Karan Johar revealed that he came up with the idea for Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives while going for a condolence meeting with Maheep Kapoor, Bhavana Pandey, Seema Khan and Neelam Kothari. While they were on a flight to Delhi, for the function, he realised that the four were ‘completely crazy’ and warranted a show of their own.
Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, a reality show that came out on Netflix last year, followed the lives of four ‘Bollywood wives’ – Maheep (wife of Sanjay Kapoor), Bhavana (wife of Chunky Panday), Seema (wife of Sohail Khan) and Neelam (wife of Samir Soni). The series became an instant hit on the streaming platform and season two is in the works.
During a Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives reunion on Clubhouse, moderated by Janice Sequeira, Karan explained how he came up with the idea for the show. “These four ladies are very special to me and have been for nearly two-and-a-half decades. But I want to tell you, the origin of this show happened on a flight. We took a flight to Delhi, we were actually going for a condolence meeting. One of our friends lost their father. We were on a flight to Delhi and that’s when I realised, and I have always known it, that these four women are completely crazy,” he said.
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“Because we were discussing our attires, much like Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3, whether Neelam had too much shine on her white kurta or whether Maheep was underdressed for a chautha. It was inappropriate and it was idiotic and it was so much fun that I said that the four of them have to be on a show. They made something even like a chautha sound like such a massive problem in what they were wearing to what was happening. And it was like they were talking nonsense. And then when we reached, we had to play-act that we were really sad, and on our flight back, we were talking rubbish,” he added.
Karan said that he was always aware of Maheep, Bhavana, Seema and Neelam’s crazy personalities. “But I really thought that they need to be on camera because I thought that barring Neelam, who is a bona fide star and has faced the camera for 40 films, the other three were technically virgins to the camera and I think they were naturals,” he said.
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