This weekend I binge-watched The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives (after having made fun of the trailer like most people I knew). I didn’t know what to expect, all I wanted was something visually appealing to spark some joy and my massive crush on Neelam was my only assurance. The show made me laugh more than I had in a while and sparked unbridled joy even though it was over-the-top and borderline problematic. Being the supposed-woke human I am, I shared my fondness for the show (on Instagram of course) by labelling it as my ‘guiltiest pleasure’.

After checking out the show’s official social media, I was not shocked to find that the producers (Karan Johar’s production company) have embraced the show’s ‘guilty pleasure’ label in true Karan Johar fashion. Viewers may be divided on whether they love the show or hate it, but they can’t stop watching. In this age of shortening attention spans, it would be reasonable to say, if we can’t stop watching, it must be pleasurable on some level. So, why the guilt? What are we trying to avoid saying? What are we trying to portray ourselves as?