Indian Matchmaking’s Sima Taparia on Emmy nomination: ‘I have shown my Indian values which are hundreds of years old’

‘I pray for India to win this award. I love all my fans, be it critics, admirers, clients, and their families’

Indian Matchmaking’s host Sima Taparia, nicknamed ‘Sima aunty’ by the Internet, is stoked about the show’s Emmy nomination and said it’s a project where she got to show her Indian values.

“I am delighted to hear about Indian Matchmaking’s nomination at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Waking up to such exciting news! We couldn’t have asked for a better gift to celebrate one year of the show,” the 57-year-old matchmaker told The Independent.

The show was nominated this year in the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program category.

It follows Sima’s quest to help Indian singles find prospective life partners. She came to be known as ‘Sima aunty’ in viral memes and jokes by social media users for embodying the person in many Indian families who take up the responsibility of finding matches for the younger bachelors.

After studying her young clientele’s carefully collated “biodata” – a word typically used in the Indian marriage market to signify a mix between a dating profile and professional CV – Sima is tasked by parents to nudge them towards successful arranged marriages.

“The success of the show has been because of global viewing. I have shown my Indian values which are hundreds of years old,” Taparia said.

She adding: “I pray for India to win this award. I love all my fans, be it critics, admirers, clients, and their families.”

Fans have mixed feelings about the show’s nomination. While some people were ecstatic about the news, others found it “ghastly.”

“Thrilled to see this - my favourite thing on TV in years - nominated for an Emmy. Hugely entertaining but also brilliantly captures today’s India in which Girl Power and casteism aren’t at all at odds which each other,” wrote publisher Faiza S Khan on Twitter.

Another user said: “This show was so ghastly, I don’t know how it got nominated.”

After its release in July 2020, Indian Matchmaking sparked a backlash among viewers, with some describing it as a “cesspool of casteism, colourism, sexism, and classism.”

Some viewers accused the show of endorsing archaic ideas, white-washing some of the regressive traditions of arranged marriages, and reinforcing stereotypes.

Indian Matchmaking arrived on Netflix on 16 July and was promoted as a show that helps single millennials “find true love.”