'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives': Is Karan Johar trying to be the Indian Andy Cohen?
Andy Cohen, the executive producer of Bravo's hit 'Real Housewives' franchise is as popular as the housewives themselves. Thanks to his popular talk show, 'Watch What Happens Live', and radio show 'Radio Andy', he has become a household name. Although he is usually behind the cameras for the 'Real Housewives' franchise, he does finally appear in front of it during the reunion special at the end of each season.
During the reunion, Andy asks some rather hard-hitting questions to the housewives about their plotline on the show, and their opinions and thoughts about various incidents on the show. His style of moderating the housewives during the reunions has become extremely popular, as he manages to elicit the maixmum drama from the ladies even during the reunions. Andy's subtle digs and shade too are extremely entertaining to watch, alongside the catfights and shouting matches that are always constantly present on 'Real Housewives' franchise. So, its safe to say that fans love Andy almost as much as they love any of their favorite 'Real Housewives'.
On the other side of the world, in India, film director-prouder Karan Johar is busy making the waves. He tasted success at a young age after several films directed by him became cult classics among fans. Banking on his stellar success, Karan began to host a talk show called 'Koffee with Karan', where he invites various celebrities as guests and asks them some very interesting questions. While one wouldn't call it as being a ripoff of Andy's 'Watch What Happens Live', it is hard to ignore the many similarities present between both the shows.
Just like Andy, Karan too decided to venture into showing the world the extravagant lifestyle led by some women. While Andy focuses on extremely wealthy housewives, Karan turned his attention to the wives of Bollywood stars. He produced Netflix's latest show, 'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives', which documents the lives of four Bollywood star wives and the bond they share with each other.
Following the premiere pf the show, fans couldn't stop comparing it to 'Real Housewives' franchise. Many fans felt that it was the Indian version of Bravo's hit show. Although unlike Andy, Karan made brief appearances on the show. When he first dropped in, he invited the ladies for lunch. During the lunch, he began asking the wives some uncomfortable questions, which eventually led to a huge fight breaking out between Seema Khan and Bhavana Pandey. Once he managed to get the messy drama to the surface, Karan quietly made his exit.
During his second apperanace, he surprised the ladies by landing at Doha, where they were all vacationing. He invited them to a rooftop, which turned out to be a helipad landing strip. There he was seated in the center and the housewives sat on either side of him, which ended up giving a strong deja vu vibe of 'Real Housewives' reunion. While at the reunion, Andy asks the hosuewives questions posed by the fans, Karan took a slightly different approach and asked the housewives what their response would be to the possible questions that the audience might have for the Bollywood wives. There were way too many similarities between the interaction of Karan and the wives and 'Real Housewives' reunion hosted by Andy.
Unfortunately for Karan, fans didn't love 'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives' as much as 'Real Housewives' franchise. So, in case Karan is planning on following Andy's footsteps and venturing into the housewives drama, then he might want to start off by roping in much more dramatic cast members with very interesting back stories, and stir the pot a little more to get more drama on the show.
'Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives' is available for streaming on Netflix.
