Joyeeta Patpatia: If you show a flawed woman, she is up for criticism

Noting that troubled heroes are met with kindness, Four More Shots... director says viewers have double standards for female-led series

Who better than a woman to tell the story of four Mumbai women? After Anu Menon and Nupur Asthana, Joyeeta Patpatia has taken up the directorial baton for Four More Shots Please, starring Kirti Kulhari, Sayani Gupta, Maanvi Gagroo and Bani J. The third season takes the viewers through the lives of the four friends as they navigate love, loss and challenges. So, how does it feel to be the latest entrant in the team? “Since everyone else [on the acting and writing team] is constant, I got a well-oiled machine. I saw it as an advantage. The actors had a comfort level,” starts the director.

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The beauty of the Amazon Prime Video offering is that it shows us real women who play by their own rules, make mistakes, suffer heartbreaks and pick themselves up. While the four unapologetically flawed characters have struck a chord with a section of the audience, they also have detractors. Patpatia views this as a marker of our society’s hypocritical nature. “Women, who watch Fleabag and resonate with it, don’t want to see [Indian] women mouth certain lines. But films and shows are a mirror to society. This show is doing well because a majority of people identify with it. As soon as you show a flawed and independent woman, she is up for criticism. There are so many flawed male protagonists, but everyone’s take on that is different.”

Joyeeta Patpatia

To emphasise her point, the director notes how Kulhari’s character Anjana — who is seen growing close to her ex-husband — received much hate after the third season’s trailer dropped online. “One user commented, ‘Anjana divorced this guy. He is happily married to someone else, but she wants to ruin his life. What a disgusting woman, and you’re celebrating her?’ Another user echoed my sentiments when they wrote back, saying, ‘What about the husband? You haven’t said a word about his choice.’ That’s how society is. They have a million [opinions] about a woman’s flaws.”

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