The latest debacle being dished out by Netflix is Call My Agent Bollywood. A remake of the incredible French show Dix Pour Cent, the desi version gets *everything* wrong. Tacky sets, terrible costumes (pullovers and jackets in Mumbai weather?!), token characters, unfunny dialogues – it’s a long eye roll for six episodes. If this isn’t enough, there’s a sleazy, nauseous depiction of lesbian romance. What the OG series did was seamlessly fuse the relationship into the story. It doesn’t stand out, nor is it a blink and miss. But trust our content creators to completely ruin that experience too.
There’s absolutely no redeeming factor in Call My Agent Bollywood. Despite being a word-by-word remake of Dix Pour Cent, the Shaad Ali-directorial does not even get one joke right. One hugely problematic aspect is Amal (Ahana Kumra) and Jasleen’s (Anuschka Sawhney) relationship.
In the original show, the relationship between agent Andrea Martel (Camille Cotin) and auditor Collette (Ophélia Kolb) was incidental. Andrea wasn’t defined by her sexual identity. She hits off on a wrong note with Collette, then tries to seduce her to cover up the misuse of company funds, only to realise that she is actually in love with her.