Desi Bling is shamelessly messy. The Netflix series peddles in all the vices—of sexism, elitism, gluttony of wealth, gendered desires, and backbiting. It does it without shame or apology. Full of characters who describe themselves as billionaires or millionaires, who speak of gold the way we speak of spices, of botox the way we speak of sunscreen, of adultery the way we speak of love, these are people who have exited the stratosphere of this world. Their only justification is to their self-image.
They exist in a bubble, and the show performs the act of making that bubble transparent — so we can look in, briefly. But is it really transparent? Or the translucence of reality television, where characters shift into the most exaggerated versions of themselves?
The show’s director Marcel Dufour and executive producer Mazen Laham spoke to THR India about the making of the high-gloss show. Edited excerpts...
Can you take us through the process of ideating, casting, and structuring this season?
Mazen: We live in Dubai, so we had this idea of doing a show on the Indian community here. We pitched it to Netflix India. They showed interest. Then, we had to cast the show.
Marcel: Casting is where we find characters who will be the heroes of the show. It is important to have flamboyant characters, compelling stories, shocking storylines to grab the audience, and also people who are ready to be real in front of the camera. Everything you have seen is completely real, completely unscripted.
Mazen: The proposal at the end, for example, is real. Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakash are going to get married. It is not scripted. We hear it a lot— we also did Dubai Bling — but no.
What about scripting in a loose sense? You are not casting them for what they have done, but what they will, potentially, do in front of the camera. How do you frame that potential? Do you speak to them, where they are in life, what they are planning to do?
Mazen: See, for example, we knew that Dyuti and Iryna had a problem in their marriage.
Marcel: But we never knew or expected it to reach the stage of divorce. What happens on the show is what we follow. We shoot an episode, and work on the structure of the next episode, and when we say structure, we don’t mean a “script”, but what parties do they have, what happens during that time, and based on that, we decide what to film, and which scenes to highlight. For example, in the process of casting, we knew there was a feud between Pamela and Lailli, because of something that happened in the past. It becomes a trigger and an entry point into the story, but what happens in the show is what naturally happens when they meet. We are on our toes, too, wondering what is going to happen.
Mazen: Even with Karan and Tejasswi, we knew Karan was going to propose, so when Tejasswi was packing her bags to leave Dubai, we were panicking along with Karan.
But to push back a little. There is this way you frame the people entering scenes in their Rolls Royces, walking into a party one after the other, like a roll call. There is some level at which they are exaggerating and you are staging it.
Mazen: It is not exaggerating. They are being filmed “artistically”. They own these cars. They host these events. But if they are walking out of a Lamborghini, we film it nicely, because this is the only margin where we can be creative with the beauty shots.
Marcel: This is what gives the show its glossy feel. The dresses, cars, jewellery. It is really important, in addition to what is being said.
How do you decide when to enter this world and when to exit it? There is a lovely neatness to this season, where you are entering this world with Karan and Tejaswi as they decide to live in Dubai and end it with their proposal.
Marcel: We don’t have two years to follow them. We have a strict schedule, to adapt to a timeline to get the best storylines. We never expected Binda and Pamela to clash at the end, because they were friends at the beginning. But when it happens, we highlight it.
How long did you shoot for?
Mazen: Around two months.
Marcel: Every episode takes about ten days. Logistically, we have to book excess locations, and get permits, because we don’t know what will happen.
Tell me about the crew. How many cameras are lurking? How many people are there on a ‘set’?
Mazen: It depends. If it is a big event, we have six to eight cameras, with sixty crew members.
Do the cast ever see the footage?
Marcel: They never see the footage. They never see how they look. If they do, then they might change their personalities to look better, different angles, etc. When we finish an episode, each character goes to do the interview—a producer will run them through what happened, let them remember it, get the emotions out, and then, they share. In fact, they only saw the show when it dropped on Netflix. Some people think they have editorial rights. They don’t. They never knew what happened in other scenes.
Are they happy with what they have seen?
Marcel: Netflix effect is big. Some of them are not known and have gotten big attention because of this show—viewership and followers on platforms exploded.
Tell me about the big Bollywood names—Tamannah Bhatia, Shilpa Shetty, Vivek Oberoi. Did you have to coordinate them or was it the cast members who brought them to their parties and lunches, etc.?
Mazen: It wasn’t obligatory to have these names. These characters are friends with these actors. Vivek… he has a jewelry shop and helped Karan with the ring, so they are friends. So these people were there anyway, and we took a permit to film them.
Marcel: This is their life, they bring these big names to their events.
What are the boundaries you have as directors?
Mazen: We are professional enough to keep a distance. We are not their friends. We don’t have favourites. There shouldn’t be an emotional attachment. But also, we will never do anything to harm cast members. I know scoops are important, but anything that is dangerous—we don’t do. It never happened, but we are not here to damage their reputation.