30 August,2020 07:53 AM IST | Mumbai | Anju Maskeri
Jewellery designer Pradhyuman Maloo (top) and event manager Nadia Jagessar, who feature in the Netflix show, try out the filter
The Netflix show Indian Matchmaking has got everybody talking. Set between the US and Mumbai, it follows the career of influential city matchmaker Sima Taparia as she helps her clients, mostly upper caste, rich Indians and Indian-Americans trying to find someone worthy to marry. "The show really hit a nerve with the woke audience of the Internet," says Rebecca Daniels, creative group head of VMLY&R India, a global full service marketing agency. "I've been sharing memes and jokes about it as well, and realised a lot of people relate to my sarcasm." She decided to take it a step further by creating an AR (augmented reality) filter on Instagram called Sima Roast. "I have always been interested in augmented reality, and once Instagram launched its own AR platform that allowed anyone to develop and upload filters, I knew I had to get my hands on it. All I needed was one night of focus and my encouraging group of cheerleaders."
This is how it works: It recognises your face and throws random answers once you hit the record button. Daniels has meticulously chosen Taparia's signature lines, including "Not tall, slim, trim. How will you get matches?", "I think you need to change your talking pattern,", "For your height, I don't think you'll get matches", "You are too picky. You should try to adjust a little." Her posts have garnered over 16M impressions, 1.8M captures, and more than 522.1K shares.
Rebbeca Daniels
While some dialogues have been kept as is, others have been slightly tweaked by Daniels. "I knew words like 'flexible', 'adjust' and 'compromise', had to be included. One of her quotes, 'I think she should change her talking pattern' was the only one I used as is. The rest were changed. For instance, in one episode, she says, 'Indians are scared of bahus who are lawyers', which I tweaked to 'Indian men will be scared of your success'. Although, I'm pretty sure, she was hinting at something completely different."
Daniels says she has been tagging Taparia in her Instagram stories, challenging her to use the filter on herself. "But she seems new to Instagram, and sadly, I haven't received a response yet. It would be nice though, to see what Sima Taparia thinks of Sima Taparia."
On: @SimaRoast, Instagram
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