Ranveer Singh made an appearance in Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives 2. (Photo: Netflix)Netflix’s Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives Season 2 premiered last weekend and while the netizens were starting to soak in the cringe fest that is the Karan Johar produced show, they were not prepared for the show’s last episode. For the unversed, the show had a finale-like scene where the women toasted to their friendship mid-way through the last episode and a few seconds later, we got an additional scene where the four women – Neelam Kothari, Maheep Kapoor, Bhavana Pandey and Seema Sajdeh – were seen chilling on the sets of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani.
This is where Ranveer Singh’s cameo happened and left the netizens shocked. This isn’t our first rodeo in experiencing cringe reality television but watching Ranveer calling himself a ‘battery operated device’ and moaning out loud as Maheep massaged his foot had us going through major second-hand embarrassment.
One Twitter user wrote, “That part with Ranveer had to be the most awkward bit of reality TV I’ve ever witnessed 💀💀 #FabulousLivesOfBollywoodWives.” Another user wrote, “@RanveerOfficial focus on the legacy you want to create because am sure this ain’t it.” “I hope he realizes it this whole thing looks so pretentious which he never is i know its all a performance for him but it goes overboard just bcz they told him to do it doesnt mean he have to do everything he should use some sense too how ppl wil preceive it,” wrote another Twitter user.
What was Ranveer doing in #FabulousLivesOfBollywoodWives ??? pic.twitter.com/wNz2K95wSB
— 𝑆𝐴𝑀𝐵𝐼𝑇 (@VecnaLite) September 4, 2022
Ranveer danced with Neelam on her famous Khudgarz song ‘Aap Ke Aa Jane Se’ and also danced to Maheep’s song ‘Nigodi Kaisi Jawani Hai’ and the tone of this entire section was pretty comparable to the sex comedies that were quite prevalent almost a decade ago and as we all know, those haven’t aged well.
Days after the show started streaming, Karan Johar took to his Instagram to offer a defence for it as it was trending globally, as per Netflix. Karan wrote that the show was cringy, meant for guilty pleasure viewing and was ‘far from being intellectually stimulating’. He wrote, “So let’s put it in perspective! Of course, it’s cringy! (and bingy) Of course, it’s guilty pleasure viewing (pleasure is still pleasure ) Of course, it may appear manicured and artificial (aren’t we all) Of course, it’s far from being intellectually stimulating (don’t we need a break from that at times) BUT you gotta admit these girls have the sass and guts to put themselves out there knowing you may laugh at them!!!!”
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The show does not shy away from discussing what are taboo topics by mainstream, like menopause, but it doesn’t facilitate the conversation in any way that could be seen as constructive. Even the Ranveer Singh sequence of the show, which could have been done as a sex-positive take on heterosexual women appreciating a man’s sexiness, comes across as crass. The four women leading the show aren’t to be blamed for this because after watching umpteen reality shows, we know the storytelling happens on the editing table and in this case, it looks like every department that was involved here was asked to amp up the volume on the cringe and so they did.