Four More Shots Please! shows modern urban Indian female lives, but is it country’s Sex and the City?

F-bombs are dropped abundantly. Shots of alcohol are poured and knocked back in mildly alarming quantities. Steamy sexual fantasies are played out in boardrooms and a lesbian relationship between a Bollywood superstar and her personal trainer is thrown in for good measure.

Occasional cheesy and cringeworthy dialogue aside, the juicy lives and adventures of four young women living in Mumbai are setting small screens across India alight. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Four More Shots Please! is currently the platform’s most watched TV show of 2020 in India. The first season premiered early last year and a third season was announced this month.

The show is often dubbed the Indian version of HBO’s Sex and the City given its four female lead characters and mega-city setting. While its creators find the comparison to the iconic American show flattering, they say it is not entirely accurate.

“To be honest, we were never inspired by SATC. But of course I’ve watched and loved it,” says Rangita Pritish Nandy, creator and producer of Four More Shots Please!. “Growing up in India, albeit in South Mumbai – one of the more privileged parts of the city and country – I’ve often looked for movies, shows and content that spoke about, and to, the girl-woman in me, and found none.”

Created out of a lack of representation, the programme seeks to show the contemporary urban Indian female experience and her ability to make and take ownership of her choices through its four lead characters: Damini (played by Sayani Gupta), a successful, but anxiety-prone, investigative journalist; Anjana (Kirti Kulhari), a lawyer, mother and divorcee; Siddhi (Maanvi Gagroo), a young girl from a wealthy family whose mother is obsessed with getting her married; and Umang (Bani J), a free-spirited, bisexual personal trainer.