily underrepresented,” says Sobhita, adding that she bonded the most with Shivani over the course of the series.
“I am going to cry,” Shivani chimes in.
The second season of Made in Heaven is streaming from August 10 on Amazon Prime Video
