Dearest gentle reader… enough of that, actually. Listen up, lousy doomscrollers, Bridgerton is back with another bland season. Yep, they’re never going to live up to season 2. But Indian girlies don’t care. All that matters is that Bridgerton vibes are back in season—and it’s taking over the internet this week.
Think pastels, violins, sheer gloves. Oh, and the most tired rhinestone make-up looks. We’re fully reheating Euphoria nachos in quieter colours, but don’t tell anyone that. In the viral spiral that is ‘Bridgerton but make it Indian’, logic is the first bride shipped off to India. Women are twirling in their old Diwali or sangeet looks, slapping on the Bridgerton music, and hitting post. Brands are rushing to capitalise on the craze—from a clothing store putting Kate in the ugliest purple churidar you’ve seen to Nykaa’s new make-up collection.
The first Bridgerton kitty party was a roaring success. In the video shared by a Greater Noida aunty, her besties came dressed in their best, well, saris. But they all put on some lovely fascinators and net gloves as they lined up to pose for Insta. “Featheringtons,” a gremlin like me wrote in the comments. In the show, the Featherington family is known for its eccentric (bad) fashion taste.
But a majority of the comments celebrated the aunties. “Something about women enjoying dress up with their girl gang makes me really happy,” wrote one user.
I, for one, would like to know what this kitty’s Whistledown is saying in her WhatsApp goss group.
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The Indian twist
Brands and influencers are carrying the desi Bridgerton trend on their greedy shoulders. Local Samosa made a list of Indian forts, palaces, and gardens for desi Bridgertons to frolick about. The handle @thecrazyindianfoodie shared a reel showing a ‘Bridgerton afternoon tea in Mumbai’ that served all the British classics: Dahi vada, samosa, pakoras, and halwa.
For the account ‘Enroute Indian History’, Indian Bridgerton unfolds in Mughal India. In its post, the ball became a ‘mehfil-e-sham’ and the marriage season was the shaadi season—complete with horoscopes. Everyone knows the British were nowhere near India in the Regency era, right? “Badass begums walked so Bridgerton could run,” a slide read. Bless the AI model that hallucinated this brilliance.
The Bridgerton aesthetic for Indians is vaguely historical and preferably White-coded. It’s the whole reason the ‘desi Bridgerton’ trend exists—we’re busy putting White Bridgerton women in ugly saris because we don’t want to acknowledge dark-skinned Kate Sharma as our own. To be fair, the show did choose to name her ‘Kathani’.
“If Bridgerton were made in India, this is how the bride would dance,” read the text on a video of an Indian woman dancing to ‘Bole Chudiyan’ at her sangeet. She should be thankful Kareena Kapoor is a gracious being and wouldn’t take umbrage at the slander.
Content creator Isha Borah, at least, did it well. Her extravagantly embroidered, mirror-embellished lehenga is exactly the kind of excess Bridgerton’s costume department runs on.
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Who’s Indian?
Bridgerton or not, people on X are always angry. This time, it’s because Kate and Antony, the lead pair from season 2, are nowhere to be found. The show says they’re in India, but Indians want to see them in India. And that’s actually brilliant. They’re questioning showrunner Shonda Rhimes’ utopian rendition of the Regency era. Give us a pastel portrait of colonialism if you’re all that, Ms Rhimes.
But just as the “token representation” and “diversity” conversation was getting louder, with Kate fans saying the show sidelined a POC character, Luke Thompson—one of the leads in season 4—revealed that he’s quarter Indian. Take that, you haters.
“I always liked him more than anyone on the show, and bamm now he reveals we are related,” read a comment on the interview clip. “Lukepreet Singh,” someone chimed in.
But one comment summed up India’s Bridgerton mania.
“Bridgeton is basically the Indian Arrange Marriage system, but because it’s a Netflix show, the audience loves the very thing they despise these days.”
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudep)